On 18th of October, 2018, we visited the 'ornamental village of Bhakurta' located in Savar Upazila. Our journey started from Farmgate Bus Stand and we visited the place to look for the artisans working laboriously to make the exceptional ornaments being worn by women on various occasions. A team of three people, including two of my university classmates were in the journey to know more about the unique way in which Bhakurta's ornaments are made.

Bhakurta is well-known for its wonderful ornaments, made purely by hand by very skillful artisans. The artisans have been in this profession for generations, and they have mastered the skill of ornament making in order to supply our market with the fabulous designs the women crave for. There are hundreds of artisans in the village side of Bhakurta, many of them having a small shop in the Bhakurta Market.

Distributors from all over the country come to them to collect the ornaments and they supply these to the supermarkets, shopping malls and jewellery shops. Other than that, there has been an influx in the demand for such handicrafts, mainly because of the sheer-quality and detailing available in the ornaments that wouldn't have been possible if it was manufactured by machines.

We visited Bhakurta mainly to know about their supply chain and their manufacturing process. Our expectations were as follows:

1. Knowing about their supply chain

2. How they get their raw materials

3. The process of making such ornaments

4. How they sell it

5. Potential business opportunity in regards to the village

The visit to the 'ornamental village' was truly amazing. We have learnt some crucial information that we couldn't have got elsewhere. We learnt how they import their raw materials from India and China, and they create their ornaments with the given raw materials.

The highly skilled artisans can make any designs that you give them, which means that you'll essentially get anything and everything that you want. The designs are fully hand-crafted, which means that there are very few margins of error. And - they're done with care!

The beautifully designed ornaments are then sold to shop owners who collect these ornaments directly from the artisans, and then they keep these in their display centers until these get sold. The artisans are very skillful, meaning that they can create marvelous designs and highly decorated ornaments if they're given the design.

All throughout our visit, we have tried to find out various business possibilities that we can start. We identified many of the prospective ventures that we can handle, and I'm discussing some them now.

Firstly, the ornaments made by Bhakurta's artisans are truly very detailed and has a mesmerizing design attached to each of the ornaments. Being made purely from silver and copper, these last longer and can retain their glaze for a really long time. This is why these ornaments are highly desired by many people, and we can supply the retailers by sourcing them directly from the artisans.

Other than that, we can establish a stall in the International Trade Fair in Dhaka, with a very little twist. We can hire an artisan and take him to the stall, and we will provide our customers with their very own custom designs on spot.

We can also help them by providing machines that would help them enhance their productivity, and then we can sell the ornaments that they produce under our own brand. The branding will be solely done by the name of the traditional culture of Bhakurta. For this reason, we can retain the culture of Bhakurta and represent it to a wider audience.

With some of the opportunities, we have identified some of the core problems that have been protruding for a long time. These have resulted in a lot of trouble, along with high inefficiency and little profit margins.

The main problem of the ornaments is that these tend to be a bit overpriced. Although this is true, the high price results mainly because of the high raw materials cost and cost of labor. Making each ornament by hand takes a lot of time, and giving such immense time and labor, the artisans usually sell the ornaments with a very slight profit margin, yet the price reaches to the top.

Having no machinery, the artisans have blamed the Government due to the lack of funds and/or loans so that they can buy their own machinery and manufacture the ornaments at a greater scale. For this reason, the cost of ornaments go up, making it virtually impossible for higher market penetration.

It adds up to the fact that China has always been exporting cheap and designer class ornaments. These ornaments are of low quality, but have gained immense popularity among the local market mainly because of the range of the designs and low price point. This means that we're dealing with a market that's highly competitive.

Other than that, the raw materials that are being imported are also very costly. To cut down the selling price, we must look for a cheaper alternative to the raw materials. By ensuring proper resource allocation and effective supply chain management, we can ensure low cost raw materials which signifies low cost of production. This will help in reducing the selling price of the products.

The profit margins are low, and there is a conflict of interest among the millennial artisans as they receive higher education. This indicates a rapid decline in the art of ornament making, which in turn means that our culture is slowly dissolving into the blue.

To stop the decline of the art of ornament making, we must at first make sure that the artisans get the remunerations they deserve. This is, however, easier said than done. This is mainly because of the complexity in the total supply chain. The lack of machinery and the preference of creating these ornaments using their hands, importing the raw materials, using primitive techniques, and many other reasons have lead to the increased price of these. If we want to truly reduce the price, we must at first fix the supply chain.

To do this, we can look for a cheaper alternative to the raw materials that would help us achieve the same effect as silver and copper. We should also arrange machinery for the artisans to work with so that they can enhance their work efficiency and focus more on making more ornaments.

We should also make the ornaments more available in the market and ensure proper marketing and brand awareness is being created. Being of high value and a part of a rich culture, these ornaments ought to be of high cultural significance. This indicates that people will show interest if we bring the ornaments into the customer's purchasing power limit.

Bhakurta is truly the 'ornamental village' of Bangladesh. It portrays a huge cultural significance that has been initiated through hundreds, if not thousands, of years and is still existing in the modern economy. The ornaments made in the small village of Bhakurta is of high-quality and can last over decades while retaining the shine and glaze.

However, the culture and high-quality has not helped the ornaments from Bhakurta to get into the limelight. It is mainly because of the cheaper alternatives and complex and costly supply chain used by the primitive artisans in the Bhakurta region. These contributes to a high cost of production, and this has discouraged many artisans to leave this field of work.

If we can fix their complex supply chain and introduce a newer version while keeping the cost of productions to a bare minimum, we can ensure that we're giving a substantial profit margin to the artisans while keeping the product's selling price very low.

If we can ensure all of the above, we will be able to establish successful businesses using the existing highly skilled artisans and giving them a platform to showcase their skills!