Feature

Corporate Bridge - in quest of a bridge between the two edges

Dr. Samir Kumar Sheel

Mashrafi Islam, a student of BBA 8th batch in my department, has been serving as a junior executive in the Dhaka office of a reputed Multinational house for the last couple of months. He joined the firm soon after his BBA examinations were over. Mashrafi is now in Mumbai on a 15-day official tour though his classes for MBA is going on. I am not sure whether Mashrafi would be interested to resume his MBA class. The same goes for some of the other twenty-six students from the same batch.

All these students took the lead role in organising a Career Fair for the first time ever in the Business Faculty lawn, participated by twelve reputed corporate houses. The aim was to attract attention of the graduates passing out of the university. Some other students from the business faculty and also non-business background managed to get their jobs after the fair. Simply put, Mashrafi and associates have harvested what they sowed in August 2006. The corporate houses, too, played their parts with full marks.

My students of the next batch later organised a two-day long program on Career Fair and Seminar on Career and Leadership development on 7th & 8th July 2007 in the same venue under the banner “Corporate Bridge going beyond the boundary”. What an innovative bent of mind! Amazing is the proclamation they have offered “We believe in the best; we see the world from different point of views and ready to battle for the new era”. This is what they believe and cherish in their minds to take the challenges and embrace the successes.

What specially drew my attention in this fair was the worthwhile participation of many indigenous firms and their interest in our students. “I am really thankful that you have brought me to a very nice place like this” Mr. Abdul Wahab, Director, Marketing & Sales, Elite Cosmetica Ltd was looking happy while talking to me at the fair. On the other side, seminars were going on inside the conference hall. An astonishing piece of presentation on “Leadership Development” was made by Mr. Quazi M. Shahed Head of HR British American Tobacco Bangladesh. How lively was the session! Our students got the opportunity to enjoy the touch of reality they will have to face one day. Mr. Mohammad Emran, Manager Marketing, Mirpur Ceramics Works Ltd, M. A. Bashir Ahmed, Company Secretary, and Mr. Shankar Kumar Roy, DGM, Brand Support, Holcim Bangladesh Ltd, have assured us to be our honorary guest lecturers as well as the host of our students' industrial tour. What more do we need? The programme is over and we are at our businesses again. But I feel the construction of the bridge connecting the two edges on the campus is just on the way.

(Writer is Associate Professor
Department of Marketing
University of Dhaka)