Mobile money transfer

Mobile money transfer is a revolutionary step, introduced by the mobile remittance service providers in the country .It has given the opportunity for millions of migrant workers to transfer their hard-earning money effortlessly, efficiently and promptly. Even a few days ago, money transfer agencies were very rare in the rural areas and it was also very tough to use bank or agencies. Most of the time, the sender had to rely on the fellow workers, traveling home. Banks or agencies take 4/5 days or sometimes more. The introduction of mobile remittance service has brought that down to a few minutes.

Bargaining power of suppliers

If the telecom operators had to design the products on the whims of the suppliers because their output is unique, then the suppliers would enjoy absolute advantage in terms of bargaining power. But here this is not the case. Again, since the number of the suppliers is very limited say NOKIA & Ericsson and a handful number of network administrators, they (the suppliers) have this power to leverage on this, because this is limiting the choice of the operators and making the switching cost very high for them.

Threat of new entrants or barriers to entry

Barriers to entry, identified as one of the five forces, presents five structural determinants that affect a company’s ability to enter new markets; economies of scale, product differentiation, government as with telecom licences for example, favourable access to the distribution channels and capital requirements (Whittington and Melin, 2005). The government policies and regulations could also impose a significant barrier to entry in the telecom industry. For example, this industry is getting more concerned about the customers’ convenience, setting competitive price structure, invest in corporate social responsibilities which could be difficult to maintain by a new company.

Marketing Perspectives 4 Ps

The marketing mix of the industry can be broken down into the "4 Ps" of marketing. These are the parameters that the marketing manager can control, subject o the internal and external constraints of the marketing environment in order to make decisions focusing on the customers in the target market in order to create perceived value and generate positive response.

Competitive rivalry within the industry

There is a very intense competition among the players in the telecom market of Bangladesh which characterized the rivalry within the industry is very high. Some of the major competitors are; Grameen Phone, Bangla link, Airtel, Robi, Citycell, Tele talk are all engage in continuous competition in terms of providing attractive offers. According to the Porter’s five forces model, the competition in an industry will continually drive down the rate of return generating negative influences on the profitability of firms in the entire industry. As noted by (Johnson, et al. 2005), Porter’s fifth force, competitive rivalry, is also an element addressed by the strategic group analysis where it considers competitive rivalry and how this forces both impact and it is impacted by other four forces.

Bargaining power of customers

Buyers in Porter’s five forces model tend to compete with the industry by forcing down prices and bargaining for higher quality products and services at lower prices (Grant, 2005). In our country the customers have absolute bargaining power. Because there are a number of operators in the market, the cost for switching loyalty is very low. Customers may want to switch from one operator to another for a better deal. Nothing can restrict this trend. In fact what we see is that every customer nowadays uses more than one mobile phone or at least owns more than one connection, and use them interchangeably.

Challenges of Climate change of Bangladesh

The climate of Bangladesh is influenced by monsoon climate and characterized by high temperature, heavy rainfall, often-excessive humidity and marked seasonal variations. Although more than half the area is north of the Tropics, the effect of the Himalayan mountain chain is such as to make the climate more or less tropical throughout the year. The climate is controlled primarily by summer and winter winds, and partly by pre-monsoon (March to May) and post-monsoon (late October to November) circulation. The Southwest Monsoon originates over the Indian Ocean, and carries warm, moist and unstable air. The easterly Trade Winds are also warm, but relatively drier. The Northeast Monsoon comes from the Siberian Desert, retaining most of its pristine cold, and blows over the country, usually in gusts, during dry winter months.

Natural disaster Earthquake of Bangladesh

Bangladesh and the northeastern Indian states have long been one of the seismically active regions of the world, and have experienced numerous large earthquakes during the past 200 years. The record of approximately 150 years shows that Bangladesh and the surrounding regions experienced seven major earthquakes. The Great Indian earthquake in 1897 and the Srimongal Earthquake in 1918 were the most destructive. In the recent past, a number of tremors of moderate intensity had already taken place in and around Bangladesh. Dhaka city has been suffering from mild tremors in recent times.

natural disaster River bank erosion of Bangladesh

Rivers in Bangladesh are morphologically highly dynamic. Erosion processes are highly unpredictable, and not compensated by accretion. These processes also have dramatic consequences in the lives of people living in the erosion prone areas. Around 10,000 hectares land is eroded by river per year in Bangladesh affecting about 1 million people on a yearly basis. Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Bogra, Sirajganj, Tangail, Pabna and Manikganj districts lie in the erosion prone area along Jamuna River. Erosion of total area and settlement is higher along the left bank than that of the right bank. Along Padma River, there are the districts of Rajbari, Faridpur, Manikganj, Dhaka, Munshiganj and Shariatpur. Chandpur on Lower Meghna is also seriously erosion prone.

Natural disaster Drought of Bangladesh

Bangladesh experiences major droughts once in 5 years. Droughts at local scale are much more frequent and affect part of the crop life cycle. The western part of the country is vulnerable to drought during pre-monsoon period. During the last 50 years, Bangladesh suffered about 20 drought conditions. The drought condition in north-western Bangladesh in recent decades had led to a shortfall of rice production of 3.5 million tonnes in the 1990s. If other losses, such as, to other crops (all rabi crops, sugarcane, tobacco, wheat, etc) as well as to perennial agricultural resources, such as, bamboo, betel nut, fruits like litchi, mango, jackfruit, banana etc. are considered, the loss will be substantially much higher.