Mustafizur.Rahman1@northsouth.

edu
North South University
Submitted On: Spring 2015

Table of Contents
1) Introduction:......................................................................................................... 2
2) Company Background:......................................................................................... 3
3) Details of Management Process:..........................................................................4
a)

Managerial Functions........................................................................................ 4
i)

Planning......................................................................................................... 4

ii)

Organizing..................................................................................................... 4

iii) Decision Making............................................................................................. 4

iv) Staffing.......................................................................................................... 5
v)

Communicating.............................................................................................. 5

vi) Leading.......................................................................................................... 5
vii)

Motivating................................................................................................... 5

viii)

Controlling:................................................................................................. 6

b) Managerial Skills............................................................................................... 6
i)

Technical Skills............................................................................................... 6

ii)

Team Building Skills....................................................................................... 7

iii) Drive Skills..................................................................................................... 9

4) Analysis:............................................................................................................. 10
a)

Functions......................................................................................................... 10

b) Skills:............................................................................................................... 10
i)

Strength:...................................................................................................... 12

5) Recommendations:............................................................................................ 13
6) Conclusion:......................................................................................................... 13

1 | Page

1)Introduction:
As we all witness in the global industrial environment, the tug of war between the big market
leaders have captured the trade zone regardless the place where they produce or sell their
tobacco. Although this ferocious environment creates a challenging path to be successful for the
British American Tobacco, the company itself protects its prestigious place over the international
public and industry leaders. British American Tobacco is London based Tobacco Company
which operates in more than 60 markets globally and produces over 670 billion cigarettes a year
which are manufactured in 46 manufacturing point in more than 40 countries as well as the
ability of serving more than 200 markets worldwide. British American Tobaccos corporate
vision- achieving leadership of the global tobacco industry through strategies are focused on
delivering growth, improving productivity, demonstrating responsibility and developing a
winning organization. These linked strategies are working well. They continue to build a
business that is sustainable and creates long term value for the shareholder.
Our objective of the report is to find out, the managerial duties and skills that are followed in the
organization. Moreover, finding out the strength and weaknesses of the company is also an
objective. For this, we have interviewed Mr NazmulHabibwho isan Area Manager of BATB. He
oversees the marketing division of Khulna region. He was a very good source for us to get the
insights of BATB that ultimately helped us to complete the report.

2 | Page

2)Company Background:
British American Tobacco Bangladesh is one of the largest multinational companies in the
country and has been operating for over 100 years. The presence of BAT Bangladesh in this part
of the world can be traced back in 1910.The company has started its journey as Imperial Tobacco
103 years ago and set up the first sales depot at Armanitola in Dhaka.
After the partition of India in 1947, Pakistan Tobacco Company was established in 1949. The
factory in Bangladesh was setup in 1949 at Fauzdarhat in Chittagong. In 1965, the second
factory of Pakistan Tobacco Company went in to production in Mohakhali, Dhaka. Thereafter it
became Bangladesh Tobacco Company Limited in 1972 immediately after Bangladesh
Independence. In 1998, the company changed its name and identity to British American Tobacco
Bangladesh (BAT Bangladesh) aligning the corporate identity with other operating companies in
the British American Tobacco Group.
BAT Bangladesh is a part of British American Tobacco plc, the worlds most important tobacco
group, with brands sold in more than 200 markets around the world. British American Tobacco
Group holds 72.91% share of it and 12.86% is owned by other shareholders. It is among the first
companies to be listed on the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges and currently ranked
amongst the top 10 companies in terms of market capitalization. British American Tobacco
Group holds 72.91% of our shares; 12.86% is owned by Investment Corporation of Bangladesh;
ShadharanBima Corporation, Bangladesh Development Bank Limited, Government of People's
Republic of Bangladesh and a further 14.23% In BAT Bangladesh, there are over 1,500 direct
employees and approximately 50,000 people working indirectly as farmers, distributors and local
suppliers.

3 | Page

BAT Bangladesh makes high quality tobacco products for the diverse preferences of consumers,
spanning the business from crop to consumer and committed to embedding the principles of
corporate social responsibility group wide.

