Working in Bangladesh

Today i have had one of the more interesting lectures during my time spend on the course of International Management. We had the pleasure to have an external Lecture, with a highly experienced CEO that have been working in Bangladesh for years.

Prior to the lecture, i dont think that me or any of my fellow students had noticeable knowledge of Bangladesh. Well, to be honest we cant really be experts on a whole country after only one lecture, but i gained so much knowledge after all that i decided to share it here on Hubpages.com.

Where and what is Bangladesh?

First of all we got a quick overview of what Bangladesh contains. As being a neighbour to India one of the worlds most excessive economies and a nation with an increasing influence globally, you can draw some likes from both nations.

Bangladesh is not that large, around 2½ the size of Denmark, and yet they have a population of no less than 155.000.000 inhabitants. If we look at Denmark they have a population of 5.500.000 inhabitants. This of course means that its a very crowded country, and most of the country is covered in cities, or the likes of it.

Work life in Bangladesh.

The Danish Expatriate we had the pleasure of hearing stories from, arrived in Bangladesh just when the Military had taken the power from the former government. The Military had power of Bangladesh in approximately 1 year, and throughout that year there were not really any improvements made in the country.

Since the election of a new government, things have been changing and currently the country is going through a period with increasing construction work, and furthermore some of those MNC's that have been working in India for some years, now turn some attention to their neighbours to the east.

The biggest reason that these MNC's and other companies from Europe and US (Primarily IT Businesses) now look at Bangladesh is that the labor cost is approximately 40% below the level in India.

Its common in Bangladesh and other countries with the same financial level, that corruption is widely recognised as one of the easiest ways to speed up the processes where government have influence on your project/company.

Monetary bonusses?

One of the problems a CEO eventually will meet all over the world, is the way to give a bonus to employees, how should it be done? What is the best way to tell your workers they have done an impressive performance - should it be by giving them a bonus in cash, or a handshake in front of the rest of the company telling him/her how important they are to the success of the company.

The lecturer we had taught us with specific examples, that when you are dealing with a third world country, most workers will have a big responsibility towards their families to make the most money that they possibly can, there is nothing new to this. But normally you would then tend to give them cash to show your appreciation towards the job they are performing.

He on the other hand told us that this method can be a big mistake. Most labor in Bangladesh an any other third world country will go for the highest salary, and therefore your labor turnover may be very high in these areas of the world, and therefore leaving you with big expenses towards training the personnel so they will be able to accomplish the tasks you as a CEO want them to perform.

On the other hand, he had success with keeping his labor turnover below his competitors. The reason he succeeded with this was that everytime he hired new workers, he made sure that he didnt offer them a higher salary than they currently received. It actually had to be a bit lower, while he also offered his staff some extra benefits known from the west with a bit more freedom and a good work environment.

By doing this, and at the same time deliberately removing cash bonuses, he focused on the working environment, made sure his workers were happy with their role within the company - and therefore they would be more resistent to quit when offered a bit higher salary.

Conclusion 

Well, i dont really have an conclusion - but this is my first article on Hubpages, and while it might be a bit confusing at times, i thought i wanted to share some of the knowledge i have gained today about Bangladesh.