Business ideas can be generated from social problems: Speakers
They stated this at a discussion titled “The New Entrepreneurship” which was attended by government officials involved in policy implementation and successful business representatives
New business ideas can come from society's existing problems and they are an opportunity for young entrepreneurs to start their next businesses, speakers have said during the fifth episode of a webinar series.
The week-long webinar series was organised by Grameenphone marking National Youth Day.
Government officials involved in policy implementation and successful business representatives took part in the discussion titled "The New Entrepreneurship."
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Fahad Ifaz, chief executive officer at iFarmer Limited – an organisation that supports farmers with finance, agricultural input and market access – said new entrepreneurs should find business ideas from social problems.
"As we have huge problems, we have opportunities as well. We need to pick a problem and discover the solution to it in our business model," he said.
Fahad said that entrepreneurship does not require so many things.
"It needs courage," he continued, adding "even financing is not the issue nowadays."
"The academic curriculum at the university level still focuses on the managerial technique instead of entrepreneurship. Young graduates will be confident if they gain knowledge about it at the university level," said Fahad.
Razib Ahmed, advisor of the Women and e-Commerce Forum (We), said this platform is an example of how to run a business capitalising on existing problems and limitations.
WE, a Facebook group of one million active members, supports local products.
Razib, also the former president of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh, said, "Women in our society have to face many limitations and restrictions. Despite them having the limitations, we have established the platform and given them the freedom to show their skills."
The Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Project (ESDP) of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority is working to create new entrepreneurship in the country.
AKM Hafizullah Khan, project director of ESDP, said, "New entrepreneurs in Bangladesh start their businesses in an unstructured way. They do not know how to formulate and structure a business. But they are doing very well after being trained by ESDP."
He said the project aims to train up 24,000 educated jobless young people and it had been working in 64 districts of the country.
