Feature

The Mind is Mightier than the Sword!
"Battle of Minds" comes to IUB

Naomi Ahmad

All the banners were up; the posters were in place and even the multi-media was all set up. The projector cast a bluish light around as volunteers rushed about with their last minute adjustments. Faculty members silently took their seats. A steady hum of voices was in the background accentuated with sudden suppressed giggling and excited shuffling. A group of students, nine in total, sat a little separate from the audience. They were excited, yet nervous; a little apprehensive yet all ready to get started on what lay ahead. They were the participants of the "Battle of Minds- 2007" organized by British American Tobacco (BAT) Bangladesh at Independent University, Bangladesh.

As part of its commitment to the education sector of the country, British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BAT-B) organizes a talent promotion programme titled Battle of Minds. Every year, students from the different universities of Bangladesh take part in this competition to prove their business skills. This initiative was taken by BAT-B in 2004 with a mission to strengthen the company's partnership with the education sector as well as reinforce British American Tobacco's image as the employer of choice for the young graduates. But this year, it was a little different.

This year, BAT-B was taking the Battle of Minds to each and every participating university and holding preliminary rounds to help select the participants. And in the process what it was giving us was an opportunity to take our learning one step further-away from the books and into real life setting. And of course it gave us great exposure and a platform to share our business ideas before the actual competition took place.

And so it was an excited crowd who gathered in the Library Building of Independent University, Bangladesh on Sunday the 18th of November to witness the selection round. The members of the BATB Team who came to conduct the whole event were Ms Zinnia T Huq-Operations Finance Manager, Mr Sanzid Alvi Ahmed-HR Manager- Talent and Resourcing and Mr Jahid Shafique-Management Trainee-HR. Independent University, Bangladesh had nominated three jury members- Mr Md Ali Arafat, Lecturer Management, Mr Hanif Mahtab, Lecturer, Management and Mr Rumman Hassan, Lecturer, Marketing from the IUB School of Business. The nine participants were divided into three groups. Group A had Kashfi Binte Ahmed, Sabreen Khan and Naomi Ahmad; Group B had Masum Mohammed Aman, Sadna Ahmed and Nabil Sultan, and Group C had Ebrar A. Chowdhury, Tanjeer Gaffar and Iftekhar Mahfuz.

But before the nine minds set out to battle valiantly, the ice was broken with a welcome speech and presentation by Sarah F. Ahmad and Efaz R Khan, the IUB volunteers for this event. The presentation was a splendid display of the spirit with which IUB had accepted the challenge of Battle of Minds. It was followed by a presentation from the BAT-B Team, which shed much light on the value that BAT stands for and who they are as one of the biggest multinational companies. It was almost 3 in the afternoon, and everyone should have been in their siesta mode-but it was amazing to see the enthusiasm and interest bubbling among the students. And then came the selection round that everyone was waiting for - but not till an hour was given to the nine participants.

Just one hour. The Task: to brainstorm through a case study provided by BAT-B and to formulate a business plan. The tools: Three sharp minds in a group, a laptop and a couple of white rough papers (which were very white indeed and unfortunately didn't have any helpful clues!). And the outcome? Three groups who came up with innovative ideas to rescue a ding product with creative solutions to their problems. And then they faced the panel of judges from BAT-B and Independent University, Bangladesh. In the question and answer round, each group had to defend their business plan and in the process also got to know about the loopholes in their strategies and some of the weaknesses of their ideas. And it was this round which was the most intense- an excellent hour that challenged our way of thinking and showed us alternatives.

And with this first lesson in how we have to think in the corporate setting, IUBians are preparing themselves for the Battle of Minds. This year it will be an interesting and intense competition as the excitement barometer continues to rise in different universities of Bangladesh throughout the remaining month!