3)Details of Management Process:

a) Managerial Functions
i) Planning
Planning is deciding in advance what to do suppose BAT decide what kind of probable activity
to do to weaken the competition in the market like .Example :consumer ended activity.
ii) Organizing
When BAT showcases a brand, they have to contact the distributors and retailers. They have to
recruit people and train them .Organizing is basically to know what step to make and how they
work together.
iii)Decision Making
After doing the resourcing organization have to deduct irrelevant things that complicating and
confusing the decision making process as well as replacing one thing from one point to another
to keep the things ticking. Decision making authority in BAT is decentralized depending on the
priority of the work.The decision making infrastructure is participatory to a very high extent. All
the plans and decisions that are made are communicated from the top level of the organization
and the decisions are made after discussing the issue with the related authority and the grass root
level. Every possible input from every relevant level of workforce is taken before getting into
any decision. if the work is region then people like territory manager have the full authority to

4 | Page

make decisions, if its national then middle manager dont have that type of authority to make
decisions rather the decision making process become centralized.
iv)Staffing
BATs stuffing process is very simple like they have to train the people to the right extent so that,
they are ready to do the proper communication with the market.
v) Communicating
Effective Communication enables Managers at BAT Bangladesh to perform the basic functions
of management like Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. Communication helps
managers to perform their jobs and responsibilities. Managers devote a great part of their time in
communication. They generally devote most of their time in communicating. They spend great
time o face to face or telephonic communication with their supervisors, subordinates, colleagues,
customers or suppliers. Managers also use Written Communication in form of letters, reports or
memos wherever oral communication is not feasible.
ALAAP (Monthly meeting for non-managerial employees):

This tool communicates news on Business performance, Strategic Initiatives and projects.
It is a focused, interactive tool targeted towards the non-management employees to create
greater understanding and retention at that level, It recounts detailed news such as Sales,
Brands, Market Share, production, Wastage levels, Quality (RQI) and important corporate
news such as Annual General Meeting, Corporate social Responsibility activities etc. The
need for this tool arose as exposure to other tools is limited at the factory floor.

5 | Page

Communication process: Alaap sessions take place on the factory floor where the line
manager makes a power point presentation to the factory workers for duration of 45
minutes. Alaap is carried out every month and each session has. The audience consists of
25 to 30 employees who report to that manager. Alaap sessions are highly interactive and
generate a lot of feedback. The content has two parts- Corporate part that contains
companywide information and Team part that contains performance feedback of that
particular team (e.g. Cell or shift or warehouse).

At the end of each session the line manager fills out a feedback form which is emailed to
Manufacturing HR and Internal Communications. This form indicates the turnout in each
session and the important queries that where left unanswered. Queries, obtains answers
from the right source and emails the answers back to the line managers. These questions are
then addressed in the immediate next Alaap meeting.
vi)Leading

Leading requires managers to motivate employees to achieve usefulness objectives and goals at
BATB. It requires the use of authority to achieve those ends as well the ability to communicate
effectively. Effective Leaders motivate and communicate with employees. They influence their
personnel to view situations from their perspectives. Leading at BATB also involves supervision
of employees and their work.
vii)

Motivating

It is a managers job to motivate employees to do their jobs well. So how do managers of BATB
do this? The answer is motivating in management, the process through which managers
6 | Page

encourage employees to be productive and effective. BATB motivates employees by encouraging

productivity to ensure that employees:

Feel that the work they do has meaning or importance

Believe that good work is rewarded

Believe that they are treated fairly.

viii) Controlling:
Managers measure achievement against established objectives and goals. They also identify
sources of deviation from successful accomplishment and to provide a corrective course of
action. Managers first establish objectives and goals, then measure achievement of them, identify
anything that is keeping the company from achieving them, and provide means of correction if
necessary. Controlling does not necessarily involve achieving only monetary goals and
adjectives. It can also relate to non-tangible goals and objectives like meeting a production quota
or reducing customer complaints by a certain amount.

