Latifur dreams of Transcom emerging as MNC

Latifur Rahman, Chairman and Managing Director of Transcom Group, would like Transcom Group to emerge as a Bangladeshi multinational in the next ten years.
"Ten years down the line I would like to see Transcom emerges as Bangladeshi multinational," he said responding to a question where he would like to see Transcom in next 10 years of the EBL Leadership Lecture Series at Westin on Tuesday.
Latifur Rahman began by narrating events of his life that shaped him most and made him look at life from the right perspective. He said when immediately after the independence, privately-owned industries were nationalised one of them was W Rahman Jute Mills, the major sources of bread and butter for the Rahman family.
From a life of comfort, the family fell into hardship. His father Mujibur Rahman, the head of the family was not well, his daughter was studying at the university whose expenses had to be met.
He himself, who was only a few years ago was driving his own Fiat 500, had to worry about the family's day to day expenses. Sometimes they didn't have even Taka 100/200 at home, he said.
Latifur Rahman was no stranger to business - his family has been dealing in tea since 1885. So, when things fell apart and the going got tough, he never lost hope.
He said, 'What gets me going was my self belief. You have to believe in yourself. This is not overconfidence, nor arrogance, but some kind of faith in yourself that you can do it. In other words, you have to remain positive while in crisis.'    
In the eighties, Rahman became the sole importer and distributor of Nestlé products. There was no turning back after that.
In the nineties he bought, Smith, Kline and French, a US-based pharmaceuticals had just merged into Beecham, a British company and renamed it Eskayef, becoming the first Bangladeshi company to buy off a multinational. But in the first year, business was not good.
The entire sales of Eskayef were Tk 1.30 crore and the loss was Tk 1.29 crore. For every lakh sold, there was an equal amount of loss.
He kept the management as it was, and didn't change the management practices that Smith, Kline and French used to follow.
Describing his management philosophy, Latifur Rahman said, "Respect to colleagues and co-workers is crucially important. And trust is the backbone of good management. Either you trust your colleague or not. There can not be anything called half trust."
Eskayef did not break even in the next five years. But slowly but surely his policy bore its fruit.
Latifur Rahman concluded by saying, "We are running a successful group only with local professionals. I firmly believe our professional are at par with best international professionals."