"I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce

more leaders, not more followers."

– Ralph Nader

Avanza Solutions
An analysis of the Leadership styles, Teamwork and the Corporate
Social Responsibility at Avanza Solutions.

SUBMITTED TO:
M. KAMIL SHAHBAZKER

PREPARED BY:

CHANDAN KUMAR
HINA JAFRI
HIRA ANSARI
MUZAMMIL SHAHID BHATTI
SARAH SARFARAZ

MBA IV/II (MORNING)

4/23/2009
Contents
Contents..................................................................................................................... 2
TRAITS........................................................................................................................5
Mr. Junaid Khan’s Traits...........................................................................................5
Intelligence:..........................................................................................................5
Self-confidence:....................................................................................................5
Determination:.....................................................................................................5
Integrity:............................................................................................................... 5
Sociability:............................................................................................................6
Mr. Mehmood Kapurwala’s Traits............................................................................6
Intelligence:..........................................................................................................6
Self-confidence:....................................................................................................6
Sociability:............................................................................................................6
Integrity: .............................................................................................................6
SKILLS......................................................................................................................... 7
Mr. Junaid Khan’s Skills ..........................................................................................7
Mr. Mehmood Kapurwala’s Skills.............................................................................8
STYLE.......................................................................................................................... 9
Mr. Junaid Khan’s Style: ........................................................................................10
Mr. Mehmood Kapurwala’s Style...........................................................................10
Situational Approach................................................................................................ 11
Path Goal theory.......................................................................................................12
Leader Member Exchange theory.............................................................................14
Teams at Avanza...................................................................................................... 21
Organization Structure..........................................................................................21
Teams in E-Business..............................................................................................21
Sequential Interdependence in E-Business.........................................................22
Teams in E-Banking...............................................................................................22
Sequential Interdependence in E-Banking..........................................................23
Nature of E-Business & E-Banking Teams.................................................................24
Team Effectiveness.................................................................................................. 25
 Organizational and Team Environment.................................................................26
Reward Systems:................................................................................................26
Communications System and Physical Space:...................................................26
Organizational Environment:..............................................................................26
Organizational Structure:...................................................................................26
Organizational Leadership:.................................................................................27
Organizational and Team Environment.................................................................27
Task Characteristics:..........................................................................................27
Team Size:..........................................................................................................27
Team Composition:............................................................................................27
Organizational and Team Environment.................................................................28
Team Norms:......................................................................................................28
Team Roles:....................................................................................................... 28
Team Cohesiveness:..........................................................................................28
Virtual Teams:.......................................................................................................... 29
CSR Today................................................................................................................ 29
CSR Tomorrow.......................................................................................................... 29
Introduction
Avanza Solutions is a USA based company, with its representation in Spain, USA,
Middle East and Pakistan. It was founded by Mr. Junaid Rabbani, Ex MD and Global
Head of Derivatives at Citicorp. The company has evolved from a small IT solutions
firm to one which now provides solutions to the Banking Industry in Pakistan. It was
recently selected by Kabul Bank, one of the largest in Afghanistan, to provide them
with ATM Solutions.

Vision of Avanza Solution

To be recognized and respected as "the best in class Software and Services

Corporation" – an organization built on core values of integrity, professionalism and
excellence.

The Leadership through the Past 10 Years

• Former CEO: Junaid Hamid Khan

• Former CEO: Naseem Siddiqui

• Current CEO & Former CFO: Mahmood Kapurwala

Why Avanza?

• A yet unexplored company and a relatively less known industry

• The leadership styles of companies within the IT industry differ from other
industries, that encompasses unique leadership styles and relatively high
dependence on teams

• We wanted to investigate as to how the CEOs instilled the aspect of

teamwork and how their leadership style has affected as the teams’
operation in this organization
Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of people to
achieve common goals.

