A marketing guru at Akij Venture

He seems to have Midas touch as everything he undertakes turns into gold. He dreamed of becoming a civil servant but ended up being a legendary marketing guru of Bangladesh. There are barely any people who are not familiar with his name or his company Akij Venture Group. He is none other than Syed Alamgir, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company.

He doesn’t want to end where he is now. His new mission is to establish 10 to 12 new companies and to generate employment for thousands of people. Born and brought up in Kendua, Netrokona, he did his schooling at Kendua Primary School and Kendua Joy Hori Spry Govt High School. Later he got admitted into Dhaka College before he obtained his MBA from Dhaka University’s Institute of Business Adminstration in 1976 and pursued Ph.D from University of New Castle, Oregon, USA.

He shared the experience of his checkered career with reporter Miraj Shams of The Business Post.

Boyhood

Syed Alamgir grew up in an environment that was full of joy and happiness sharing with and caring about everybody. “I had a good time in Kendua as I enjoyed the warmth of a large family. I had twelve siblings. My father was sanitary inspector in Kendua,” he said.

He was surrounded by highly educated people. His father passed Entrance Examination in 1919. It was the time when his father was the first Muslim in the area, he reminisced. “If asked about my life, I must say that life has given me everything - honor, prosperity, authority and responsibility - a man cherishes to achieve. I got more than I expected.”

He wanted to become a Civil servant because during the erstwhile Pakistan CSP was a coveted post for anyone. After the War of Liberation he couldn’t sit for the BCS examination as he was not even a graduate then let alone Master’s Degree. When graduated by the time scope for a civil service job had shrunk. The CSP rank during the Pakistan regime was followed by SDO which was equivalent to a deputy commissioner. “As I have to be a magistrate first before my elevation to the post of deputy commissioner after a hard work I will be an old man by the time. From this notion I got admitted into IBA Department. Since then through a long arduous struggle I have become in the marketing world what I am today,” he said.

After passing from Business Administration Institutue of Dhaka Universtiy in 1976 he joined British pharmaceutical company ‘May and Baker’ now best known as the Sanofi-Aventis, the number one pharmaceutical company in the world. He continued there for 16 years before switching to Jamuna Group as the Group Marketing Director. As many as 11 companies were under his supervision. He expanded the businesses of those companies. His job at Jamuna Group ended after six years in 1998 when he began to work as the Executive Director for the ACI. He was later promoted to the Managing Director of ACI Consumer Goods. During his job at ACI he was able to lift a good number of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) to the top level. He has been the Managing Director and Cheif Executive Officer (CEO) at Akij Venture for the the last one and a half year.

“As the investors of the company were progressive-minded and highly educated I picked up Akij Venture as my place of work. Or course, all of them at ACI were highly educated. At ACI I established many companies and ACI is now at a very good profiting position. Then I though of helping Akij Venture and engaged myself in expanding this venture. I hope, this company will be a large company one day,” the visionary man said.

Change in mode of marketing

Soon after the Independece Bangladesh was a sellers market. What a seller offered the buyer had to buy it. For example, soap meant ‘570’, detergent meant ‘Jet’ and footwear meant ‘Bata’. There were some particular commodities. People just had to buy them. “We are not there anymore. We are now working in a competitive market as buyers have different range of choices.” They can verify their choices out of scores of products. The have wide range of opportunity to make their choice. “We are working to their liking by maintaining the standard of the products and through proper marketing,” said the marketing guru.

At present technology is the new addition to marketing, especially GUVB. “When we studied or were involved in jobs there was not even a quality calculator but now people have opportunity to work with a wall-mounted computer with a large monitor. This is the big change in marketing,” said the marketing giant.

New brand pioneer

Pioneer of Halal soap in the country Syed Alamgir said he had introduced many new brands in the country. He said he likes to create new brands. “If foreigners can create brands like McDonald and Burger King then why cannot we do that? We have also talents, I have put new brands and products on markets for buyers and I have been able to popularize them. I think that’s my achievement. Even I myself don’t know how many brands I have created. Whe people take away documents of many brands I see that those are my brands,” said the successful new brand pioneer.

Syed Alamgir is one of the renowned chief executives of the corporate houses. Two decades earlier under the slogan ‘100 per cent Halal Soap’ Jamuna Group marketed the new brand ‘Aromatic Soap’ that topped the other similar products. At that time it created sensation in the market. The father of marketing Philip Kotler in his last book ‘Principle of Marketing’ included the Syed Alamgir’s slogan ‘100 per cent Halal Soap’.

The glorious stories of Alamgir later lifted the ACI consumer products to the level of the best-selling brands. Germ killer anticeptic Savlon of ACI grabbed the monopoly market of Detol. He said the working periphery at the ACI Company was limited to a small company. Back then there were only two products – Savlon and Aerosol. The annual turnover of the company amounted to only Tk8 crore. “When I left the company by then its annual turnover had reached about Tk7, 000 crore. I myself built all subsidieries of ACI related to food products. After that the company became pretty matured and I created leadership in the company.”

Creative ideas and new brandings of mine have turned this small entity into a giant company. ACI Aerosol and salt are now known as super-brand products. “I have changed the packet of ACI salt 66 times to elevate it to the top level in the salt market.”

