How Far is Bengal from ‘Business’ – a modern reflection

I am a member of RMBF – Rotary Means Business Fellowship, and the tagline there is “Your Network is Your Net Worth”. I love it! Well to think about it, it is an universal truth. We often talk about success stories of people we know or follow. But if you dig deeper, most often you are likely to find a connection between the person in focus and another very influential person or well connected person.

I wasn’t a very social person. To some extent I still am a subtly introvert soul. But wait, I know if you are reading this and if you follow me on Instagram, you won’t agree with me. This is true though. Social gatherings have mostly haunted me for a very long time and I have challenged myself every time to be ‘out there’.

My first ever business conference was an international one in Singapore where I represented my company Jackson Records in 2019 & floated the idea behind Incfrog in SG. I understood the value of meeting new people, networking, building relationships – not for a commercial agenda but to learn, adapt and evolve. Growth follows.

So coming back to the main topic – yesterday (June 2, 2024) I attended Bengal Business Council’s Annual Conference at the Biswa Bangla Convention Center. It was full of enthusiasm. I realised there are indeed several Bengali entrepreneurs, a community who are pretty much ‘not present’ in the startup scene in India. Well I am not saying that, the rest of the world does. Being a Bengali myself I understand where people come from when they stereotype us for not being very active in the entrepreneurial community. The main reason is – we are not visible. Kudos to BBC (Bengal Business Council) for organising such an event. But all that glitters is not gold.

I have been to many conferences/ trade shows/ seminars, both domestic and international. One thing that was really disappointing was the lack of enthusiasm to network. Yes, I said it. As I wrote earlier, I could see the enthusiasm but not to network and meet new people, it was more of hanging out with people you already know. It looked like a get-together of friends most of whom were not really giving out signals to make new connections. I walked up to a few people who looked like having an open dialogue, but when I stopped by, they seemed creeped out. I walked away. And this happened thrice.

I spoke to one of my fellow RMBian who also happens to be a member of BBC, and he agreed to the same. Later on, while in queue for the lunch (which was also another disappointing story I shall keep for later), the man standing behind recognised me from my lecture at the Eastern India Regional Council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Apparently he is a CA himself and enjoyed my lecture on Cyber Security back in 2020. I felt accomplished for a moment because this guy actually remembered me from 4 years back. He must have really liked my lecture. Anyway, so there while having a conversation, another CA joined in and eventually I learned what one of the members of BBC had commented about the status of current members in the organisation.
It apparently meant, there’s severe bias within a certain core group of members who get to take most of the decisions and get exposure while others are just ‘member’ spectators. While I understand this happens almost everywhere but I sensed this the moment I stepped into the conference. But not all was bad – like the ice cream and the mango drink. Oh, I also got two leads for my business. I am yet to meet up with them.

A great venue, a good initiative, many startups and a big organisation – then what’s stopping West Bengal from regaining it’s status of the business & trade capital of the country? Well, for starters – lack of maintenance, bad management, lack of expertise & skills and the will to go out there and take risks. Yes, let me break it down – along with some other visitors I kept driving around the campus in search of the parking because there are hardly any understandable road markers. The entire event was indoors with air conditioners not working. The main auditorium witnessed people blowing themselves with hand fans / papers because it was hot! In the food banquet, people were sweating and the food even wasn’t that great. I stood in the queue for around 40 minutes to get to the buffet table. Some doors to the lobby that leads to washrooms were closed (for no apparent reason). And finally to take an exit to the parking lot, I actually had to ask twice, because again there were no markers that were clear. And I stated earlier – the people who attended didn’t even seem like open to learning or networking. Even one the guest speakers had to answer questions during the QA about the political crisis in Bengal – beat that; nothing on investment, nothing on scaling up; just regular BS on how great Bengali tradesmen were and how rich our culture is. God dammit! Say something new. It felt like, we are living inside a bubble and everyone’s happy; some same old brands, people’s enthusiasm about (Dada) Saurav Ganguly’s speech – seriously?? He must be a good speaker, but why in a business conclave? I would rather watch some reels by business content creators or read an article on Linkedin.

I heard Dr. Purnendu said, “why did I attend this? How is this going to help me?” . I asked the same question to myself. Anyway I left early and I drove back with only one takeaway – “Rs. 650 spent, two genuine leads received. Cost per lead = Rs. 325!” Also, I did take the ‘photo op’ to get clicked with my fellow RMBians – Manab da, Sudipto da, Sonali di, Subrata da, Purnendu da, Srinjoy & Arghya.

It is indeed a very long road for Bengal’s modern business scene to evolve. We as Bengalis must learn to adapt, take risks, skill up, invest, innovate (with all the fishy brains we have) and execute like our forefathers – those who really made a difference.