On behalf of IBA, it is my immense pleasure to invite you all to the International conference on “Management of Innovation and Sustainability: Vision 2041” to be held on December 20, 2020.
The conference chair is Professor Dr. Syed Ferhat Anwar, Director, IBA, University of Dhaka.
The present director of IBA, Professor Syed Ferhat Anwar is globally renowned as a veteran in the field of marketing in South Asia. Professor Ferhat is the Founder Director of Kotler Center for Marketing Excellence and has been honored as one of the “Top 30 Teachers of Bangladesh since Independence”. He is the Director of the Asian Center for Development and also the President of the Marketing Society of Bangladesh. Professor Ferhat is specialized in both qualitative and quantitative research and has more than 50 publications in international and national journals. He has also authored 3 major books. Professor Ferhat has undertaken more than 70 consulting assignments, spanning not just the private sector, but also the Ministry of Agriculture, Access to Information program, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, LICT under ICT ministry, and Tourism Ministry, among others. He has also served as consultant to global development organizations such as IFC, USAID, DFID, ATDP, KATALYST, Swiss Contact, ILO, UNICEF, etc.
Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka organized this “International Conference on the Management of Innovation and Sustainability: Vision 2041” on December 20, 2020 with the aim to bring together renowned academics, policy makers and practitioners interested in strengthening and contributing to the field of business, innovation and sustainability. The conference aims to analyze the opportunities and challenges of implementing Vision 2041 and explore practical strategies and solutions.
As recognition of the birth centenary to the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and to mark the stepping into the 50th year of the independence of Bangladesh, nothing can be more pertinent than taking Bangladesh to the status of a “developed nation” as forged by the Honorable Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina and thus implementing Vision 2041. The Vision 2041 has recognized the critical role of knowledge economy in the country’s strategy for socio-economic development. IBA, being the pioneer business school in the country aims to provide timely, relevant, and transformative education in response to the needs of our national and global priorities in this rapidly changing world. It also focuses on high quality, exploitable research that has the potential to have an impact on the global economy.
The conference was initially planned to be held in April 2020, but due to the global pandemic situation and therefore considering the health and safety of all the participants, we have organized the conference virtually.
The conference will be inaugurated by the Honorable Vice Chancellor of the University of Dhaka, Prof. Dr. M Akhtaruzzaman and the closing ceremony will be graced by the Honorable Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Dr. ASM Maksud Kamal. There will be a key note speech on “Disruptive Technology, Sustainability and Talent Management” and a plenary session on “Sustainability and SDGs: Insights from Management Research”. We will also have the President of FBCCI, and MCCI as Special Guests to talk about the importance of collaboration between the industry and the academia to achieve the development agenda of the country.
We have received 100+ abstracts and papers from which the conference committee has reviewed and selected 57 papers to be presented at the conference under different themes in 16 parallel sessions throughout the day. The parallel sessions will be chaired by renowned academics and research experts in different areas from reputed universities from all over the world. From all the papers presented at the conference, the conference committee will select 3 papers to be awarded. We have also targeted to publish a special issue of the Journal of Business Administration from the papers presented at the conference.
IBA, the pioneer business school in the country is committed to imparting world-class knowledge to the next generation of students, through focusing on appropriate and research led knowledge creation and dissemination. In addition, being the hub for professional business education, collaboration with the business community to ensure application of the knowledge is considered most realistic. In an era where there is a strong nexus among business, education and innovation, it is not only important, but also mandatory to continuously improve ourselves: not only with knowledge and research, but also deepen our understanding of the practice of business and management around the world. With the changes in the education system, the introduction of new courses in the curricula, the technological advancement or rather revolution taking place, we need to conduct exploitable research and produce employable graduates to be able to achieve vision 2041 and take Bangladesh to the next level of development.
We hope to continue to organize such conferences in the future and build a global knowledge platform, that will help instill appropriate knowledge for strengthening both local as well as global businesses.