Feature

Constructive Criticism:
A Friend We Often Overlook

Sarah Z H

While still in grade nine I remember having read a book called 'La Nui Bengali' by Mircha Eliad that said, humans cannot resist the temptation of being applauded for their ideas; and in the process they hardly tend to evaluate them for correction. As candid as it is in all of us, we simply love to hear other people praise us in all heights of their imagination. Even when I am writing this piece, I'm coveting admiration from my fellow readers and not to mention my editor as well. But this for a matter is not the end of the story. The real story begins with a twist of criticism strewn out of the tongues of those who we think intends ill of us. What we often fail to see is that these negative speculations by others help us become more convenient in every possible way. For example, one of my friends came up to me the other day and told me that my writing is ok as it shows desperate efforts to convince the readers of my compatibility in English language. Without even a moment being wasted, I most accurately understood what she meant by her claim. As a writer or at least an attempted one, I was devastated. I did not exercise, my appetite was lost, a harmless grasshopper was dead (of course I crushed it with my sneakers) and even worse, I forgot to water my plants. Now then, why did I not think of it before? I started questioning myself, is it not true that I spent more time thinking about the language instead of what I wanted to say through my writing? My friend also pointed out that when we read a good piece of writing; we can easily make sense of the prose and understand the message behind it. Sometimes we also feel that our own emotions have become identical with those of the writers'. I could sense the whirlpool of defeat, shame and anger wailing up inside me.

It was much later at night when the tranquil darkness had finally cooled me down. I thought over and over again about my inferiorities charted out by the friend. After a long sleepless night accompanied by constant turns and tosses around the bed, I reached a conclusion of ease and that is, criticism, if taken constructively, is a greater friend than anything else. I decided to take my friend's value judgments into consideration and correct myself accordingly. Soon it felt much better as the oblivion was replaced by a sense of worth. I was happy and felt complete. Criticism only makes us better persons. If there was no criticism then we would never have our turns to learn. Criticism teaches us to be tolerant of differences and respect others opinions. It spurs determination in us and allows us to improvise ourselves. Because we have our set of limitations. We cannot see our faces without a mirror. Likewise, we cannot always tell whether we are appreciable or insignificant. After all, we need someone to make us see what we can become.

Istiaque Hasan Chowdhury

E-commerce is exploding at an annual rate of almost 200 percent, which is almost twice as fast as in United States and Europe. But few Asian companies have made significant inroads into e-commerce and this put them in risk of seeing their best customers in both Business-to-Business and Business-to-Customer sectors. Despite being relatively showoff the mark, Asian companies are still in a position to capture a significant share of the value generated in the new economy. The key factors of the growth of e-commerce in Asia are deep links of international supply chains in many industries. Asia's high and still rising mobile phone penetration rates suggest that the current growth rate of e-commerce will only increase as consumer access the internet expends beyond computers.

Business-to-Business sites and portals are beginning to emerge in Asia as well. Asian companies perceive Business-to-Business market as an opportunity or a threat. They have the ability to respond effectively by leveraging their unique business characteristics to outplay Western competitors.

A natural inclination toward collaboration gives many Asian companies a distinct advantage over their counterparts. North American and European firms find it challenging to collaborate of anything beyond transaction process. Thus a level of trust is very rare in Western business culture.

Many leading US firms named E-Loan, E-Trade, Amazon.com, and Charles Schwab are seizing many opportunities to spread their activities in Asia. And this is a serious threat to Asian companies. These overseas companies have been able to expand their firms in this region because of lack of consumer focus at most Asian companies. Thus, the Business-to-Customer sector, the greatest risk for Asian companies is losing customers with high disposable income and considerable assets. But Asian firms can minimize the risk by involving in online investments and build customer focused business models that can help them to hold their best customers.

The higher penetration of mobile phone and the early success of wireless services at a number of companies suggest that Asian business that move early have an unprecedented opportunity to be among the dominant players in e-commerce globally. For that they will need marketing investments to build and expand globally accepted wireless standards.

The stakes of Business-to-Business, Business-to-Customer or e-commerce are very high for Asian companies. The rewards for those companies that they can capture the opportunities now available and the risk for those that fail to respond effectively will be equally significant.

(Department of Business Administration, East West University)