Mahtab Uddin Ahmed

Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market on Thursday to buy yen for the first time since 1998, in an attempt to shore up the battered currency after the Bank of Japan stuck with ultra-low interest rates.

A reporter once asked a corporate CEO about the secret of his success. His response was two words.

Since I started my consultancy operation, my initial focus was on the areas of digital transformation of banks.    

We all know about the funny story of Nasiruddin Hojja and his donkey.  

An irony of most third-world countries is that honest taxpayers pay more tax and need to be more compliant than those who tend to dodge the system. Not only that, often honest taxpayers even end up getting fined for non-compliance!  

A very interesting research was conducted in the US between two groups, one having won a million-dollar lottery and the other having lost a limb in accidents.

Just take a few seconds to imagine what life may be like without the internet. There will be no Amazon or Daraz, no foodpanda orders, no Google Maps, no Netflix, no online games, no online study, widening of digital divide, no IR 4.0, no video calls and the list can go on.

In recent months, inflation has taken the world by storm, impacting not only Bangladesh but also countries in the first world. I have learned a few things from my wife through it all.

Late last year, I had the opportunity to attend a daylong workshop on IR 4.0 (The Fourth Industrial Revolution) where the speakers included a number of high-level government officials from multiple ministries and institutions.

It is small wonder what happens when a politically-backed chief executive officer of a government construction company gets rewarded for his political affiliation by getting appointed as the top executive in a multinational company (MNC) of a technical and digital nature. 

When it comes to the Big 4, the corporate trust instincts set in for good reasons but is it time to question if such blind reliance is the best practice always?

I had just come out of a meeting with my friend who is a prominent banker and this very interesting conversation ensued when I told him that I am keen to help family businesses in Bangladesh with my knowledge and experience.

In my last job during the time between 2014 and 2016, the company performance was well below the mark, with 2016 being a serious disaster.

I used to have a positional big boss who was new to the job and hardly had knowledge of the industry or the multinational way of working. Every time, my team put up a proposal to him, he would look at others in the meeting instead of me while knowing all too well where the right level of knowledge was to be found.

A man piloting a hot air balloon discovers that he is hopelessly lost. He descends to a lower altitude and locates a man on the ground and shouts, “excuse me sir, can you tell me where I am?” The man below says, “yes, you are in a hot air balloon, about twenty feet above ground.”

After my 2002 performance review, I got the best performance rating. But my increment was negligible.

On my return from Australia recently, my friend Asif invited me to his office. He shuddered as he lowered his voice to a whisper to inform me,

When talking about business, a boss advises to focus on KYC (Know Your Customer) and when talking about career, I suggest to focus on KYB (Know Your Boss).

My journey to obesity started when I was introduced to the executive canteen of Unilever Bangladesh in Kalurghat, Chattogram, in 1993. My weight shot up by 15 kilogrammes within a span of six months despite my efforts to discipline myself.

During my childhood, I was quite accustomed to seeing my parents’ unhappy reaction to my somewhat consistent poor performance in school. There was very little I could do to fulfil their wishes as I was too busy mastering skills in sports, namely, football, cricket, badminton, swimming, chess and what not!