Alamgir also played a key role in elevating aerosol, mosquito coil, savlon, ACI Pure Atta, flour, suji, ACI Pure Masala and many more products to the top level in the market. ACI Aerosol and Savlon grabbed the 90 per cent and 80 per cent shares of the market respectively.

His thought and plan were not only confined to the expansion of ACI’s business. He has had a big contribution to curbing the shares of multinational companies in the consumer market. He has succeeded in the competition with the multinational brand like Unilever. All of them including Unilever were involved in aluminium packaging. But he first introduced laminated packaging in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). He was able to beat the established commodities like Closeup and Pepsodent by marketing laminated tubes. He is always a pioneer in accepting new challenges.

Syed Alamgir said he out of curiosity paid a visit to the food factory of Akij Company at the request of its owner. “I found it was quite a big company. The machinery was of good standard and they were imported from Japan, Australian and Germany. There were some machines four of which are available in the world and three of them in Asia. The owner offered me to join his company and I did that.”

He said there were many brands in the country before he joined Akij Venture. Now they are working on branding. The first duty is to strengthen the brands that Akij has already had. Mojo, Clemon and Frutika are being made powerful brands. “We are releasing those brands afresh in the market. Apart from them, Akij Food and Beverage is coming up with new products. Children of the country are not willing to drink milk. We are offering new types of milk products in the market for them. Original products are being offered in the names of ‘Drink It’ and ‘Naga Mojo’ after making changes in them and with new additions,” said the dreamer.

Marketing challenges

Earlier, working for pharmaceutical companies was not challenging. Now the challenge is here. At that time, he said, his company was among the two or three companies. Lasco, Pfizer, May and Baker were the pharmaceutical companies in the country. Competition was limited. Back then it was enough to go to see a doctor. Now the companies have to go to people and draw their attention to the products through marketing, not through only prescription of a doctor. This is a very difficult job.

The number one challenge in marketing is now competition of different types. Most of the competitions don’t take into consideration the quality. They spend a fat amount on advertisement. It can influence people a bit initially. Price is also low as the standard is not up to the expectation. But the product that lasts long is quite different like Frutika. Frutika is different from other products as it has natural fruits. It has double the elements of fruits than those of others in the market. Moreover, it has no preservative posing no health hazard. This product is good for health for anybody. If it can be campaigned sales of other products mixed with chemicals at low prices will gradually decline.

The main point is what is being campaigned and how and with what information it is being done. “The important point is if I can provide any particular information. For example, it is 100 per cent Halal soap. Again it can also be said that it is a good soap. I may say ACI salt helps improve talent – this is also a kind of campaign,” said Alamgir.

Present situation and future plan of Akij

Akij Group has split up. Now Akij Venture is a seperate group. At present the turnover of this group is about Tk3, 500 crore. This group has two institutions – Akij Food and Beverage and Dairy. These two organizations are very big. Akij is now investing in its new 10-12 companies. There will be three economic zones – Habiganj, Rajshahi and Narayanganj. It has a plan for primary investment in about 10 companies. The plan is to build about 15 large industries in those three zones. However, in future other companies might have an opportunity to invest in those economic zones.

Akij Venture will go for its investment in manufacturing bicycle. There is paper mill. It will also invest in health and hygiene products along with sugar and flour mills. It will also invest in livestock sector, electrical and electronics sectors. Many such companies have already been registered with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms. Imports of various machines and tools are in the process. Modern machinery will be imported from Japan, Australia and Germany. At present the company is providing employment for 7, 000 people. Akij Venture has a plan to generate employment of 10, 0000 people in 10 years.

Akij Venture is now exporting its commodities to 29 countries. Its export is on the rise. This group will add new products to its export basket. But overall there is a bad competition in exports. People tend to export bad-quality products and there are also misdeclarations. All these are demaging the image of the country. There are such problems that should be solved immediately.

Businesses have counted loss for two years for corona pandemic. Now the war is negatively impacted the country. The war has broken out centring economic interest. Under this circumstance, the price of dollar should be tamed in the interest of business and the country’s economy.

The present business condition in Bangladesh is quite good. But the world economic fallout has cast a negative impact on our country. And it is very natural. “We are all concerned about this and we have seen the price jump. For example, the price of sugar has soared. Sugar of Tk50 is now Tk80. The cost of resin to make bottle has gone up to $1700 a tonne from that of $900. We sell on-the-go products. If one feels thirsty on his way they buy a Frutika bottle. If its price goes up they will buy a bottle of water. If the price of water bottle rises they will collect water from tubewell. As a result, prices of company products cannot be increased at will,” said the CEO of Akij Venture.

Awards

Syed Alamgir received the Retail Leadership Award at the Asian Retail Congress in 2014. The marketing platform – Bangladesh Brand Forum and private television channel ‘Channel I’ presented him with the ‘Marketing Superstar’ award.

Syed Alamgir has fathered three daughters. His eldest daughter is a doctor. She passed FRCP from London. No she is a consultant doctor at the AMZ Hospital. During the corona pandemic she served people. The second daughter passed the Bar-at-Law exam. The youngest one is studying Economics. One of them is living in Canada while the other in Australia.