b) Managerial Skills
i) Technical Skills
(1)Technical Skills

Technical skills are basically for the lower level of employee. Those of employee work in
factory. They work with hard skill. As a managerial level of employee there are no technical
types of skill. Because a machine man know how to work with machine, that a technical skill, or
hard skill. For those types of people have to know about the technical skills.
7 | Page

(2)Clarification of Goals and Objectives

Clarification of goals and objective is, a machine man have to know about his goals and
objective. He/she have to set a goal for the very specific objective. And he/she know how much
waste on this particular outcome; he/she have to maintain this in every time. This is also for the
lower level of workers who work in technical part.
(3)Problem Solving

Problem solving is a simple part, when a mechanic engineer faces a problem with production.
He/she know how it works, about the production time. Then he/she find the problem and solve
the problem. On the BATB sometimes machine are not worked as properly or production
becoming slow, engineers talk with the machine related vendor, why its not working after that
fined the problem and fix it.
(4)Imagination & Creativity

Imagination and creativity this is not lower level work. Those are work on hard skill they have
not enough time for imagination or creativity. This is the managerial level of work. Those are
having creative idea or imagination power. No one can imagine the market, after launching the
new product or implementing strategy. For example on BATB imagination and creativity team
launch the switch cigarette they imagine that customers need to two type flavor in one cigarette.
They put a switch into the cigarette. After switch this the flavor will change, and its light then
before.

8 | Page

ii) Team Building Skills

(1)Listening for Insights

It is very crucial for maintaining and coordinating a team. Top managers need to listen to the
lower level employees. Suppose, in Barishal, BATBs brand Hollywood is not performing well.
It is a brand for the consumers who belong to the low income segment. In that case, employees
need to find the reason by searching information internally. Managers duty is to listen to
everyone and find out what are the possible reasons of this problem. By gathering data from the
employees, dealers, retailers, customers and other stakeholders and processing it, a manager can
find out the loop holes more easily and accurately.
(2)Directing & Couching

In the perspective of BATB, coaching is not like teaching the people. Its all about motivating the
people to come out with the best Idea by brainstorming. The main focus of coaching is asking
employees about the functions where and how they can improve. In some cases, coaching isnt
effective in a sense that employee can be misguided with information. In that case managers
need to direct employee to filter information and narrow down properly.
For example, an employee is doing heart and soul but failing for some unknown cause. His
managers responsibility is to ask him the brainstorm the possible reasons of the situations.
Therefore, the employee discovers the lacking all by himself.
Sometimes, experience also matters. A new employee might fail to do something due to the lack
of experience. Managers duty is to share his experience with his subordinate to guide him to the
proper track.

9 | Page

(3)Problem Solving as Teams

British American Tobacco Bangladesh's motto is "Success and Responsibility Go Together"

In the marketing context, a problem solving team will typically be formed for a limited time
frame incorporating staff from different organizational levels with various relevant skill sets.
BATB highly focuses on team effort and they achieve their goals as teams. A Territory Officer
supervises around 20-40 BRs (Brand Representatives). Again, TOs report to the Area Managers.
Normally there are five TOs under one Area Manager. There are 22 Area managers in the country
and they are controlled by 6 Regional Managers. So, it is very important that, at every level the
members work as a team to serve their common purposes.
(4)Coordinating & Cooperating

The competition in the cigarette market is based on the price segment. There are individual
competitive brands in each price segment. There was no competition in the premium and
medium segment where the top International Brands of BATB dominate the market. But when
Dhaka Tobacco Industry (DTI) launched the brand Marlboro and Thames in the both Premium
and Middle segment the competition is raised. But still in the Segment of premium and Medium
BATB is the leader still. The main reason of it is the coordination & cooperation from brand
manager to lower level employees.
iii)Drive Skills
(1)Standards of Performance

First of all the management team of BAT Bangladesh needs to have a certain goal. They have to
identify the challenges to effective performance management. Then according to the goal the
management team has to conduct their performance planning and. After that they have to identify
the inner problems and have to evaluate their planning. Lastly the managerial team of BAT
10 | P a g e

