By Shaikh Ashfaque Zaman
From tracking the best traffic routes to tuning their voices to everything from Rihanna to Journey, the team of GoBD ventures into territory seldom explored by corporate companies – the karaoke stage. ICE Business Times had the pleasure of joining the team as they gathered at Bistro E’s Club Room, after a hectic workday to sing away the stress, while discussing the cornerstones of productivity.
The session started with COO, Farhan, requesting CEO, Qasim, to provide a heartfelt rendition of “Don’t Stop Believing”, a song that perfectly fits this startup as they expand their operations with GO Fetch. After a high pitched and soulful session, Qasim smirks at the prospect of challenging a rather dapper Kazi with “I’m too Sexy” given that the Director of Operations has brought sharp sartorial sensibilities amongst his many other skills. The team nods their head in approval as they all admit to making a greater effort upon Kazi’s initiative to “make the team dress a little better”.
Following the chuckles of his rather comical performance of the eccentric classic, Kazi is given a standing ovation for being a team player. He passes the mic to their reserved Software Engineer, Tareq, who is initially apprehensive to leave the fortress of solitude provided by programming on a computer. Kazi instinctively requests Tareq to chant to the gyrating beat of Rihanna’s “Work”; his choice is followed by an uproar of laughter because every member knows of Tareq’s limited knowledge of pop music. Ironically, the song befits the engineer because, in his words, “[he] finds solace in his labor.”
After breaking out of his comfort zone and offering an energetic dance with the catchy chorus, a more confident Tareq sets his sights on making his boss loudly “sing” (rather holler) the “Imperial March” (aka the Darth Vader music) from Star Wars. Tareq explains that this song is for Farhan who often plays the balancing role of keeping everyone in check and does not refrain from being the “bad guy” when a deadline needs to be met. After losing a part of his voice to humming, Farhan sets a lighter tone with the newbie of the group Sakeef. The Deputy Director is requested to sing the 90’s Spice Girl classic “Wannabe”. Given that this is his first offsite hangout with the team, the songs seems appropriate to break the ice amongst them.
The rendezvous concludes with a stirring performance of the Gloria Gaynor’s disco staple, “I Will Survive”, by founders Farhan and Qasim. Because though they started with novel products for traffic and home deliveries they intend not only to thrive, but to become a force to reckon with.
BETWEEN THE RENDITIONS
The GoBD team postulates upon the markers of productivity and how they are continually growing:
Acquiring Attitude:
As a founder, I find this to be one of the pinnacles of a prolific team; you can choose to act in a destructive manner or a constructive manner in order to complete the task at hand. Attitude is also complex in the sense that it has a trickle-down effect. The manners in which you interact with your subordinates with eventually make its way to the rest of the team. If you approach your task or your peers with negativity you will simply allow for an undesired environment that no member of the team will want to participate in. Nevertheless, you want to maintain a balance in which your team does not become lenient to the point where the day to day function is too relaxed to put out any profitable output. And therein lies the rub. Even though there is a system of hierarchy, each and every member must have a sense of mutual respect. (Qasim H. Rana, CEO)
An enthusiastic performance by Kazi
Constructive Criticism:
I think a prerequisite to delivering any criticism is to self-criticize and be cognizant of one’s own drawbacks. For example, I am known to have a short fuse and everyone can attest to that. Therefore, when I recognize a shortcoming or erroneous way amongst my colleagues, I reflect on how I would like it to be handled. This self-awareness is something that I feel comes from maturity and experience. I understand the desire to sugar coat the matter in order to create a warm environment for nurturing especially for team members that are new to the workforce, or are still learning how to adjust from a more stable working environment than to the utter chaos of a startup. It is imperative to take criticism like an adult and take those words into consideration in order to progress as a professional. The key then is effective criticism, which is a skill I am learning even now. You must be reasonable yourself to turn those words into actions, without allowing a critique to turn into a tribunal. Leaders must ask themselves as to how they are going to provide that criticism as a sort of feedback of performance and how the respective team can best handle that critique to grow. Provide criticism with empathy and a solution to rectify the matter. (Farhan A. Rahman, COO)
Battling Bias:
As a new director, the lines of bias seemed blurred at first because it seemed like the older members were in their own bubble. With time I realized that removing bias means understanding each individual and how they are specifically productive. For example, some are more efficient at night while others during the day. One must focus solely on the individual’s performance and how satisfactorily it is being undertaken. Furthermore, with experience, any professional must have the cerebral and intellectual ability to compartmentalize the dynamic with their colleagues within and outside the office. Though I was a core participant in Farhan’s recent wedding festivities, I knew it was necessary to leave emotional attachments outside the office when I entered the workspace and made it a conscious point to display that I compartmentalize my professional life from my personal life.
