Ashraf Bin Taj is the Co-founder and Managing Director of International Distribution Company Bangladesh PLC. He is also the General Secretary of Asia Marketing Federation (AMF) and is currently one of the Board Members and the Immediate Past President of Marketing Society of Bangladesh (MSB). He is an avid marketer who has been practicing marketing for three decades while also earning his MBA in 1994 from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka. He started his professional career in marketing. In the next 19 years, he worked for renowned multinational companies like Berger Paint, Nestle and for one of the largest nationwide conglomerates, ACI Limited.
In the middle of 2013, Ashraf along with a couple of his friends co-founded International Distribution Company Bangladesh (Pvt) Ltd. along and started his journey as a business person. The company is a distribution partner to renowned global companies and brands like Ferrero, Nivea, Kellogg’s, Pringles, Unilever International, Johnson’s, Mondelez, Conagra Foods, Blue Diamond Almonds, Thai President Food, Philip Morris, Amul etc.
He sits on the board of a number of companies in the field of FMCG, Fintech and Technology. He is an Advisor to the Bangladesh Brand Forum, Council Member of Superbrands Bangladesh, Member of the National Executive Committee of Marketers Institute of Bangladesh (MIB), Co-Convener of Bangladesh Marketing Day and Fellow of Institute of Marketing Malaysia (IMM).
CEO Review recently had a long conversation with this veteran business persona where he shared his experience, challenges and process of running a business as a successful leader.
CEO Review: How would you describe your leadership style, and how has it evolved over the years?
Ashraf Bin Taj: I classify my leadership style as a mixture of democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire. It is a mixture of many attributes but it mostly depends on the situation. I believe in situational leadership. During crises, I tend to be more centralised and autocratic for the good of the organisation. In stable times, I practice more delegation and empowerment, helping people grow into new leaders. I believe that I can’t be a good leader if I don’t create a system that allows new leaders to emerge. My philosophy is to help young people take decisions, make mistakes, learn, and grow. However, there are times when central control is necessary to face challenges effectively. I also draw a lot of values from sports, such as teamwork, celebrating successes, and learning from failures, which are crucial in professional and business leadership.
How have your people skills, developed through extracurricular activities in your student life, contributed to your success as a leader?
My extracurricular activities greatly contributed to my success as a leader. Despite my bulky frame, I was quite involved in sports during school days. I had appreciation for playing football, cricket, and badminton, while also participating in cultural programs and scouting. These exertions developed my maturity, taught me to accept and learn from defeat while also fostering a sense of teamwork and community. These experiences helped me socialise with people, an essential skill in sales and marketing. Extracurricular activities taught me to drive business results through people, talk their language, and create a cohesive team environment.
What motivated you to transition from working with leading corporations to founding your own company, IDC, in 2013?
My initial years with multinationals like Berger and Nestle taught me a lot about process, discipline, and professionalism. However, I often felt limited in terms of creative freedom. Working at ACI later gave me more empowerment and allowed me to feel like an entrepreneur. During my time at ACI, I managed various business units and sensed the entrepreneurial spirit within me. The opportunity to start my own company came when my wife moved for an overseas stint with UNICEF, when Ferrero decided to look for a new partner in Bangladesh. That is when my partner and chairman of the company, Mr. Bashir Ahmed, offered me access to the capital and banking facilities that was direly needed to pursue my entrepreneurship desires. Supported by my family, I decided to take the plunge. The start of IDC was driven by the desire to create something new and impactful in Bangladesh, leveraging the freedom and creativity that came with entrepreneurship. Through hard work, teamwork, resilience and patience, we have built IDC into the successful company it is today.
IDC has grown significantly in a short period of time. What are the key factors that contributed to this astounding growth?
I think the key ingredient is people—passionate people who want to make a mark in Bangladesh. Our journey began with global brands, and as of right now, our goal is to guarantee Bangladeshi customers reap the benefits that come with international brands. Additionally, we help international brands realise their full potential with Bangladeshi trade and consumers. However, some of these brands already existed in the market. What is different now? I think there is a very passionate group of people who have made these brands very successful in the last 10 years which is a very key component. Secondly, my background of working in professional companies like Nestle, Berger & ACI helped me design suitable and effective processes. Therefore, putting passionate people in the right business process was essential towards IDC’s success.
