Technology is gradually assuming great prominence in the present setting. What if we told you that technology and education have options? When speaking of that, it is possible to mention Edukko, the peer-to-peer education application that allows students and parents to reach teachers and use their help and educational services. Leads Begun: Therefore we contacted Ahmed Tahir, CTO of Edukko, who explained more about Edukko and told his story.
How did it start?
When talking to Ahmed we said, “So, what is the concept that Your Company is created on?”
He begins with, “Those initial ideas can be traced back to our founder, Mr Nelson Barrios, an international teacher for several years with the UK, USA, Spain, and the UAE. In any given country, people from local and school communities turned to him as an additional assistance and financial support or consultation on options for making a career. He wanted to alter this tough position for parents and students and to provide any teaching pool talent in a district to everyone without any limitations. Edukko (Apps: Edukko Learn & Edukko Teach was launched with an aim of fulfilling the growing market need of building a learning ecosystem. At present, Edukko deals with educational niche solutions targeted at K-12 learners, college and university students, as well as adult learners. The type of educational services we offer consist of a student mentorship, other learning services, course, and career advisory services, work place, internship, and student health services. These services reach out to think students and parents through the strategic appointment of student success managers. As I mentioned, it was relevant when I was undertaking this duty as a CTO of the company, to digitise these services to enable customers.”
“What path did you choose initially to build your career? Hello, It is my first time using the software. Do you have any suggestions for me?
“I was starting my profession on the business side and was gradually moving to the development side. I had several years on my entrepreneurial skills – creating web projects and internal projects in such companies as western unions, and contractors as Bolt and Lietuvos pastas and so on. Previously migrating into an instructor of software engineering at the general assembly with MISK and MCIT. I worked for NJIKO Inc, a 501c(3) recognized non profit organisation that tackles social injustice causes, located in US-IL, where I was the Director of Outsourcing who was tasked with developing and planning on how this company’s development was going to be marketed in the market.
I began my employment as a CTO at a development firm Mham Intl for IT in KSA where I spearheaded changes within the current product mix, improved on current ones, and created immersive and non-immersive products, showcasing the firm to get to the second position during the KSA LEAP event in the Innovation Sector, thereby clinching many contracts for application development firm. Continuing my present resume of CTO with focus on the Edu-tech sector – Edukko.
I was also recently presented with the Internet 2.0 outstanding leadership award in Dubai in recognition of my achievements in the specialty of technology.” Says Ahmed.
He further continues, “My advice to these learners going into tech space is that try to find a place where you can think of a use case that you can sort so that you don’t just become a cog in the wheel or a dime a dozen. So if you attempt at reinventing the wheel, the best that your new wheels should at least have different rims. The last piece of advice is to learn to be as flexible as possible because flexibility is a key to success in general, and even more if you are a developer or consider any position from the technological field.
Pathway To Team Success
We also wanted to know about Ahmed’s ideas on the concept of teamwork. When we asked him about what makes the team successful, he said:
“I suppose there are many ways to go about this, especially regarding reaching success with your team:
1. Clarity of assignments is very crucial if teams are to deliver results; nothing works better than a vision in any given assignment to deliver results on time. When a team has to perform with weak information and management interference at every possible level the concept of work ownership is affected. It results in the blame culture in the company, which hampers productivity in some ways. Thus, the vision and good product management facilitate them to grasp and interpret requirements as concrete and tangible actions.
2. With regard to success more specially in the team, aspects of management of team spirit and goals are among those that influences the many. The contingency approach in organisation also addresses the type of management so that some final line can be drawn between management efficiency and excessive tolerance. This also encompasses their on-going professional development undertaken by their direct supervisor, training or otherwise. It remains important to nurture your employees into leaders not to boss them as corporate employees.
3. There are various vital aspects which have been discussed in this paper; the most crucial of them is communication. That is why if the work of the teams is created in an isolated framework, that allows them to accomplish only so much. Instead of making them work on their piece of the pie in even a larger and more complicated application, We need to ensure they see how their work is unique for change and business, while getting experience for the customer.
About Employee & Team Importance
We further asked “To what extent do you consider employees’ energy levels as a positive for your company?”
Ahmed continued, “The well being of employees in the company is a very top priority to use in this firm.” So, when we use tech as an example or any other field, yet your workforce is unhappy or demotivated, it hampers the quality they deliver to the company. Informing and explaining to them the overall corporate vision and including them in the big picture ensures that should your company thrive, they too will be part of the icing on the cake. Tell them partnerships rather than showing authority only.
The next question we posed to Ahmed was, “How do you intend to create the incentive for a team to push extra?”
According to Ahmed, “We have engagement programmes and team building activities to help motivate the team with the vision we have for the company. They also should share small victories of the company during town halls because it also makes sense to appreciate their work. Offering incentives to those students who go the extra mile and ensure that they sweeten the deals for everyone in class is also another way of encouraging his or her fellow students or peers. I agree with Imani on the fact that for one to be able to motivate a team he or she has to listen to it.
Sometimes you can be wrong and admitting that and listening to how to fix a problem with your team makes them feel more invested in the product and thus would go the extra mile to meet those goals. You as a leader can either twinkle away from your goal all by your own or with your team near the objectives like the sun.
Is Innovation the Key?
Do you incorporate unique ideas into your establishment to be considered different?
As it stands, there seems to be little chance of getting into any market without innovation. In extreme cases, competition ensures that several of the customers get the best solutions available to them. That is why our company is similar, we do not consider ourselves as afraid of change and innovations. We would like to make our technological advances to address various real world problems in education for families and students.
New customised solutions have been developed from the findings of our research and the insights that have been gained on the life of today’s student. Any organisation which is not flexible to change, is over time, brought down. Take the example of Nokia. It is a fact that it could not adjust accordingly to the need because of its rigidity towards it, which led a major conglomerate company to its doom.
This is because your critics are actually the best product reviewers you can get and hence they play a major role in coming up with new ideas. Therefore, criticism is admitted in the company to challenge and build products that meet the customer’s taste. “Our solutions address the client needs and address use cases for which there are limited, if any, off-the-shelf solutions in the MENA region,” he responds.
A Word Of Advice
Finally, we asked Ahmed Tahir, “What else would you like to tell our viewers?”
“Well, I would like to say that never be driven by what society wants you to do”; It is also important that your drive is always in the account where your strength and preference is. If you can help it, do not follow the crowd; and remember this should always be the same any thumbs up that you may require in life is already visible in the mirror. That is why exotic cars have two seats while the bus has twenty, he concluded.