TRAITS

Research has proved that a leader requires certain traits which equip him/her to
influence others more easily. To describe leadership as a trait is quite different from
describing it as a process. The trait viewpoint conceptualizes leadership as a
property or set of properties possessed in varying degrees by different people. We
analyzed Mr. Junaid Khan’s and Mr. Kapurwala’s stand on their traits.

Mr. Junaid Khan’s Traits

Intelligence:
Coming from an IT background and possessing a degree from one of the top most IT
institutions, Mr. Junaid was equipped with the best technical expertise. He had
excellent communication skills. It was his self-assurance that enabled him to assure
himself that his attempts to influence his employees are appropriate and right. The
sole reason for choosing him as the CEO was the combination of his excellent
managerial and leadership skills. He is labeled as ‘sharp’ for his superb intelligence.

Self-confidence:
He always showed great confidence not only in his own work but also that of his
employees’.

Determination:
His determination made his get the job done through his employees effectively. He
provided them with the right level of motivation and then gave them empowerment
to get the work done as suited by the individual. He was proactive and had the
capacity to face the obstacles heroically. He was always available to give directions
to whoever desired them. He believed in focusing on getting the work done rather
than petty issues demanding his employees to come to office early morning.

Integrity:
His employees trusted him as they had his support and his presence never made
them uncomfortable.
Sociability:
His employees looked up to him as a friend rather than a boss, a trait which helped
him getting the required work done much quicker and much efficiently. His friendly
nature put them at ease. He always made them feel that it is he who is at the front-
line. Whatever adversity comes, will come to him first and then to them. This helped
his subordinates to tackle with their fear of making mistakes.

Mr. Mehmood Kapurwala’s Traits

Intelligence:
Not having a formal IT education, according to Mr. Kapurwala, was not a disability
but a challenge for him, a challenge which he faced bravely and successfully. But
being able to drift swiftly from a finance field to the IT field gives evidence of his
intelligence. He has strong verbal, perceptual and reasoning abilities.

Self-confidence:
During the interview, he showed noteworthy confidence. His speech and body
language demonstrated extroversion and self confidence. It was obvious that his
sense of self-esteem is high and he really believes that he can make a difference to
the organization. He has always faced the business challenges willingly, global
recession being the most recent challenge.

Sociability:
He gives considerable importance to seeking pleasant social relationships, a trait he
learned from Junaid Khan’s success. He believes in treating his employees as
friends. When he became the CEO, he put substantial amount of time and efforts in
building relationships and according to him, it has paid off well. He wants to
understand his employees’ problems and issues. For this, he holds regular lunches
with them to be informed about them by promoting informal discussions. He wants
to empower his employees so that the organization as well as the employees can
gain benefits.

Integrity:
But above all, he says, is that to be able to have others look up to you, one has to
prove that he is worthy of it. One has to become a role model for others. One has to
prove of his trustworthiness. Only then will the employees consider the leader
dependable.
SKILLS

According to the three-skill model, a leader should hold three skills which are:
Technical, Human and Conceptual. The top level management required lesser
technical skills and more human and conceptual skills.

Mr. Junaid Khan’s Skills

Before joining Avanza Solutions, Mr. Junaid had worked for NCR-Dubai and TPS. NCR
has its own ATM machines and provide software solutions whereas TPC is a direct
competitor of Avanza. The purpose of including these details is that he had prior
technical experience and expertise. He joined Avanza as the Chief Technical Officer
and his performance on this job was outstanding.

