"Don't impose any barrier on yourself! You people are capable of unimaginable things. Just start imagining them," said Ishmam Chowdhury, a member of the winning team. With great capability and faith in their imaginations, Team Boom Boom won the Unilever BizMaestros, representing the Institute of Business Administration, Dhaka University back in October 2015 and recently has become the champions of Future Leaders' League 2016 as Team Bangladesh in the global competition organised by Unilever.
The national round, called Unilever BizMaestros, is a platform where Unilever reaches out to final year students of top-tier universities.  Over a month they conducted many campus sessions to identify potential talents. The team with best business idea and simplest solution is selected.  In 2015, 12 teams from 11 campuses were selected to battle out in the semi-final and of this, the judges, brand managers and regional sales managers select the top team for final round. This year the team worked on Lifebouy and Lux and in the final round the team presented their ground breaking idea to the leadership team of Unilever Bangladesh.
Sajeed Alam, Ishmam Ahmed Chowdhury and Ayman Sadiq who recently graduated from Institute of Business Administration, Dhaka University proudly represented the nation and won the championship at Unilever Future Leaders' League 2016 beating 87 participants from 30 countries and 1,153 universities of the world. It was held in London, UK in April 2016. The team will also represent Bangladeshi youth in global youth summit 'One young world' to be held in Ottowa, Canada in September 2016.
As Sajeed Alam puts it: "We represent a generation booming with potential and blessed with opportunities. So we make the most of it. Life will keep on testing you, but always try to deliver your best in whatever you do and in a responsible manner. I usually draw inspiration from this quote by Maya Angelou: 'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.' So if you are to make a difference, act with humility and deliver with passion."
The champions being a group of gents stood up with the brand Sunsilk that was assigned to them in two folded rounds with the final round focusing on a plan to increase the usage of conditioners in the developing markets that Unilever caters to. They astonished the crowd with the calculation of the time used by any girl to untangle her hair. According to the team, "If a girl spends 5 minutes a day untangling her hair and she lives for 65 years, then she would have spent 82 days of her life untangling her hair. That is an astonishing number and Sunsilk would make sure she doesn't spend 82 days doing this. The idea was therefore simple - Untangle your hair, Untangle your life."
The team members mentioned breathtaking feeling they went through while crossing each of the steps towards championship, and the bonding they made with other teams during their journey. Ayman Sadiq mentioned about the culture shared within the Unilever organisation that stresses on doubling growth while reducing environmental degradation.
The team was grateful to its mentors at Unilever Bangladesh - Shadman Sadikin, Product Group Manager - Hair Care, Mahdia Chowdhury- Management Trainee, Brands and Ipshita Fahmin, Leadership Development Manager.  
When asked about the skills that the team had to focus on to win the championship, Leadership Development Manager Ipshita Fahmin mentioned: "Our objective is always to create the future leaders. Unilever believes that our future is in the hands of these young minds and it is only through helping them how we can ensure a better future. The entire journey of Unilever BizMaestros and Unilever Future Leaders' League is about opening horizons and challenging one's true capability. We tend to create the platform for the youths to excel. And for so, a holistic approach to skills is what is important. For the competition, we always look for talent who have the complete mix of all leadership skills. It begins with the ability to foresee what ordinary people can't see ".
This team representing the power of the youth of Bangladesh stressed on how failure at any step should not stop the youth of this nation to move further and participate in events portraying their talent on a global scale. Despite their own failures in their initial attempts, they bounced back to win this championship.
The writer is a final year student of Mathematics and Natural Science at BRAC University, sanjida.a.tanny@gmail.com [Read More]

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Source: The Financial Express