Head Honcho

Today we went to a bookstore. I didn't bring any books with me and I figure, at a lot of points throughout this trip I'll probably have a good amount of downtime. The bookstore was just about what you'd expect. Not a huge selection, but enough to get the job done. There was a mix of genres: classic literature, modern novels, guide books, children's books, textbooks, and others. Interestingly, the English section was slightly larger than the Bangla section. I bought the first book of the Game of Thrones series. I've seen all of the episodes to date and I've heard the books are even better.

We spent the rest of the day at MRA's office. I've never met MRA before but I was excited to finally do so. I knew he was the boss of a big company here, but it didn't quite realize what that meant until today. We arrived at the corporate headquarters and were escorted to the lobby. A few minutes later, MRA appeared and gave us a very warm greeting. After a minute, I moved into a conference room that MRA said I could use as my office for the day. From the looks of it, this was probably one of the board-room type rooms that he uses to meet with his other executives. Every so often he would come personally to check on me and make sure that I had everything I needed. I picture this as the Bangladeshi equivalent of going to visit Amazon and having Jeff Bezos come in to make sure your internet is working and that there's not too much noise in the room he's given you.

About an hour later, lunch was ordered for us and MRA, my dad, and I ate in that same room. Throughout lunch we were interrupted by staff that needed to talk to him. It is very clear that MRA is the man in charge here. When I took Improv in college, we learned about different cues you use to demonstrate your status relative to someone else and here was a textbook example of status cues in action. MRA was a very impressive man, though what impressed me the most was when he was telling my father that he wants to start a foundation to give his money away to those who need it. It wasn't appropriate at the time for me to ask a lot of questions, but I hope I have another chance to sit down with him because I'd love to know more about what he's planning.

After lunch we met another few executives in MRA's company. At first glance, these were all your typical well-educated people, but after a few minutes with them you realize these are all people with incredibly impressive backgrounds - former heads of some of the country's major sectors. We met the man who used to run telecom in Bangladesh as well as a former high-ranking military officer.

Before heading out, MRA had tea with us. He sent one of his staff to go get tea from the street, which was apparently sort of far away, but the best tea you could get locally. For me, he gave me a special tea that he brought from Sri Lanka, which my dad says is supposed to be the best tea in the world. The reason my tea was different is that MRA thought I might get sick because of the water they used in the street tea, which was very thoughtful of him.

After tea, my dad and I went on a tour of some of the local businesses owned by MRA's conglomerate. I hadn't noticed it before, but all throughout the city was MRA's company logo; construction sites, furniture stores, and gas stations were just a few of the places we were taken.

The span MRA's selection of industries and reminds me of something like a venture portfolio. There is so much opportunity for development in Bangladesh that it seems he's taking the shotgun approach of trying a whole bunch of different things and seeing which ones are runaway successes. In listening to MRA talk, it's clear that he's very much a visionary in this country. Everything, everything is an opportunity and it's inspiring to see that. As I gain more experience in business, I'd like to be able to see things more like he does.