Despite of the top level management requiring lesser technical skills, the business
that Avanza is in demands great technical skills even at the top level. Thus, Junaid
outshone in all the three skills. This was another important reason for his
effectiveness as a leader.
Mr. Mehmood Kapurwala’s Skills

Mr. Kapurwala holds an MBA in finance from SZABIST. Prior to joining Avanza, he
has worked for “Stocksage” and “Newer Vision”, both of which are finance related
jobs. He joined Avanza in 2001 as the Head of Finance, was promoted as the Chief
Finance Officer of the middle-east and Pakistan and finally made the CEO. The
reason for choosing him as the CEO was that all the CTOs were performing well on
their jobs and the movement of any one CTO would have created disturbance in the
business. Choosing any person from within Avanza was the priority as internal
employees have knowledge and are already aware of the business conditions.
Since the CEO has to deal with the bidding and pricing of the software and Mr.
Kapurwala had that experience therefore, he was chosen for that position.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, Kapurwala ranks IT skills need for a CEO
as 7. He admits he lacks any formal IT education, but on the other hand, he says the
motivation for moving from the finance side to the IT was desire of learning and
handling corporate affairs. He had always looked for challenges in not only IT area
but also marketing and operations. But the lack of IT skills has impacted his ability
to become as effective as Junaid, a fact which reinforces that certain skills are
required to achieve leadership.

As for his conceptual skills, they are excellent and are a vital force in letting him
carrying out the leadership position.
STYLE

The style approach emphasizes the behavior of the leader and focuses exclusively
on what leaders do and how they act. Leadership is composed of two general kinds
of behaviors: task behaviors and relationship behaviors. Task behaviors facilitate
goal accomplishment; they help group members to achieve their objectives.
Relationship behaviors help subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, with
each other and with the situation in which they find themselves. The central
purpose is to explain how leaders combine these two kinds of behaviors to influence
subordinates in their efforts to reach a goal.
The leadership grid demonstrates how leaders help organizations to reach their
purposes through the two factors stated before: concern for people and concern for
production.

Mr. Junaid Khan’s Style:

His style was such that he always put strong emphasis on both tasks and
interpersonal relationships. He believed in getting work done from his employees by
being friendly with them. He promoted a high degree of participation and teamwork
at Avanza. His employees enjoyed working for him and Avanza was a successful
organization during his tenure which proves that the work was done efficiently.
Despite having close relationships with his subordinates, few employees were
dissatisfied with the reward system of Avanza. They felt they were poorly rewarded
and since the reward system of any organization should be decided strategically by
the top level management, Junaid should have taken measures to address to this
problem.

He believed in empowering his subordinates and trusted them to complete the work
at their own pace within the deadline. It was only in times of crisis or the handling of
a very big project that he ever intervened. Therefore, his dominant style was
medium concern for people and high concern for production. It was only a few
exceptional times that he had to use a backup style which was the Authority-
Compliance Management to obtain results.

Mr. Mehmood Kapurwala’s Style

After becoming the CEO of Avanza, lay offs have been done in order to cut costs
even though the performance targets for the first quarter of 2009 have been
achieved. Mr. Kapurwala has taken this step not because of the poor performance of
the firm at the moment, but because of the potential future problems he has taken
such a strict measure. Thus, his concern for results is high and concern for people is
low. There could have been other ways to cut costs and avoid future problems, for
example, reducing expenses, cutting salaries or reducing bonuses. This his style of
leadership is “Authority-Compliance Management”. He failed to communicate with
his subordinates about this decision.
SITUATIONAL APPROACH

The situational approach focuses on leadership in situation, as different

situation calls for different kind of leadership. For a successful leader to
assess what is needed in a specific situation, a leader needs to understand
the employees’ motivation and degree of commitment and accordingly take
appropriate leadership style.

Considering the situational approach of leadership, comparing Junaid Hamid

Khan and Mahmood Kupurwala, we have found that Junaid Hamid Khan can
be categorized as supporting in leadership style. As he had very sound
technical background therefore he used to be very interactive and talked to
people and helped them getting out of trouble when they stuck into. He kept
a balanced between task accomplishment and social support of the
employees. Listening, interacting and giving feedback was very much
observed in his attitude during his tenure at Avanza. He was of the opinion
that just assigning task to team or project manager was not sufficient to for
effective production until and unless you have right motivation and
productivity of the lower level of employees, hence he was very encouraging
to lower employee and helped them both morally and technically. As we
have asked one of the employees, he responded that though he was CEO of
the company yet he used to sit together with software engineers, listen their
problems and discuss them to get the optimal solution of the problem. This
has created a friendly environment in the organization which has boosted
innovation and employees never get feared to make mistakes; and thus
helped to develop a culture of finding better, feasible and cost effective
services for the clients.

