Education
7 years ago

From trash to treasure

Youths plan business strategy for upcycled products

Winners with the organisers and guests of Corporiddlerz 2017 held at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) in the city recently
Winners with the organisers and guests of Corporiddlerz 2017 held at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) in the city recently

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Corporiddlerz is one of the flagship events of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) Business and Communication Club. It has now become a business strategy based tournament with two successful, consecutive inter-university editions under its belt. It has secured its place as one of the most prestigious competitions in Bangladesh.

This year inter university Corporiddlerz 2017 sponsored by Sena Kalyan Sangstha kicked off on July 17, 2017. More than 260 teams from 30 universities across Bangladesh registered for this competition. Mahmud Hasan Siam, the president of BUP Business and Communication Club said, 'Our main goal this time was to boost this competition to a newer and stronger platform. With this number of response, I am thrilled to say that this platform is growing with exponential and unparalleled growth.'

Teams in the first phase participated in an online case solving competition. From there only 48 teams made through to the second phase which was a product launching round. Here, the teams had to strategise and come up with solutions of launching a given product, which was given from the many esteemed products of Sena Kalyan Sangstha. After battling it through the second phase only 18 teams proceeded to the third phase which was designed in two specific rounds, the first of which was project planning and the second was kept as a surprise. The surprise round was designed to test the teamwork spirit of the participants. In this round, members of each team was swapped with members of a different team. After rigorous judgment by the judges, only six teams moved to the final phase where they were assigned to develop a business strategy for upcycled product business in Bangladesh. The title of the task was 'From Trash to Treasure'. The task was to plan a social business model around collecting waste and employing surplus workforce and the socially disadvantaged people. The idea was to promote the process of up-cycling and refashion it into something useful to sell it back to the market. The six finalist teams who made it to the finals got one-week time to prepare their proposed plan to present it in the finale. They were Team Fourth Harmony from the Institute of Business Administration, Dhaka University, The Boring Team from Islamic University of Technology, Crime Master Gogo from North South University, Team Tryout, Undercats and Kachchi without Elachi from Bangladesh University of Professionals.

Sena Kalyan Sangstha has been working for human welfare since 1972 in Bangladesh. The organisation believes in contributing to the national progress by working alongside students and youths of this nation. With this notion, Sena Kalyan Sangstha has been supporting the venture of Corporiddlerz for the past consecutive two years. Keeping the goodwill alive, Sena Kalyan Sangstha was the gold sponsor for this year's Corporiddlerz 2017.

The final event was held on September 19 in BUP's Bijoy Auditorium located in Mirpur Cantonment in presence of Vice Chancellor of the University Maj Gen Md Salahuddin Miaji. Niaz Rahim, group director of Rahimafrooz Bangladesh was present as the chief guest and Major General Firoz Hasan, chairman of Sena Kalyan Sangstha was the special guest. On the night of the finale, experienced and renowned judges of today's corporate scene were assigned to make the final judgment. Jane Alam Romel - chief marketing officer, IDLC, Deneb Latif- director, Magnum Management Consulting, Taslim Ahmed - chief executive officer, Unitrend Limited, Arif Shahriar - COO and group head of HR, Rahimafrooz and Shahadat Hossain Dipto - deputy managing director of Khan Bahadur Group were invited to judge the finale of this competition.

The team who bagged the glorious champion title of 'SKS Presents Corporiddlerz 2017' were Team Crime Master Gogo from North South University. The first and second runners-up were Team Undercats and Team Kachchi without Elachi, both belonging to Bangladesh University of Professionals. The winning teams were awarded a prize money of Taka one lac, seventy five thousand and fifty thousand respectively.

When asked about the experience, Zaid Bin Siddique from the champion team said, "Crime Master Gogo's team motto was 'Never return empty handed, ever' and I would like to emphasise that because BUP not only gave Crime Master Gogo its first inter-university championship trophy, but it gave us a new experience, new friends, new challenges and some amazing memories which we will cherish forever."

Mahir Shahriar, belonging to the first runner team Undercats, stated, "In every round we had to push ourselves, because all the teams were equally good. The overall competition was so challenging that you never know what is going to happen no matter how great your strategies were. But at the end of the competition when your team returns home with a trophy, it feels awesome!'

The writer is a student at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP). She can be reached at
[email protected]

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