Bangladesh should practice the skill of setting goals, providing effective feedback and
conducting alignment discussions.
(2)Control of Details

The managers have to gather and use information to evaluate the performance of their resources
such as human, physical, financial and the organization. The manager's control of details will
influence the behavior of the resources to implement organizational strategies which can be
formal or informal.
(3)Energy

To make the best use of the maximum energy of BAT Bangladesh managerial team the manager
has to create a motivational climate. He has to promote a search for excellence. The manager has
to practice for building a motivational climate and has to know the cost of demotivation and
disengagement.
(4)Exerting Pressure

The manager of the BATB should urge others to perform by shaping his activities to be perceived
as teamwork,not domination. He should design his team's work such ways that others find
comfortable to work and can gain their highest confidence.

4)Analysis:
a) Functions
After taking an interview with an area manager who oversees the marketing department of BATB
we learned that the most important part of a marketing managers job in BATB is planning,

11 | P a g e

motivating and controlling. Which are important functions the marketing managers end up using
the most? We have tried to discuss them below.
Planning is an important function for the managers as they have to plan ahead in order to
penetrate a market. Whether, its a new product or a new market. When the manager has to work
in an internal market which he is completely responsible for he has to plan according to the area.
Managers have to plan with every aspect in their perspective in their mind.
Managers ensure better performance from employees by motivating them. In BATB employees
who work under the manager are motivated by the managers to get the best out of them. This
function builds a stronger team and makes the workplace more active. The employees are
motivated in various ways including sales commissions and many other bonuses.
Controlling is an important managerial function. The managers guide their employees in a way
that measures their skills. Managers decide whether the employees have lived up to the standard
they are expected of or not. In BATB employees must live up to the national standard and are
controlled in way to ensure they do so.
Leading is an important function for managers. If the mangers arent proper leaders the team
wont look up to them. For a team to be balanced and work properly leaders are needed. In
BATB managers must lead the employees to ensure harmony.
Functions like staffing, organizing, communicating are important too. All these culminate in a
perfect working environment for the employees. This brings out the best out from them.

12 | P a g e

b) Skills:
We prepared this report based on the interview taken from an area manager who oversees the
marketing department of BATB. As we analyzed the interview, we found out some important
points regarding the skills that are required the most in BATB Marketing Managers.
Out of three major types of skills according to the Wilsons criteria of managing
peopleTeambuilding plays the most important role.
Listening for insights is important to find out the situation of the market. The manager has to
collect the information by talking with the Territory Officers and Brand Admirers when
required. Otherwise, the manager would not be able to take effective decisions.
Directing and Couching is valued because it includes the refinement of the expertise of the
subordinates. Sometimes the less experienced employees need extra attentions and
guidelines. Moreover, there should be a proper alignment in the messages that is conveyed in
the market by the personals from different tiers of the department.
Working as a team is crucial for different situations like solving problems, achieving targets
etc. The manager has to maintain the synergy by keeping all his subordinates under one
umbrella and ensure that the performance of his team is up to the mark.
Coordinating and cooperating across functions includes the relationship with different
entities inside and outside the organization. It includes distributors, government entities like
police and different other people.
Among the subcategories of Technical Skills set, Imagination and Creativity is important for a
manager to solve unexpected situations. Managers have to rely on their intellectual capital to
solve unique problems.