Regarding Mahmood Kupurwala, the current CEO of Avanza solution, he can

be categorized as delegating in leadership style. As having no technical
background and less one to one interaction, he normally delegates authority
to team leaders and let them do their tasks. He has less involvement in
providing technical support to them; however he strongly motivates and
keeps confident in the team efforts and thus support their initiatives. Though
he has good relationship with the upper management yet he is trying to build
good relationships with lower employees as well. After assigning tasks he
gives full authority and let subordinates take responsibility for getting the job
done the way they see fit.

PATH GOAL THEORY

The concept of Path goal theory tells about how leaders motivate
subordinate to accomplish designed goals. The path goal theory explains
how leaders can help subordinate along the path by selecting specific
behaviors that are best suited to subordinates’ needs and the situation in
which subordinate are working.
The concept of path goal theory can’t be directly applied to the above
leaders, as the task accomplishment is delegated to project manager,
support manager and team leader; hence it is not the responsibility of CEO
to involve actively at every step for task accomplishment. The CEO is
responsible for getting good clients, creating good relationship and providing
quality products to the corporate clients. He is more concern to grow Avanza
and compete into the dynamic market. While getting maximum and effective
outcome is assigned to project manager and they are responsible to convey
and communicate goals to their team members, support them in day to day
operation, provide them technical and necessary support so that the
accomplishment of project can be made certain. Here, project manager
make confirm that their team is well aware of the goals, defines specific
deadline and provides supports at every step so that task can be get
accomplished in due time. The involvement of Mahmood Kupurwala has not
been much unless a critical situation needs it. There has been restructuring
of their organization and he meets monthly to the head of department and
discusses updates and status of each project. The head of departments then
communicates to the project manger about the expectation and new
direction given by the CEO. On the other side Junaid Hamid Khan was very
interactive; he used to be very participatory and get direct feedback from
them. As one of the employees remarked that Junaid Hamid Khan was not
comparable with Mahmood Kupurwala as both having different ways of
getting worked done from the employees. Mahmood Kupurwala has set an
organized structure of reporting, however at Junaid Hamid Khan there was no
such system of organized reporting, yet there was no question on his
exceptional performance. Junaid Hamid khan had achievement oriented
leadership style as due to technical expertise and participatory in nature, he
used to challenge and guide their employee to bring new and cost effective
product into the market.

LEADER MEMBER EXCHANGE THEORY

Leader member exchange theory focuses on interaction between leader and

follower. The central concept is the dyadic relationship that a leader forms
with each of his her subordinates. The theory explains the differences in how
goals are accomplished using in group as compared to out groups are
substantial.

The concept of Leader- Member Exchange theory can be applied as former

CEO; Junaid Hamid Khan served for a considerable tenure and developed a
good relationship with their employees. This has turned employees to work
for organization more than their job description. Secondly development of
software products calls for flexibility and mastery on a number of skills,
hence the concept of in group emerges and it is necessary for employees to
be in group so that they can better meet the dynamic nature of the products.
Considering the nature of product development, Junaid Hamid Khan
supported in group environment where people can share their expertise,
taking on new and different responsibilities so that subordinate can work on
different and new task efficiently. On the other side those who keep them
isolate and think that they are responsible tasks matching their job
description are part of out group. These people can’t sustain in the very
dynamic nature of job at Avanza. Subordinate who are in group are very
much rewarded and supported and their initiatives are considered for their
promotion. Mahmood Kupurwala has set organized structure of reporting and
meets every month to the head of the department and discusses them about
the progress and updates of different projects. The process helped boosting
accountability and interaction among employees.
The Charismatic Leader

Junaid Mehmood
Khan Kapoorwala

Transformationa Transactiona Laissez-faire

l Leadership l Leadership Leadership

An analysis of the leadership styles, traits and methods leads to the conclusion that
while Junaid Khan lies in the between a transformational and transactional leader,
Mehmood Kapoorwala is transactional with some signs of Laissez-faire. This
distinction comes due to difference in the educational backgrounds and working
knowledge of the two leaders.