Thirdly, I would say our high inclination towards IT. Overall, IT bias is very high in IDC, which is not very prevalent among regular FMCG distributors. It is not only about somebody giving you a system, it is about capturing the data and how you do well with it. I think these are some of the core components which have made IDC manage and continue its growth.
Many distribution houses operate with a common team and a generalised market coverage approach regardless of product categories. When we started the company, we had a very professional approach. We segregated channels and created channel-specific expertise within the company. Since every employee has their own competencies, we identified the components required for running each channel and placed the right people with the correct skill-set to get maximum output through every channel. However, we did not run our businesses through a common team. One is the channel-specific focus; the other is also brand-specific expertise. As result, the company does not work with a one-size-fits-all kind of approach.
How do you choose and manage your partnerships with international brands, and what makes these relationships successful?
It’s not about me or IDC choosing the partners, it’s more about how both partners have to choose each other. It’s like a marriage and not a one-way decision. Of course, when someone owns a brand, they have the upper hand, and we have to go and pitch our own ideas and philosophies. However, when pitching, we also look at a certain criterion.
We don’t go after all the brands. From our experience, we try to understand which international brands have potential in this country? What is the size of the potential? Which are the brands that can have a mass or niche appeal but still have a good niche? Which are the brands that can have cross-cutting demand across the channels? Which are the brands that can have only some channel-specific demand? Do our consumers know about the brand? If it is totally unknown, the journey is way too tough. If the brand has some kind of awareness and people recognise it but they do have availability issues. That’s when we come in between to bridge that gap. Therefore, we look at small gaps. If it is absolutely a new category, we take a risk for the brand as a distribution company. Then we ask them, ‘What is the marketing plan that you have? We will take the risk of distribution, channel management, and customer management but what is your stake in terms of building the brand in our country? How are you doing category development and creating brand awareness? Do we have a joint business plan? Then, as a principal and a distributor, we can own the business, build vision and the ambition. When we have these common alignments, only then do we sign up for new brands.
As a company, we create a system in our organisation where the brand owner feels our firm is an extension of their company. As the CEO, owner, and co-founder of IDC, we have our own philosophies and values. When we work for any brand, we make sure people who are interacting with them are fully aware of the principles of that company and is reflected through our works. We make sure that the company gets to see all this implemented.
We offer customisation suiting to the needs of the principal companies. We make sure, for example, that if we are reporting for Kellog’s, we make sure when Kellogg’s sees our work, they say and feel that IDC is an extension of their own department and their own team.
Also, our employees live the company and the brand. When my people are working for Ferrero, they will chase what Ferrero is pursuing within their company, so the person sitting on the other side does not have to rework all the information, data, reports, etc. This is how we make sure our differentiation is felt by the principals. The other thing is that we are ambitious. When they have ambitious targets for Bangladesh, we also own that.
How do you cultivate and maintain a culture of integrity and transparency at IDC?
I have to ensure a system and a culture where talent, loyalty, truthfulness and performance are properly evaluated and valued. Employees get a fair chance to show their work and get rewarded fairly. We may not be the best paymaster in the country, but we try our best to ensure this workplace is full of happiness. Of course, financial compensation is an important factor, but the environment is more important to me. The fairness of the evaluation of people and career progression opportunities are even more important. We have a very interesting variable pay structure for people to do well in their different roles. So, I think all that helps, but the most important thing is the leaders. They have to walk the talk. Unless that happens, a culture of integrity and transparency does not happen.
How is IDC adapting to the changes brought by the 4th industrial revolution, and what steps have you taken to improve digital literacy within the company?
From the beginning, I had been talking about high bias towards IT. Of course, we didn’t have full automation when we started the company, but we knew from the beginning that it was going to be a game changer. We have spent a significant amount of money and time to train our people who do not have the required IT knowledge to have the minimum knowledge and skills to run IT tools and read data. Although we are a distribution company, we have a large IT team to help our people read data and transform digitally. We also have data scientists, BI specialists, and programmers in our company.
