Seven Robi employees become entrepreneurs

A total of seven Robi employees recently started their journey of becoming entrepreneurs with financial, management advisory as well as motivational support and encouragement from Robi.

The journey started in the form of incubating the employees' business ideas under the company's innovative digital entrepreneurship development platform, r-ventures. The incubation period will continue for the next twelve months during which Robi will be funding up to Tk 10 million for each of the six shortlisted business ideas.

The seven Robi employees who will be taking part in the incubation stage of the r-ventures programme along with their business ideas were introduced at an event at a city hotel on Sunday.

Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Mustafa Jabbar adorned the event as the chief guest while Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services President, Syed Almas Kabir and Microsoft Bangladesh's Managing Director, Sonia Bashir Kabir were present as the special guests, reports UNB.

The programme started with the welcome speech by Robi's Head of Human Resources Division, Md Faisal Imtiaz Khan where Robi's Managing Director and CEO, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed along with the company's Management Council members were present at the event as well.

Robi's Vice President, Resourcing, Md Zaved Parvez hosted the programme.

Employees who will successfully complete the incubation stage will go on to form their own companies, paving the way for them to be the CEOs of their own digital ventures.

Robi's Manager, Digital Service, Mohammad Abdul Hadi Bhuiyan, Vice President, Information Technology, Md. Ashik Noon, General Manager, Enterprise Program Management Office, Muhammad Mohsiul Haque, General Manager, Market Operations, Shakil Farhan Mithun, Manager, Market Operation, Md Hasibul Karim, Specialist, Market Operations, Reyasat Chowdhury and General Manager, Network Assurance, Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman are the seven Robi officials who will now try their business ideas over the next one year under the r-ventures incubation stage.

During this twelve months incubation period, they will continue to draw their salary and other benefits just like they were doing as regular employees without having any job responsibility towards Robi's business. Instead, they will have full freedom to try out their business ideas in the real life context with funding of up to Tk 10 million for each idea from Robi.

Funding for the business ideas will be released based on the progress made by the seven Robi employees taking part in the incubation stage. The Robi employees who successfully complete the incubation stage will get to form their own companies.

Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Mustafa Jabbar said, "I have never seen any organisation trying to help their employees to become entrepreneurs. I wish I had a company like Robi supporting me when I was trying to become an entrepreneur. I wish the r-venturists all the best. Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology will always be with Robi on this noble journey."

Speaking on the occasion, Robi's Managing Director and CEO, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed said "The ongoing digitalisation of society is creating numerous business opportunities for digital solutions. Being a structured company, Robi is unlikely to be able to capitalize on these opportunities as this emerging business landscape demands lean start-ups who are able to adapt to consumer demands at an agile pace."

"Hence, we thought of creating the r-ventures platform to create digital entrepreneurs who can do it better than us. We felt that we should try the concept with our employees first since they are already aware of the demands that such businesses command. We have worked extensively with the seven officials to make their business ideas market ready and are committed to invest up to one crore taka for each of business idea.

We are confident that this initiative will help us to bring about transformative changes inside Robi with regards to embracing a Modern, Agile and Digital work-culture. We intend to allow all the aspiring youth of the country to access this unique platform, r-ventures, soon", he said.

A total of 212 business ideas were initially submitted by the Robi employees. Following multiple rounds of selection 50 business ideas were chosen for the second phase; from 50 to 15 in semi-final round. Finally, six business ideas were selected to be put through the incubation stage.