Avanza Solutions is a high technology dependent organization. For this reason, it

requires the CEO to have some measure of technical know-how. Where Junaid Khan
is a hardcore developer, Mehmood Kapoorwala comes from a financial, non-
technical background. Theoretically, the company can run soundly even without
extensive technical knowledge. However, the highly supportive relationship that
became the culture of Junaid Khan’s tenure has caused some pressure for Mehmood
Kapoorwala. Even though he is thoroughly knowledgable about the company
functions, projects, customers and operations, the lack of IT know-how has forced
him to act as a more transactional leader by delegating tasks to the subordinates.
The factors that make Junaid Khan a transformational leader are:

1. Idealized influence
Junaid Khan had the personality that influenced those who worked under him
to look up to him for direction and motivation. The initiatives that Junaid Khan
took to control employee turnover and reduce dissatisfaction amongst the
employees contributed to establishing his influence. These include:

• Birthday parties every 3-4 months

• Annual dinner and award night
• Company picnics

2. Inspirational motivation
 His close association with his employees encouraged them to seek him out as
a leader. Motivational factors like easy working environment and
empowerment in taking work related decisions.

Mehmood Kapoorwala has further empowered employees as he does not take

project decisions. However, his attitude is also more comfortable with the
senior executives but not with the entire work force.

3. Intellectual stimulation
Avanza Solutions operates on pre-developed business solutions. However, the
development team keeps on updating and upgrading the product. The
implementation team is responsible to customize the solutions to fit
organizational needs and the Q&A team works to keep the systems at the top
level of quality. The new projects continuously keep the employees on their
feet to set and accomplish new targets.

4. Individualized consideration
As mentioned previously, Junaid Khan had the unique relationship style
whereby he took interest in individual performances and achievements,
rewarded personalized efforts and shared the success and failures of all
individual employees. He tried to maintain a dyadic relationship, which was
restrained by organizational structural constraints.
Junaid Khan’s charisma
Background:

One of the factors that made Junaid Khan more comfortable to work with was his
technical knowledge and background. With a computer science degree and having
worked in the software industry as a developer, he could easily relate to employee
problems, dilemmas and needs.

Personality:

Junaid Khan was a man of determination. He wanted results and for that he took all
possible courses of actions that made people put in their best efforts into their jobs.
His self-confidence and integrity drew the trust of his subordinates.

Reducing employee dissatisfaction:

To overcome employee dissatisfaction and high turnover rates, which are a

common feature in the software business, Junaid Khan introduced an Event
Management Committee. The tasks of the committee included planning and
conducting extra-curricular activities for the employee. Some of these activities
were:

• Annual dinners where distinguished employees were awarded

• Discouraged late sittings
• Company picnics

Junaid also established a culture that discouraged late sittings, another norm of the
software (and other services) industry.

Relationship with subordinates:

Junaid Khan tried to establish a dyadic relationship with his subordinates. At his
level, this relationship was strongest with the top executives of the company.
However, at the same time, he tried to keep good ties with lower level management
and task force.

Empowering employees:

The most interesting factor in the organizational culture set by Junaid Khan was the
power awarded to the employees to determine their own course of action when
dealing with clients. Higher management involvement was limited. Almost all the
transactions were carried out by the work teams themselves.
Challenges faced by Mehmood Kapoorwala:
Background:

Mehmood Kapoorwala comes from a financial background. Previously he served

Avanza in the capacity of a CFO. His valuable services, good repute and honest
interests in Avanza got him his position as the current CEO.

