Disciplined Entrepreneurship: A Gamechanger in Supporting Young Entrepreneurs of Bangladesh

Founded in 2007, Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Advice and Help Centre (B’Yeah), a not-for-profit and non-political organization, has been a pioneer in promoting youth entrepreneurship and employment in Bangladesh. Since its inception, B’Yeah has contributed to 12+ partnerships with national and international organizations to support more than 4000 Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs). We started operating with a dream to create a vibrant Bangladesh free from the curse of youth unemployment, where every youth gets the opportunity to make the most of their talents. We are continuing our operations with a missionary zeal to economically empower the Bangladeshi youth, supporting them to start and sustain their businesses, create jobs, and strengthen communities. We equip disadvantaged youth with the necessary skills, confidence, and connections through capacity building, mentoring, market linkage, and advisory services. We provide a resilient End To End (E2E) support system for youth by tackling the inequality of opportunity young entrepreneurs face to unleash innovation and drive social and economic empowerment.

We are also part of Youth Business International (YBI), a global network of almost 50 entrepreneurship support organizations from over 40 countries worldwide. Members are connected and supported by a dedicated network team based in London, United Kingdom. Being a part of this vast YBI network, we are uniquely positioned to bring in tried and tested solutions from around the globe and localize them as per community needs. We have more than a decade of experience working with the youth segment, especially women, in Bangladesh through our diverse initiatives.

While working with early-stage enterprises, we have encountered several factors hindering the growth of early-stage enterprises and deterring youth to dive into entrepreneurship. Addressing these issues head-on afforded us to go deeper into the challenge and develop effective programs. From the beginning, we have designed interventions that take into consideration the nature and nuances of the challenges young entrepreneurs face and have developed a structured approach to its work of empowering young entrepreneurs. The concept of disciplined entrepreneurship was especially helpful in taking a methodical approach to entrepreneurs’ support design. At first, we started with debunking the widespread myths-

• Entrepreneurs are born, not made
• Entrepreneurs love risk
• Entrepreneurs are undisciplined

Many entrepreneurs we have come across used to believe the myths rigorously, and they took a path leading them to abject failure. To counter the problem, we started guiding the entrepreneurs through the framework laid out in the book Disciplined Entrepreneurship (DE) authored by Bill Aulet in our recent incubation program. As we progressed, entrepreneurs could comprehend that while the spirit of entrepreneurship is often about serendipity, the execution is not. The step-by-step process was invaluable for them. To our surprise, the effort to contextualize the structure and wisdom put forth by the DE yielded tremendous results. DE gave us a common language to discuss critical aspects of venture creation. During detailing the processes, the uncompromising focus on whether a customer would benefit from the product/service has helped our entrepreneurs to declutter and stick to their true north. This increased their likelihood of success and gave them a comprehensive framework to infuse innovation in a structured manner into their venture. Through this integrated toolbox, B’Yeah, as an ESO, was able to substantiate the necessity of dealing with problems through a systematic framework and letting go of the long-held belief: that entrepreneurship is merely chaotic and unpredictable and should not be disciplined.

As part of our ongoing effort to innovate the support system for young entrepreneurs, we recently completed a five-month-long competition followed by an incubation program- Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Competition and Incubation 1.0 – to harness the power of youth entrepreneurship to tackle the most pressing challenges we face in our communities and showcase the youth’s innovative entrepreneurial solutions. Our objective was to give voice to the underrepresented young entrepreneurs and help them make profit with purpose, and create an inclusive community sharing its knowledge and connections with each other. We were very humbled by the support we got, especially from our global network partner Youth Business International (YBI). Our final ceremony was graced by prominent personalities from home & abroad, such as Ms. Marta Krupinska, Head of Google for Startups UK & Chair, Youth Business International (YBI), Mr. Gunjan Bahadur Dallakoti, SME Development Specialist, International Labor Organization (ILO), Mr. M M Zimran Khan, Head of Exploration, UNDP Accelerator Lab, Bangladesh, and Ms. Vandana Verma, Program Manager, IKEA Foundation. Through this initiative, we got connected to more than 2500 youth from all over Bangladesh.

Still, there is a LONG way to go. Bangladesh is a country with enormous economic potential as it is blessed with a youth group accounting for more than 33% of its total population. A study by ILO found that 40 percent of young people are in the Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) population. NEET coupled with the lack of marketable skills among the youth, significantly deter the potential economic growth. Youth entrepreneurship is proven to be an effective solution to the challenges of youth unemployment and underemployment. In addition, the education level of the employed labor force is significantly low. About one-fifth of the labor force has no education; only 37% have secondary education. Furthermore, Bangladesh is positioned at the bottom low in terms of innovation. As of the Global Innovation Index 2019, Bangladesh ranked 116th out of 129 countries. The lack of innovation in the small business sector, mainly at the grassroots level, is deeply concerning as it hinders growth potential. This is partly because it is convenient to imitate and lacks an understanding of what innovation means. Most young entrepreneurs consider it to be something in the line of a very sophisticated, unattainable product. They do not think along the lines of a new market segment, value-added services, or find a new way to an old business model. Although the government has made significant investments in Digital Bangladesh to facilitate businesses, we are yet to take significant steps to narrow the digital divide and use technology to spur innovation and growth. This means we have more challenges to tackle. The most crucial ingredient to have the desired impact is to strengthen the local and global community support and help each other. Bangladesh is at a crossroads where it must fully utilize the SGB sector, the Digital Era, and, most importantly, the youth to maintain its consistent economic growth in the future.

Our world today faces a long list of complex and multidimensional challenges. These challenges demand a comprehensive response. Entrepreneurship where people take the initiative to make a difference can be an antifragile response to these pressing challenges our society faces today. The current state of affairs worldwide demands collaboration for a better future, particularly for the coming generations.