Most of our processes are now automated. Nevertheless, there are a few left, but all major processes are automated. We have a strong ERP system, and our entire field force is digitalised. It’s not only about tracking; it is about how we do it. We have mapped all the outlets that we cover in Bangladesh, fully geo-fenced, and geo-tagged. We know exactly where our people are going, how we are doing, and in which outlets certain products are not performing or certain products are doing way better.
We organise training within our company with internal and external resources. Additionally, in different departments where certain shortcomings are present, we put in people with the required skill set so that they can empower the entire department. That is our effort towards adapting to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, you may say.
For Salesforce automation, we organise training for more than 1,500 people in our company across the divisions. Not only for us but also for distributor sales reps, in some of the businesses where the sales reps are even under distributor payroll. We also organize full training for them as well.
Can you share any significant challenges IDC faced, and how did you lead your team to adapt to change management to overcome the challenge?
During COVID-19, we took proactive steps early on. We closely monitored global developments and acted swiftly when the government recognised the severity. Despite widespread salary cuts and layoffs across the industry, we boldly decided against any job cuts or salary reductions. Additionally, while most companies withheld bonuses, we paid our employees a full bonus during both Ramadan and Qurbani Eid.
To ensure business continuity, especially during the lockdown when physical offices were closed, we rapidly transitioned to remote work. Overnight, we set up 60 remote offices, equipped employees with the necessary tools, and ensured seamless connectivity for operations, including managing our warehouses and sales channels. This preparedness was crucial, as it allowed us to adapt quickly and maintain productivity.
Furthermore, anticipating the need, we introduced comprehensive COVID-19 medical coverage for our team through our health insurance, easing concerns about healthcare expenses during such uncertain times. These measures not only helped us navigate the crisis without losing our workforce but also strengthened our team’s morale and resilience.
Our company’s youthfulness and our team’s openness to change and innovation were pivotal in overcoming these challenges, allowing us to emerge stronger despite the economic setbacks.
Reflecting on your career journey, what are the most important lessons you’ve learned as a Managing Director?
There are many lessons. First, you have to understand people. Then, you have to be the subject matter specialist to guide your team with the right suggestions and advocacy.
A fair understanding of finance is very important. Even if you’re not an excellent finance manager, you have to have a fair understanding of finance. Otherwise, managing resources is not possible. You have to be in tune with the IT revolution. If you’re leading a large company with, say, 2,000–3,000 people, and they see that their leader is IT ignorant, they are going to take advantage. However, if they see that the leader is very data-savvy and has a high IT fascination, it also helps the entire company become that much more efficient.
Balancing life is very important. It’s not only work, work, work. You have to create an environment where people can enjoy their lives. You have to treat your employees as complete humans. You have to strike the right balance.
Talent management is very important. Getting the right kind of people is crucial. If you’re designing the structure, and the organogram, you have to understand, as a Managing Director or as a leader, what competencies are required for which position. Once you have mapped the competencies, you have to be able to unbiasedly get the right person for that fit.
Above all, the ability to create a culture where people are free to express their ideas, can experiment, feel cared and develop belongingness would allow a leader to achieve objectives beyond business
What advice would you give to aspiring CEOs who wish to build a successful business in the current market landscape?
First, try to understand what you are good at. Know your strengths, core competencies, and expertise. With good people skills and emotional intelligence you are able to lead a group of people. In Bangladesh, we have aspiring youth bubbling with ideas and energy. You need to stay young to be able to guide and lead them by making the right connections.
Don’t get burdened with experience or age. A CEO may be a very good IT person or a very good finance person, but he has to be a consumer person and always be contemporary. Understand what is happening around you and what the trends are.
These are some of the things that you have to grasp as a CEO to be successful. Also, understand where you are going to rule. What is your battlefield? You have to make your presence felt if you want to create something. Balance your life and take care of your health.
For CEOs, your role or your life cannot always guarantee success. There will be failures. I had many failures. It is your ability to quickly learn from failure and how fast you can return stronger. You need to be experimental and allow people to come up with innovative ideas. You also need to let young people make mistakes and learn from them. If you do not possess these characteristics, you are not CEO material. ■