For any organization, high conceptual and average human skills are acceptable to
lead the organization successfully. However, in the wake of Junaid Khan’s legacy,
the absence of technical knowledge is causing a strain between the Mr. Kapoorwala
and his subordinates.

Relationship:

Being from the executive body of Avanza prior to becoming the CEO, it was easy for
Mehmood Kapoorwala to resume very good relations with the executive team.
However, this is not true for the rest of the crowd. Not being very social, the other
employees of the company hardly know him. This would take them time to
recognize him as a new leader.

Leadership:

Mehmood Kapoorwala has continued to adapt Junaid Khan’s methods of looking

after employee interests. In the process, his limitation in technical knowledge has
given him a disadvantage as he has not taken up any new initiatives on his own.
However, it should be kept in mind that Mr. Kapoorwala’s tenure has only been of a
short 2 year period as yet. Given time he may be able to improve on the situation.

Dealing with a crisis situation:

The true test of leadership comes at the time of a crisis. One may speculate that
Mehmood Kapoorwala did not clear it with flying colors. Due to the recent
recessionary period, Avanza Solutions also came under tight monetary constraints.
This is because their projects are high costing solutions that other companies may
not be willing to indulge in right now. At such a time, when jobs are also short in the
market, Kapoorwala responded by laying off 40 employees. This move by a
relatively new CEO has led to further distance between the leader and his
subordinates rather than vice versa.
TEAMS AT AVANZA
The structure of teams at Avanza can be understood by looking at the organization
structure.

Organization Structure
There company is divided into two main departments,

1. E-Business

2. E-Banking

Teams in E-Business
E-Business is a project based department i.e. it does not offer any specific products
to potential clients. If any organization or potential client wants to get a system
developed, it submits the functional specifications or requirements to the e-
Business department. Once the project is signed-on, the project development
teams, consisting of Software Engineers and developers, first design the product
and then develop its prototype. The prototype is then extended to a final product
through continuous client feedback.

Besides the Project Development team, e-Business has its own Quality Assurance
team, which tests each project and ensures if it meets client specifications or not.
The Quality Assurance team carries out several rounds of tests both at the office
premises and at the client site, once the project has been deployed. The Quality
Assurance teams consist of Quality Assurance Engineers.

Sequential Interdependence in E-Business

Quality Assurance team is sequentially interdependent on Project Development
team. The project has to be developed by the software engineers first, before it can
be passed on to the Quality Assurance Team for testing.

Sequential Interdependence in E-Business

Teams in E-Banking
E-Banking is a product based department, i.e. it offers banking solutions. Two of its
most prominent products are Nimbus and Rendezvous, which automate
transactions like ATM transactions, credit card/debit card transactions, mobile
phone transactions and transactions over IVR (Interactive Voice Response). E-
Banking is structured into three teams namely, development team, implementation
team and quality assurance team.

Since Nimbus and Rendezvous provide solution to a multitude of banking activities,

these products need only to be customized to the needs of each individual bank
(client). The responsibility of the Development team is to enhance and upgrade
these products, and add features to them as the changing banking environment
deems it necessary. The Implementation team customizes these products to match
the requirements of the client. It ensures that the functions and features requested
by the client are in place in the version being deployed, and that those which have
not been requested are removed. It also has the responsibility to deploy the system
at client site. The Quality Assurance team in e-Banking helps to make the system
error free, similar to the Quality Assurance team in e-Business.
Sequential Interdependence in E-Banking
There is sequential interdependence between the three teams in e-Banking. Product
features are added by the development team, customized and deployed by the
implementation team if requested by the client, and tested by the quality assurance
team both at office and at client site.

Sequential Interdependence in E-Banking

NATURE OF E-BUSINESS & E-BANKING TEAMS
Teams at Avanza fall in the ‘permanent and formal’ category. Teams in the e-
Business and e-Banking departments have defined hierarchy, which makes the
relationship formal. Also the teams have been permanently created, and projects
are assigned to teams as they come up, rather than teams being formed for every
project that is signed on.

