Statement of Purpose I am Ashik Mohammed Siam. Bangladesh is where I was born and raised.

Commonly known as the country that tailored the Ready Made Garments for the world. In this essay I will describe myself to why I should be given the opportunity to be part of your graduate program. Right after I graduated from my university, I was one, of thousands of students who have earned their BBA degree either from a public or private university in Bangladesh. I have earned mine from a private university. I was thrilled and excited to enter the job market. In a country like Bangladesh, every graduate wants to work for a multinational organization. Reasons are pretty obvious; they give you good salary, comfort and status. I was compelled to think the same way, land a job with a multinational organization. However, one thing that kept bothering me, this was my nature of making things rather than getting them readymade. I like to pave my own path, I guess this trait of mine was developed back in high school, our school encouraged creativity and ingenuity as well as risk taking. I was seeking for a job that would give me this opportunity. It came in the form of MGH Group. My first employer was MGH Group, a local company who has gone global. During my interview with the Head of Human Resources of this company he said he wanted to establish MGH as brand among the student of the private university, and namely North South University, where I was an alumni. I gave him a plan, of how this could be done, and he was impressed. After meeting the Managing Director I was offered a position as Management Trainee with the Human Resources Department of company. My goal was set, to establish this company as a brand among the student population of private universities. My plan was simple, recruit fresh graduates from the private universities. This is the obvious part of the plan but how to differentiate from others; there are hundreds of companies who are doing the same. My recruitment plan was a little different. I was planning to sell my company, and I needed a sales pitch. First part of my plan was to attend all the career fairs organized by the private universities, which my company seldom did. Within a period of 9 months I arranged to participate in 7 different career fairs. Our stall was branded and I took the opportunity to sell brands, which were being owned or represented by MGH Group. Fortunately I had brand names like Nandos, P&G and a popular local radio station, Radio Foorti to talk about. MGH owns the franchisee for Nandos Bangladesh, and Distributed P&G products throughout the country exclusively. Our pitch was simple, come work for these MGH and be a part of these global brands. However, I knew only the names of this brands are not going to establish the name of this company. Hence came the second part of the plan, make the recruitment session eventful and big, so that everyone who would participate remembers it. I convinced my supervisor to conduct the recruitment session at a five star hotel, a whole day program where the candidates will go through the rigorous assessment sessions and interviews. Indeed this created a huge buzz. Candidates

were excited as they came for the assessment session. From that session we recruited 30 fresh graduates from more than 800 participants in the assessment session. A vast majority of the participating candidates were from the private university targeted. I got the proof of the buzz from the university students Facebook page, to which I was a member, where participants shared their experience and suddenly people showed a great deal of excitement and they were talking about MGH Group. I knew my plan was successful, what we needed to do is retain the existing people and recruit regularly to uphold the image. Thus I helped to establish the image as well as fulfill a target. As a reward I was promoted and later I was given a foreign assignment to travel to Nigeria and Kazakhstan to recruit people. Most people dream about having foreign assignments, however another opportunity presented itself, a job to work in a completely new industry, the mobile financial services industry. Mobile financial service industry in Bangladesh started in 2011. It is a concept where financial transactions are made using mobile phones, a virtual money concept. I was offered a job with bKash Limited the fast growing mobile financial service provider in the country. The allure to create history and chance to work in an infant industry attracted me. I knew there was huge scope of work, I can actually make significant contributions in making guidelines and policies and develop processes for the Human Resources Department, where I would work. Furthermore, it will give me the opportunity to see how a company grows and an industry develops. Eventually I want to be an expert on this industry, to be specific in want to lead a functional division within the next 5 years. I believe, that this mobile financial industry will expand virally and will be in operation in most of the developing countries within the next 5 years. So it is an ideal time to get prepared, already having 4 years of work experience and the understanding about the business operation in this industry has set me up perfectly to pursue a Graduate Program. This program will help me to get the international exposure and will connect me with people from a diverse background and thinking. This degree will set me apart from all the people who will enter this industry in future to work. I believe this degree will also help me to become a better leader. I also believe that this sector is also having direct impact on the economy of our country. It is helping the unbanked population of our country to have access to a form of banking. This has already changed lives of thousands of people who now can do financial transactions with ease and security. I feel proud to be a part of something creating history and changing peoples life. I want to take it even further and this degree is just going to be a stepping stone.