Entrepreneurs have been the unsung heroes of our society, and in this regard, the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED) of BRAC University (BRACU) intends to recognize their contribution by engendering the spirit of entrepreneurship through providing critical support to young entrepreneurs who have an exceptionally hard time to get their ideas off the ground. Not only does CED seek to provide financial support, but also to provide an environment conducive to the development of entrepreneurship.
Recently, CED-BRACU has taken an initiative to encourage entrepreneurship among the students of BRAC University for developing their potentials through a package of entrepreneurship development program titled CED Entrepreneurs Den, which is open for all registered students and alumni of BRAC University to participate.
The program is intended to simulate the real world situations where entrepreneurs have to organize and develop their business ideas through innovation workshop, boot camp, business plan development to market their visions, create a strategy for executing plans, and deal with rejections; finally, by participating to the Business Plan Competition (Round 3, 2015-16).
In accordance to this, a 3-day Boot Camp under CED Entrepreneurs Den was organized during 1-3 September 2016 with day-long sessions. The sessions of the Boot Camp included: financial modeling for business plans, human resources management and development, human resources and business initiative, effective planning skill, mock presentations, etc.
The last day of the Boot Camp consisted of mock presentations by the aspiring entrepreneurs on their business ideas/plans. A total of 10 groups submitted their presentations to the Jury Panel of the program.
A range of resource personnel from different corporate and private sector attended the boot camp as mentor, trainer and jury. The resource personnel were: Riyashad Ahmed (Assistant Professor, BBS, BRACU), Ibtesam Doha (Chief Strategy Officer, CareerCube), Sultana Jahan (CEO, MR Enterprise), Rashed Rahman (Assistant Manager, BRAC – Education), Emranul Haque (HR Professional), Protima Chakraborty (Entrepreneur in Jute sector), and M. Saifullah (Chief Strategy Officer, ACI – Agriculture Section). The coordinator of the Boot Camp was Ms Parveen S Huda (Managing Director, Renaissance Consultants Ltd), who also acted as a resource person in the sessions.
The members of the Jury Panel included: Parveen S. Huda, Afshana Choudhury (Program Manager, CED), Shamim E. Haque (Assistant Professor, BRAC Business School – BBS, and Senior Research Fellow, CED), Syed Najibullah (Senior Project Coordinator, CED), and Shakhawatul Islam (Innovation Associate, A2I, Prime Minister Office).
The Boot Camp ended with a certificate giving ceremony where students of BRACU and resource personnel were awarded with certificate of appreciation and certificate of participation.