Temporary teams are formed for special projects that come up, which require the
expertise of people from different existing teams. For such unusual and special
projects, people from different teams are picked up and assigned to the project.
Such temporary teams exist as long as the project is in progress and adjourn once
the project is complete. However, these teams too have a formal reporting structure
and fall in the ‘temporary and formal’ category.
TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
Team effectiveness is the extent to which a team achieves its objectives, achieves
the needs and objectives of its members and sustains itself over time. It refers to
how a team affects the organization, individual team members and the team’s
existence. We will AND
ORGANIZATIONAL examine the team effectiveness at Avanza Solutions under the
following
TEAMTeam Effectiveness Framework.
ENVIRONMENT

• Reward Systems TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

TEAM DESIGN
• Communication • Achieve
Systems • Tasks organizational
Characteristics Goals
• Physical Space
• Team Size
• Organizational
Environment TEAM PROCESSES
• Organizational • Satisfy
• Team member needs
Structure
Development
• Organizational
• Team Norms
Leadership
Organizational and Team Environment
Reward Systems:
The reward system at Avanza Solutions is not well established. The members are
rewarded based on their individual performance and not the basis of their team
performance. Since in the IT industry, nearly all projects are team based, the team
work aspect is not taken into account. Instead personal performance of an
employee is the indicator of the rewards that they will be entitled to.

Communications System and Physical Space:

The communications system at Avanza is well established. The cubicles with the
working space are randomly assigned to encourage interaction among team
members and office colleagues. This encourages interaction among the team
members and its helps in building a health relationship. Most of the formal
communication is done over email and telephone.

Organizational Environment:
Avanza Solutions enjoys a good reputation in the market. Mr. Mehmood Kapurwala
told us that Avanza has a number of corporate clients and strategic clients. It has
enjoyed good reputation with its clients, which has helped it to spread it wings
globally. It enjoys good relations with its clients and rarely faces any trouble in
managing its clients and external resources.

Organizational Structure:
The Organizational structure at Avanza Solutions is a purely flat team based
structure. Every team has a team lead. However the team members enjoy open
communication with the team lead. The CEO is also easily accessible. The individual
teams are given enough autonomy to select and manage the projects on their own.
The CEO only gets involved, when a project does not meet the company strategy or
when the strategic partner’s interests are at stake.
Organizational Leadership:
The leadership at Avanza needs to be more encouraging and motivating. The team
members at Avanza Solutions are not motivated enough, mainly due to the rewards
systems. Also since the teams are given too much autonomy, they are responsible
for any mistakes and actions on their part. Therefore they sometimes get
discouraged. Therefore the management needs to make an effort to make the
environment more encouraging, motivating and rewarding.

Organizational and Team Environment

Task Characteristics:

This involves the concept of task interdependence i.e. the degree to which a task
requires employees to share common inputs or outcomes or to interact in the
process of executing their work. They follow the model of Sequential
Interdependence. The team members depend on each other and the work output is
regularly shared among the employees. In an IT industry, the team members work
on their separate modules and come together for the final integration. However this
is a continuous process and the modules have to be aligned properly. Therefore
team member’s task characteristics, within the Development, implementation and
quality assurance teams, fall into the category of Sequential Interdependence,
which involves continuous updates from every team member within the loop.
However Pooled Interdependence exists for e-Banking and e-Business Departments
on Marketing and Human Resource Departments

Team Size:
The team size is small. It comprises of 3-4 individuals working under a team lead.
The team members have diverse capabilities to make up for the dynamic nature for
the industry and the project.

