Feature

Difference is an Advantage

Mabroor Wassey

AS a senior at Islamic University of Technology, I was advising juniors on several issues, providing leadership at different clubs & societies and organising events besides my studies. Upon seeing the letter from BAT Bangladesh welcoming me to join as a management trainee in Supply Chain department, several thoughts passed my mind. I thought I had to change and adapt to an organisation where I am the most junior. I thought I would need to curb down my inner urge of giving opinions and take it easy. I thought I would have to 'lead' by actually following orders. I thought I would have to give up the pleasure of making decisions for at least a few years. However, BAT Bangladesh changed my perception from the very moment I joined.

The culture within BAT Bangladesh is such that it provided me with adequate opportunities to develop myself in parallel to empowering me with a decision making freedom in my area of work. It's a culture where I can see the colleagues leading from the front and at the same time giving me the platform and support to develop plans and execute them. The freedom to discuss and debate is one of several differentiating factors in BAT Bangladesh's business culture, and extends throughout all levels of the organisation. Enhanced by the diversity of our people, the company actively encourages different points of view to turn challenges into opportunities and to push forward the innovation and creativity which sets us apart.

After finishing a challenging task or completing a project, we proudly tell our friends & family how good it feels to work with great colleagues, to contribute with our ideas and get recognition. We feel energised, motivated and ready to move on to the next challenge. I actually look forward to going to office every morning. This is a feeling we often have at school during Class 8 to 12.

We make friends at school and then we develop a different circle of friends at University. At BAT Bangladesh, the journey of making friends continues, and it's not only people from your own function. It can be an event we organised, or a project we worked on and a new circle is formed. The after office addas at the different coffee shops and lounges are both enjoyable and revitalizing.

At the end of the day though, as a young engineer, I wanted to be associated with machines and everything associated with it. BAT Bangladesh taught me what this everything means in the real world. High efficiency, fast trouble-shooting, delivering the best in the production facility and adapting to customer needs are our every day challenges. What BAT Bangladesh makes us realise is that machines maybe limited by capacity, but people are not. We create opportunities for individuality to shine, empowering people to do better than their best, stretching limits and capacities. When we combine our unique individual talents, we do amazing things. To aid to this, cutting edge technologies and processes come to BAT Bangladesh straight away. Thus we are exposed very early to the latest techniques being developed around the world. As a young professional, the excitement and joy one gets from this is immense. What this means to the company though is that we are always one step ahead of competition.

This is a company where you'll always feel appreciated for the difference you bring. And that's why we continue to be the innovative, resilient and globally successful organisation that you see today. Turning challenges into opportunities and leading from the front may sound like typical cliché from a book on management but this is what people bring to reality at British American Tobacco Bangladesh day in day out.