‘Good leadership essential for good business’

In order to run a successful startup, entrepreneurs need to work on their leadership capability at first, said speakers yesterday at the "Outsourcing Conference" held at the ongoing Softexpo 2020.

Leadership and management problems are the main obstacles to building a business, said Md Zia Arfin, senior executive vice-president of Bank Asia.

"Leadership is a quality. If you want to be a leader, you must have self-motivation. And people who are planning to launch a startup have to adapt to the mindsets of the young generation," he further added.

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) organised the conference at the International Convention City Bashundhara.

More than 300 freelancers and students participated in the conference where some of the successful local startups were presented. 

Industry experts at the programme said that only a handful of people can successfully run a startup because entrepreneurs face many challenges. 

Managing a business in its early stage and managing a full-fledged business in later stages are two different things, they said.   

Minhaz Anwar, head of Startup Ecosystem, Grameenphone, said, "Only up to 10 percent of the people who try to open their own companies become successful. So, clearly, it is not an easy task.

"Starting a company is a big responsibility. The founder might have to sacrifice his position as the CEO of his own company for the betterment of it because maybe, there is someone better than the founder to lead the company more fruitfully," he added.  

He suggested the entrepreneurs to find out what problems they are suffering along with the people surrounding them. 

"Try to come up with a solution. If you can solve the problem for yourself and the people around you – and they are eager to pay you for your product – it can be a big business idea."

Kowser Ahmed Nirob, founder and CEO of CutOutWiz, said, "A huge number of people every year finish their graduation and start seeking jobs. It is a plus point for us that we have more manpower than many other countries and we can employ more people than others."

JoomShaper CEO Kawshar Ahmed said motivating employees is very important in order to get the best output from them. 

"Perfect salary is the fundamental part of motivation. At least we try to give proper salary to my employees by researching the current market situation."