13 | P a g e

Driving Skills influences the result of the implementation of both technical and teambuilding
skills. After evaluating the processes a manager has to identify the processes that require follow
up. When the results are not up to the mark, the manager needs to drive energy to lift up the
process. Pressure could be of two types: one is to increase pressure to improve the performance
and the other side is to push the less efficient employees so that they could understand the
importance of their tasks.

c) Strength and Weakness:

i) Strength:
Unlike the local competitors of i.e. Akij Tobacco Company or, Dhaka Tobacco Company, BATB
has very less flaws in their current management process. As the company is more than 100 years
old and it has its operation in 180 countries of the world so, their system is very structured and
well organized. This has given BATB a distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace where
there are half a million retailers.
Another supreme strength for the company is the people working on it. BATB recruits the top
tier graduates and young talents from reputed universities of the country. Hence, they are given
proper training and that makes them highly compatible in terms of working in a saturated market
like Bangladesh.
BATB is the market leader in several segments. B&H and GOLD LEAF are the two most
successful brands in the market and these brands enable BATB to capture the majority of the
market share in terms of both price and volume.
The communication and cooperation between the managers across boundaries help them to deal
with unique problems effectively and efficiently. For example, if a manager finds it difficult to
14 | P a g e

deal with a unique situation. Then he can contact with the foreign mangers in different countries.
And it is very likely that, among the hundreds of mangers one several might have faced the
similar problem. Therefore, the communication between these two personals in two different
countries could be as helpful as anything. We are now living in the age of globalization and it is
very crucial to keep up with the global standards and be up to date with global trends.

5)Recommendations:
At the end of the day, it is very clear that in BATB everything is strength. The management is
very good in terms of responding to any stimulated unwanted situations and taking decisions
effectively. Being the market leader of several segments in the market is the most positive aspect
of the company and surprisingly, their brands like B&H and GOLD LEAF are being the market
leaders for a really long time.
Throughout the whole interview we have tried to find out a weak sector that we could think
about and recommend for further improvement. Unfortunately, every flaws we came to know
about turned out to be a strong point for the company. Still we figured out that, work pressure on
the managers is high in terms of decision making. A single incorrect decision can affect the
company globally.

6)Conclusion:
British American Tobacco Bangladesh is a subsidiary of British American Tobacco and it is
the worlds second largest tobacco group. They are a public limited company with an
authorized capital of Tk. 60 corer listed on both Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchange. The
UK based British American Tobacco group holds 65.91% share in the company. Government
15 | P a g e

of Bangladesh agencies own 28.70% share, while 5.39% share is owned by other
shareholder. Management of the company needs to be strong and organized in order to be
profitable and fulfil the requirements of the stakeholders. BATB is the leading company in
the cigarette industry in Bangladesh with a market share of more than 50%, employing more
than 1,300 people directly. They provide indirect employment to more than 30,000 people as
farmers, distributors and local suppliers. Managing this large number of people is very
complex. Due to their long term experience in this market and a worldwide experience in
different markets that are similar, makes them experts in managing people, capital and
resources efficiently.
Again, British American Tobacco Bangladesh is a company with world class people,
products, systems and processes and tools. They are the first company in Bangladesh to be
awarded Class A status as part of the international and prestigious total business excellence
programmed, MRPII, audited by internationally renowned consultants Oliver Wight. The
company has a total company commitment to excellence and drive for continuous
improvement. Their focus for its the companys people deserves compliment. The way the
companys management ensures a healthy environment for its employees is the best. Again,
the company compensates its employees with attractive salary packages and all sorts of
fringe benefits
The world class people of BATB work as a team to meet challenges in an ever-changing
business environment. They have an open and transparent culture with customer service that
exceeds expectations. BATB continuously seek to improve our manufacturing efficiency
without compromising on quality. As a result, the company is recognized as benchmark for
quality in the region when they were the first company to be given the license to
16 | P a g e

manufacture Benson & Hedges in-house, within this region of BAT Group which stretches
from Pakistan to Australia. The utilization of information technology is at the core of the
business strategy and is a benchmark among other fast moving consumer goods companies
in the country.
For a company like BATB, operating in a highly controversial and sensitive industry and
working with more than 1300 employees, internal communication is very important to
facilitate decision making and making them able to face the stakeholders. Thought
challenging, BATB is doing a successful job in devising a successful portfolio of tools for
internal communication and the process of continuous improvement keeps their model
functional.
So, after analysing the whole situation, we have come to the point that, BATB is such a
company where people dreams of getting a job. The way they are operating their business
would enable them to be the market leader for a really long period of time.

17 | P a g e