How our employees are enabling social impact through digitization: 4 tips for life and work from Mehedi
“When traveling, you teach people things and learn things yourself. You have a different story to share and there are different stories for you to hear. You also encounter the unexpected. It snowed a lot this year while I was in London — and that was amazing,” exclaims Mehedi.
Mehedi can still vividly picture that London snow. From his trip, he also took those lessons he learned back to Banglalink, where he works to enable the company to make a social impact.
“Life in London is organized chaos. It’s busy, but everyone has their mission and they go about it. My time there showed me the importance of weaving through the chaos.”
That’s an interesting insight. You may not know what’s ahead of you, but if you have an idea of where you’re going, you can still control the narrative.
Read on to learn more from Mehedi about the importance of driving your story in work and life.
1. Once upon a time…
Ask Mehedi about where it all started, and you’ll get a great answer.
“My earliest memory is playing street cricket with my friends and cousins in the suburb where I grew up. I recently went back during holiday and played again. Reliving that experience gave me greater perspective on my story,” tells Mehedi.
Knowing where and how your journey began is important. Always know what’s your ‘once upon a time’ is.
If you look at this from a storytelling perspective, ‘once upon a time’ or similar language establishes a foundation for your character and the future challenges and enjoyments you’ll meet.
“You have to believe in your story. When you go to work, go where you can continue developing that story,” states Mehedi.
That’s powerful stuff. If you actually read through Pixar’s rules of storytelling, you’ll find similar advice for story writing. As the article states, “When you’re stuck, make a list of what wouldn’t happen next.”
Now, that’s advice you can take with you in both professional and personal life.
2. Take action
Muhammad Yunus, a famous Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, has plenty of wisdom to share. Take a look at this quote:
“To me, the poor are like Bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a six-inch deep flower pot, you get a perfect replica of the tallest tree, but it is only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted; only the soil-base you provided was inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with their seeds. Only society never gave them a base to grow on.”
Mehedi has dedicated his career to empowering people to uplift themselves. He does this through business initiatives that give people the proper tools and resources to do just that.
While studying business at university, Mehedi worked as a teaching assistant and later as a market research assistant. Classes and early work experience inspired Mehedi to strive to make a social impact through business in his career. That’s precisely what led him to his first job at a nonprofit organization.
“My aim has not been to simply do charity. I believe businesses can operate with the purpose of improving society, while still making a profit. In fact, that’s how we foster sustainable innovation and build the economy,” attests Mehedi.
During Mehedi’s first job at the nonprofit firm, he studied how Unilever serves the poorest customers in Asian markets. They’ve successfully met the needs of those people by offering small, low-cost options of their products. This strategy has benefited both the business and people who buy the products.
“At the nonprofit, we carried out a similar initiative in the agricultural sector in Bangladesh. Since many farmers couldn’t afford to buy seeds in bulk, which is how most companies sold them, we came up with the idea of selling seeds in small bags at a lower cost so those farmers could utilize their small plot of land. The seeds were high-quality, too.”
For Mehedi, this experience of using a business idea to empower farmers was a key moment in his story.
“When we pitched this idea to private big agricultural firms, they saw that it could be profitable and uplift many farmers, and therefore lead to bigger purchases later. The project was an incredible success. It showed me how I could use business strategies to improve lives.”
3. Make the key moment happen
After working at the nonprofit firm, Mehedi brought his talents to Banglalink. He’s leading the company’s social initiatives.
“Our corporate responsibility strategy falls into two categories: one is digital literacy and education and the other is the Make Your Mark initiative.
Make Your Mark aims to help young people shape their future. This is achieved by the development of a network of tech-hubs focused on fostering a local entrepreneurial ecosystem and our way of helping young entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life,” describes Mehedi. Having joined the incubator in 2017, Mehedi has been responsible for redesigning the incubation program.
“We’re working to attract startups that are relevant to our company and also ones that can benefit greatly from our expertise. We’ve also made adjustments so Make Your Mark is more effective by creating a pool of mentors from both internal and external sources and designing a new curriculum for the startups .”
For Mehedi, helping Bangladesh advance its digital ecosystem through initiatives like Make Your Mark suits him wonderfully. Mehedi worked on “The State of Digital Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh “ — a whitepaper from Banglalink — that highlights the rise of digital businesses in the country and the importance of having adequate support for promising startups. As the report states:
“In Bangladesh, around 200 startups are launched annually. The ecosystem benefits from a large young demographic, an urban population of 34 percent, fast-growing consumer spending, and the adoption of mobile financial services. Government initiatives like Digital Bangladesh 2021 are supported by labs and incubators for startups.”
However, there remain challenges, such a lack of venture capital. Mehedi is focused on figuring out how Banglalink can utilize their resources to overcome such barriers and unleash the full potential of digital entrepreneurship.
“We’re working with other key stakeholders, like public organizations, to help startups. We’ve also made our incubator’s selection process to be more rigorous to guarantee only the best startups succeed.”
If the initial application is approved by Banglalink’s incubator, startups go through a bootcamp and then pitch their idea. If they’re successful there, they go through another round of workshops and then deliver a final pitch. For the first year, Banglalink received more than 200 applications and selected just six startups to join the program.
“It’s not a competition. We’re looking for partners. We assign mentors to each startup to help with grooming companies and successfully implementing strategies and scaling. Our digital team also helps out a lot, as many have a background with startups.”
In whatever decision he makes, Mehedi’s goal for the incubator program remains central.
“My core aim is to make a social impact through business. When we combine our employees with startups, minds can be changed, great partnerships can be made and innovation can occur.”
4. Keep the story going
Your story goes further when you have inspiration. That’s what gives you the energy to make your tale even better.
“Steve Jobs motivated me to think outside the box and challenge the status quo,” states Mehedi.
For those looking to join Banglalink, Mehedi looks for that same sort of inspiration.
“I think everyone applying to Banglalink should ask themselves two questions. The first is: Do you want to work for a company where you’ll be challenged every day? The second is: Do you want to innovate, because Banglalink is undergoing a digital transformation?”
Mehedi joined Banglalink because it’s a place where he could go beyond traditional processes and craft his own story. He has the ability to build his career, innovate and help others.
“Banglalink isn’t a place where you get top-down orders and just work. You must be proactive and ready to evolve.”
Indeed, the story can reach a better place. You just have to be prepared to push it there.
Believe in Your Story
From playing street cricket as a child to watching the snow fall in London as an adult, Mehedi’s story has been quite amazing. And it shall continue.
We hope you’ve learned a lot from Mehedi’s journey. Now, go out and write your own.
