Essay Bangladesh Business Case Study – Report Writing – Business Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

INTRODUCTION 

Liaquat Ali was just beginning his day in his small office in the Uttara section of Dhaka when a sudden downpour distracted him from what he was working on. He found his thoughts wandering to the challenges confronting Pabna Meat, his vision of a successful organic meat processing company. The idea of creating Pabna Meat had developed during his four-year stint as a director of Bengal Meat, the largest meat processing company in Bangladesh. He wanted to create a company that did more than simply slaughter and sell meat. He envisioned an entirely vertically integrated business producing quality organic meat for the end consumer. But there was a major hurdle to turning this vision into a reality. Inadequate supply of cattle raised on organic food prevented him from increasing the size of his operation and thus reaching the economies of scale needed to make his business profitable. In order for Pabna Meat to be successful, this challenge had to be overcome. 

PABNA MEAT 

Admittedly, organic meat is a relatively new phenomenon in Bangladesh. Nonetheless, many people are becoming more conscious of the adverse effects of consuming meat from cattle raised on artificially- grown food and growth-hormone injections. Ali, who was a professor and animal scientist of Sylhet Agricultural University prior to his joining Bengal Meat, knew about the negative effects of bovine growth hormones on human health better than most. 

As a result, with an aim to supplying quality meat to this growing group of customers interested in organic products, Pabna Meat started its journey in 2008, headquartered in a small office in the capital’s Uttara area. The company began by processing the meat of five cows per day, but with such a small number, the company was incurring losses. According to financial analysis, Ali would need to process the meat of at least 25 cows per day to be profitable. In order to overcome this obstacle, Ali began to search for a supply chain model that would allow him to turn his business from a losing concern into a profitable venture. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIC 

Cattle farming for beef production has always been an integral part of the country’s rural economy. More recently, fattening cattle has become an emerging sector of employment for the rural poor, especially women.1 However, lack of awareness in proper cattle rearing techniques has proven to be a major hindrance to supplying healthy, organic meat. Nonetheless, with proper training, cattle fattening for beef production still held considerable potential. 

Farmers fattened their cattle in several ways. Traditionally, straw, obtained from dried paddy, is a major portion of a cow’s diet in Bangladesh; however, straw is not the best food for cattle, as it is low in nutritional value and hard to digest. To increase the nutritional value and fatten cows, many farmers developed the practice of treating the straw with urea, molasses, and, in some cases, chemical-based 

COLLABORATION IN SEARCH OF A STRONG SUPPLY CHAIN 

Ali envisioned a business model whereby rural women would raise cattle on organic feed and sell the fattened cattle to Pabna Meat as a source of income. It was a potential win-win scenario: he would obtain the cattle that he needed, and the women would improve their standard of living. But such a model confronted several obstacles. For example, low income, rural women didn’t have the money to purchase and rear cattle, and they lacked adequate training in how to do so. Ali’s solution was to seek out collaborators that could help. What emerged was a four way collaboration between Pabna Meat, the Business Innovation Facility (BIF), a group promoting inclusive businesses, Practical Action Bangladesh, a national NGO working with rural women, and Bangladesh Association for Social Advancement (BASA), a listed microfinance institution in Bangladesh. 

The idea was simple, and it built upon the individual strengths of each partner. Practical Action had experience working on economic empowerment of rural women. It would use its experience and knowledge of local communities to help identify the women to participate in the project and facilitate trainings for them in cattle rearing. BASA, as a microfinance institution, would provide loans to the women to purchase the cattle. Pabna Meat would provide the technical trainings and purchase the cattle, and BIF, an inclusive business consultancy would help oversee the whole process and provide management and advisory services. The collaboration is summed up in Figure 1, and the following section introduces each of Ali’s new business partners. 

Business Innovation Facility (BIF): 

The Business Innovation Facility (BIF) is a United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) funded initiative internationally managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in alliance with the International Business Leaders’ Forum (IBLF), Development Partners. In Bangladesh it is implemented by Renaissance Consultants Limited (RCL). BIF has supported companies to develop or scale-up innovative ‘inclusive business’ models. The Facility aimed to increase business initiatives that are both profitable and have a positive impact on development outcomes. 

The BIF team met Ali at a workshop and learned of his interest in forming an organic beef supply chain. As BIF supported companies to develop inclusive business practices and partnerships, Pabna Meat was a good match, and BIF agreed to provide Ali with technical support. 

Practical Action Bangladesh 

Practical Action Bangladesh is an international development organization that had been working in Bangladesh since 1992 with the aim of economically empowering the poor. Among other activities, it works to link beneficiaries with market opportunities and provides technical advice and training to budding entrepreneurs. NGOs like Practical Action Bangladesh had experience working with women on poultry or cattle rearing, but their projects faced a problem of market linkage. Several of their past interventions had not been successful because they couldn’t guarantee rural project beneficiaries a buyer or a fair rate. Working with Pabna Meets, however, offered a means to overcome this problem. 

Ali contacted Practical Action Bangladesh to support Pabna Meat, and a contract was signed between the meat company, Practical Action’s Rural Sales & Service Centers (RSSCs), and a group of women selected by Practical Action. It was another potential win-win situation. Practical Action would mobilize and manage the women, the women would benefit financially, and Pabna Meat would get the meat that it needed. 

Bangladesh Association for Social Advancement (BASA) 

Bangladesh Association for Social Advancement (BASA) provided the last piece in the puzzle: the financing. BASA is a listed microfinance institution (MFI) in Bangladesh working in diversified fields of sustainable development. The MFI already had experience partnering with Practical Action Bangladesh and their Rural Sales & Service Centers (RSSCs) to provide micro finance at a low interest rate. As such, BASA was brought into the collaboration to provide loans to the women involved in the Pabna Meat project in order to buy the needed cattle. BASA also deployed a field staff member in the area to work along with Practical Action Bangladesh to monitor the project.