The good life is built with good relationships.

I am lucky to be an alumnus of an university which VC Dr. M Omar Rahman participated in the longest longitudinal study in human history by Harvard Study of Adult Development. Mr. Rahman Sir shared his experience with us in a seminar and emphasized on the importance of human connections in social well being and happiness. Everybody thinks like someone is better than me, someone is richer than me or someone is happier than me from social comparison perspective. But actually everybody struggles. The TED Talk below is the interpretation of 75 years study spoken by the study director. I think it is must watch for everybody. 

Words of wisdom from my professors

Within couple of weeks my childhood dream of accomplishing degree from highest echelon of academia is about to be realized. No matter how turmoil this journey was, I am hopeful for my next dream to return back to graduate school in my forties for PhD and create new knowledge in my field. Within MBA school professors tortured my mind with confusions, self-doubts and led to beware about having meaningful life. I am thinking many valuable ideas, lectures and guidance will be lost from memory in the course of time. So, why not write something in blog post as words of wisdom, so that I can look back 10 years later what I learned! Of course it's an interesting idea.

The most important thing I learned from my professors at MBA school is how to make good decisions and using various tools used in different decision making hierarchy. Accessing subscription based journals and digging articles for my purpose was the most valuable thing I learned so far. Reading is an amazing thing whenever you have peer reviewed articles of high quality. In third world country like Bangladesh I would like to compare it as a serious business like flying! Even from Islamic point of view Allah (God) ordered human beings to read on His name within the first revealing.

Today I am concluding with the complement from my favorite professor Dr. Nadim Jahangir Sir. He emphasized to read newspapers, magazines and other reading materials in English language; not Bangla. Because almost all journal articles are published in English. Reading journal articles require extensive vocabulary. Operational definition for working environment is sometimes different from our day to day definition.

Before I leave MBA school

I am at the terminal point of my University life. Very soon by the grace of almighty Allah I am going to earn the top most degree of the university. MBA was not just dream, it is life's greatest achievement beyond numerous obstacles I had to face time to time. Undergraduate life was full of adventure and excitement. But MBA life was a journey of endurance and sacrifice.

Life happens either I become proactive or reactive. Tradeoffs are at the heart of life. Academic degrees put aside me to a prestigious segment of my generation, my society, my country and within mixed segment in international arena. Being citizen of third world country, chances became low to study in world's high ranking universities. The upside is that marketers will place me in person with higher education segment in Bangladesh.

Life satisfaction will depend on factors those are not only objective but also subjective too. If salary is put in comparison scale then logic says the higher the better and happiness will be a function of salary. But just like economics says unless everything remain same, this tag should be attached. For some people life satisfaction depends on whether they live in City and for others making compromise between paycheck and rural living gives better life satisfaction. So, life satisfaction is always a relative term.

From first semester to till now I have met with hundreds of people. Many of them became friends, not just Facebook friends. I mean real life friend circle with supportive atmosphere to learn and grow together. The journey was about ten years with some breaks in masters level. Within this period I attended dozens of seminars, club fairs and also earned few bucks from temporary campus jobs. Constructing house for personal living within masters study was also a laborious experience. The life was astonishing most of the times.

As I spoke about the bright side of the university life, some unpleasant or uncomfortable times exist. Ones upon a time I saw in a docudrama a student from Harvard said, that Harvard is not Haven. IUB is not also a perfect. Students come from different background, different family and different faith. I met some wonderful and highly sociable friends who are just awesome.

On the flip side I had to experience offending situation from few handful so called classmates. Their attitude, behavior and body language remind me the remark made by a faculty member from my first semester maths class "some of you have come here at University not because have qualifications or you deserve higher education; your parents send you with their financial support." I think so for those handful classmates. If all of students of private university had to take loan from bank and repay after graduation, then how many of them will dare to earn, not get/buy certificates?

Hatirjheel view from Rampura bridge

2018-06-20 8:01 AM

My favorite cycling destination in weekend mornings. Before sunshine reaches earth and people wake up and make the streets gridlocked I find this circular road spectacular.

Life at Independent University Bangladesh (IUB)

Major Courses those are Tought in U.S.'s Top 5 MBA Schools for Marketing?

The opportunity to study the field of Marketing with diversified portfolio of courses in MBA level in Bangladesh is limited due to institution's incapability to offer and/or update curriculum with the pace of changing world. Sometimes UGC (University Grants Commission) create bureaucratic obstacles. Whatever the causes exist as a learner and student of MBA, I think however there are ample options for business graduates, students and stakeholders to stay updated with what is happening around their field of study rather that stick to own country's barriers.

I did my major in Marketing during my undergraduate level. At post graduate level few times I wished to shift my focus to major in finance. Although after performing satisfactorily in Financial Management core/integration course I thought Marketing rather be the best area for me to explore and enjoy. Because in the mean time Marketing is no longer surrounded by typical 4Ps or Marketing 2.0 era. Including the emergence of "E" era (ecommerce, e-entertainment or digital marketing or Internet of Things (IoT), Marketing 3.0 is emerging with its intrinsic urge from humane values. Products will not be no longer considered just as a solution of problem; holistic marketing approach will guarantee each and every value chain of a product life cycle is ethical, earth-friendly and of course sustainable.

From a perspective of MBA student of a developing country like Bangladesh I think though it is neither possible nor practicable to learn and/or study the major courses taught in Top 11 U.S. Business Schools for Marketing in classroom setting, but reviewing, discussing or even by acknowledging what are my American counterparts learning marketing students, graduates and stakeholders can gain some valuable insight.

Using Spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel) to Solve Financial Problems

Hi,

I have prepared this MS Excel Worksheet during my Financial Management course for MBA. I hope it will be helpful to you. Any suggestion is welcomed.

Here's the link to the file: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AlARBz7-hsWkhU-ceVey-DkuLbUk
 

Shared from Excel for Android https://office.com/getexcel