Team Composition:
Teams at Avanza Solutions are mostly homogeneous i.e. the team members share
common technical expertise, qualification and skills. There is a lot of gender
diversity; however the male population is larger.
Organizational and Team Environment
Team Norms:
The teams at Avanza follow certain norms. One of them is punctuality. Team
members adhere to being punctual and on time during their office reporting hours.
Secondly, the team members resort to information sharing. It is not as if they
withhold information. They work for the company and whatever information is
necessary for the successful completion of the tasks and projects is shared with the
team members. Thirdly, the team members take initiatives to come up with unique
problem solving solutions which is important in today’s dynamic industry. They also
adhere in meeting the tight deadlines that might exist.

Team Roles:
The team roles are well defined at Avanza Solutions. The team works independently
under a team lead. He reports to the project manager. The team lead has a number
of developers and software engineers working under him.

Team Cohesiveness:
The teams at Avanza are pretty much cohesive as members come from almost the
same background. The team sizes are small, ranging from 3-5 individuals, which
encourage open communication among the team members. Also member
interaction in encourage to build team cohesiveness. The team often faces critical
situations, such as an approaching deadline and work together in order to overcome
it. Due to high team cohesiveness, a high task performance is seen.

Based on all this we conclude that the Team Design and Team processes help
achieve the organizational goals of Avanza Solutions. However despite having a
good team based structure, we do see some dissatisfaction among the team
members. This is due to the fact that lack of guidance and leadership in certain
critical situations leads to dissatisfaction among the team members. Members also
sometimes feel that they are poorly rewarded. The turnovers rate it very high and
new members come in to create entirely new teams. This takes up valuable time
and the new employees take some time to adjust to the environmental fit. The high
employee turnover is an indicator of member dissatisfaction.
VIRTUAL TEAMS:
The virtual teams at Avanza are organized as such that they have several
communication channels on which they communicate with the team members. The
primary mode of communication is through email, while they also communicate
through phone. The team tasks are divided as such so that every team member is
aware of his or her responsibilities. The tasks are not ambiguous. The teams are
composed of individuals with diverse background and experiences so that they
complement each other.

CSR TODAY
Although Avanza has progressed quite rapidly in the Software Industry and has
developed a strong standing in banking solutions, the company lags in the area of
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). One major reason for negligence of corporate
social responsibility is lack of CSR initiatives by other companies in the Software
Industry. There is no trend of CSR activities in the Software Industry and the
companies are primarily focused on profit making and on capturing a larger share of
the market.

Another factor for low consideration of CSR is the size of Software companies in
Pakistan. Most of the software firms in Pakistan are medium-sized. Since no support
is given by the government for the development of small and medium sized
enterprises, these firms have to strive hard to grow to international markets, and as
such no attention is given to the well-being of the society in the initial growth years
of the company.

CSR TOMORROW
Now that Avanza has successfully developed a global presence with strong
domestic and international clients, the company’s new CEO plans to initiate CSR
projects as well. One of the CSR projects in line is the COMPUTER EDUCATION &
TRAINING OF THE UNDERPRIVILIGED. Under this program, the company plans to
provide computer education and training to young people who can not afford to get
a computer degree from a reputable organization. The plan is to provide education
and training at the company’s expense, and to target individuals who’re willing to
pursue a career in the software industry.

This program will help the company get access to cheap resource, meeting the skill
and expertise needs of the company. The trained individuals can then be offered
jobs in the company, giving a decent livelihood to the individual and offering the
company skilled human resource.
Recommendations
After studying the leadership styles and team formations at Avanza solutions, we
came up with the following recommendations for the company:

• Mehmood Kapoorwala should adopt a more transformational style to win the

trust of his employees

• Leadership at the team level i.e. Team leads should be more directive and
structure tasks

• More initiatives to build employee association with the company should be taken

• Teams should be seated together to improve intra-team communication

• CSR initiatives should be taken up to enhance company image

References
Mr. Mehmood Kapoorwala, CEO Avanza Solutions

Leadership, Teamwork and Corporate Social Responsibility Course Book, Compiled

by IBA