Entrepreneurship is difficult with scores of external challenges. But should this hold you back? The answer is 'No'.
Oggro and entrepreneurship
Be courageous! "Entrepreneurship is extremely difficult in Bangladesh given the prevailing social stigma and lack of infrastructure. But, where else will you find 17 million people in a small city like Dhaka?" chuckles Mahmudul Kabir. Under other current conditions, you will lag behind irrespective of what you're pursuing. To succeed as an entrepreneur in this super dynamic world, you have to move faster and work harder at the same time. That was the message for young entrepreneurs from Mahmudul Kabir, founder and CEO of Oggro.com. Oggro.com is a Dhaka-based full-scale car rental platform providing the best fleet of cars all across Bangladesh. Presently, Oggro is providing cars on hourly and daily basis for leisure, business or any customized needs of the clients. Oggro plans to provide long-haul logistics support in near future. People face huge hassles while renting cars in terms of reliability, security, comfort and overall professionalism. Oggro aims to solve all these by making the unorganised car rental industry organised. Though they are operating from Dhaka city only for now, they plan to expand into other cities soon.
Bio of entrepreneur
After completing BBA and MBA from IBA (DU), Kabir enjoyed extensive and successful exposure in multiple industries and gained proficiency in diversified areas of business. Before founding Oggro, Kabir started his first venture named 'Britto', a management consultancy and business advisory firm a few years ago.
Scenario of Bangladeshi market for entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs have huge potentials in Bangladeshi market at present. The consumer class is rising. And so is the demand for new products and services. He also justified spending money on advertising. In his own language, "If you invest 'X' amount of money in platform development in a tech-enabled business like Oggro, you have to invest '10X' (which is 10 times of X amount)' amount of money. It's not about creating new demand but about letting people know about your presence."
Kabir is very particular about building a strong tech back-end to ensure superior customer service. Oggro.com is still a relatively new company. "So far the focus has been on building a strong tech platform and tightening the operating procedures. Now we will move into aggressively promoting the company across digital and social media platforms."
Entrepreneurial insights
From experience, Kabir holds two lessons to share for young potential entrepreneurs. First, Kabir encourages entrepreneurs to talk to other people openly and enthusiastically about their idea. He considers the common fear of idea getting stolen unfounded. Idea matters but only little. Executing well and fast matters the most. He also thinks most of the fundamentally innovative ideas have already been tried. Therefore, not having a ground-breaking idea should not keep someone from starting.
Secondly, Kabir suggests not to start a venture alone. It is of paramount importance to start with at least one partner who you can trust and has complementary skills.
As an entrepreneur, you get to and in a way you have to work across the board of business functions. You have to manage Finance, Marketing, HR, Accounting and all at the same time. That's stressful. But that is what makes it interesting and rewarding as well.
Vision of Oggro and differences with UBER
When asked, Kabir shared no vision of becoming another UBER of Bangladesh. He holds optimism that very soon people will start to think about Oggro instantly whenever they need a vehicle. When asked, if Oggro has any difference with UBER, Kabir opined, "UBER is a great inspiration. But they are strong in on-demand intra city travels. There's a whole lot of businesses beyond that within the transportation sector. We aspire to be market leader in outstation and long-haul logistics businesses."
Mantra to succeed in consumer service business
He believes in not saying 'no' to clients. For that, Kabir did not even bother to drive his own clients despite being the CEO. "If you exhaust all your options to never say 'no' to clients, success is bound to follow."
Final thoughts
Don't be afraid of failing. "Failure doesn't question your credibility. It is OK if you fail. Because, you are still better than the rest who never even tried," says Kabir.
The writer is a senior in Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka, [email protected]
- Wednesday, 1 May 2024 |
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