On the other hand, if there is personal bias from a supervisor, the other employees should observe the rationale behind it. Personal bias does often come from a justified underlying reason of the individual’s functionality and that form of bias can empower the high performing employee to increase their functionality. Obviously this is a double-edged sword and must be wielded very carefully. No person should think they can get away with prolonged unprofessional behavior without consequences, but there are folks here who bring so much value that we have to give them a little leeway. (Kazi Tahmid Imam, Director of Operations)
Doing Away with Distractions:
My work is predominantly cognitive and anything that diverts my attention from the matter at hand can hamper its quality. Human beings are not programmed to multitask; they are more equipped to tackle one matter at a time because it causes us to switch context too often. With the advent of social media, distractions seem to have exponentially increased. It is best to treat these distractions like breaks. Only allow yourself to be distracted when you feel yourself burning out and cannot function efficiently anymore. Monitor how much time you spend working and being distracted, closely paying attention to the duration of time to complete the task when you allow yourself to be distracted and when you complete it at one go. Use your phone, watch a video, or check your Facebook feed when you need to de-stress. Distractions can also occur because of the various communication channels, therefore streamline all of this to one medium in order for every team member to be alert to any notable issues and updates. Finally, find a balance between the professional distractions that you would allow entering the realm of your personal life because this will translate into when you perform within the working field. (Tareq Aziz, Software Engineer)
Stay Away from Stress:
Upon joining a start-up company, I was fully aware of the fact that I would be taking on a great deal of stress and working hours would be rather hectic. Though stress comes in many forms, our brain treats it with one response, and that is of short-term gain in order to survive. When we undertake too much stress, as I have at times, the final output is not of the quality that is required; I sometimes look at the product or service I have delivered only to be dissatisfied with the subliminal work. You must understand your individual capacity and how much your brain can undertake at a time. After working 16 to 18 hour days for a week, you should rest your brain because your mental and physical health will ultimately affect your productivity. I admit that this has happened when workload spikes during certain months, but I am glad that it doesn’t happen too often! It diminishes the incentive to feel a sense of accomplishment from your profession. A task will seem of greater difficulty than it actually is. (Sakeef Ahsan, Deputy Director)
Orchestrating Go! Fetch
Starting in 2014, GoBD has successfully expanded to Go! Fetch. As a tech-enabled logistics company, they believe that technology is the gateway to advancing into a prosperous nation. Go! Fetch will focus on two major facets: consumer facing, where individuals can order anything they want on demand and supporting their business partners such as Daraz, Bikroy and many more e-commerce platforms. The main idea is to increase the flow of transactions between customers and companies by decreasing the mileage between them. The highly insightful technical team has incorporated active tracking with custom-designed algorithms to ensure that the customer is provided with the best of service and constant feedback of their purchase. The key to that, says Swagata Prateek (CTO) is to leverage technology and all the benefits that automation has to offer to let consumers and customers to spend more time on the things that really matter – as opposed to the hassles of knowing where to go, how to go there, and what to do once you get there. He elaborates, “Technology exists to improve human productivity, and in our cases, we have been able to find the missing link that can create exponential leaps in the way businesses operate and manage sales forces, equipment and human resources. There is a long way to go before we get to that, but with our external partners and sponsors, who have an excellent unique opportunity to see this case-study in real time with real people, and (hopefully!) make a real statement of the fact that the right technology can have a wonderful effect on our client’s organizational efficiency.”
The Fetch app is taking the delivery services of Bangladesh to the next level as they will allow the consumers to receive deliveries for everything from groceries to electronics. The team strives to make anything and everything that is in demand available at every Bangladeshi’s doorstep so the only thing that you have to fetch is yourself is you credit card or wallet.
With this vision, the team is currently opening branches in Dhanmondi, Uttara, Mirpur and Polton. They plan to expand to Chittagong, Khulna, and Sylhet in the upcoming year – For Business Clients & Private Customers as well.
BISTRO E PROVIDES AN IDEAL ENVIRONMENT
Scenically located by the Gulshan 2 Lake, Bistro E is a sophisticated space within the center of Dhaka. The Club Room at Bistro E offers an optimal space that is adaptable for all types of functions from meetings, seminars, private lunches or dinners, to cocktails and unplugged musical performances with friends and colleagues.
The projector, speakers, and state-of the art technological provisions make it the perfect space for corporates and others to hold any sort of event. They can choose from Bistro E’s eclectic and delicious variety of appetizers, main dishes and desserts or work on a private/customized menu with the chef to ensure that your next event will be flawless.
