GoZayaan is a travel tech startup rapidly becoming a strong contender in the Bangladeshi tourism industry. The company has been working relentlessly to digitize Bangladesh’s travel scene.
GoZayaan has been in the headlines since the beginning of this year with the acquisition of a foreign company. During the tough times of the pandemic, the company saw nearly 12 times growth.
The secret to this success can only be attributed to “the resilient group of people who have been working tirelessly to build the company”, says Ridwan Hafiz, Founder of GoZayaan.
The key to being a talent at GoZayaan is fairly simple—dedication and grit. GoZayaan has taken a friendly approach towards its talents when it comes to team building.
The company insists on focusing on dreamers who are willing to go limitless in their pursuit of solving problems rather than acquiring talents with a fixed set of skills.
This makes sense given that in the constantly evolving travel scene, it is imperative to have a group of people who can adapt to new situations and constantly learn from them.
Just like the company, the people who helped build it must be able to provide seamless service to users.
GoZayaan is willing to invest in enthusiastic individuals who are keen to learn and solve problems, even if they may lack certain technical skills.
Leadership in GoZayaan is not about control but growth. Team leads are focused on working together with their team members and coming up with new ideas. People thrive when they get the freedom to make their own decisions and see their ideas come to reality.
GoZayaan CEO Ridwan Hafiz insists on being heavily involved in nurturing every talent. A special ‘walk to remember’ session is organized so talents can have one on one sessions with the founder himself, this entails having a clear vision about GoZayaan.
The company has taken a unique policy of providing unlimited leaves for talents. For individuals with the urge to explore this is a dream come true. Such is the story of Munim Chowdhury, who donned a backpack on the 18th of April to conquer a mountain he’s been dreaming of for 12 years. The Baden Powell Scout Peak was discovered in 2007 at a height of 5710 meters. Being an assistant manager of Operations at GoZayaan, he had responsibilities at work he had to fulfill. But the company provided him with the freedom to conquer his dreams. Munim is a prime example of the talents who Go Limitless every day.
Being a travel company, working at GoZayaan comes with certain travel perks as well. Short tours to Cox’s Bazar or Sajek for work are very common in the office.
Every permanent talent at GoZayaan is also offered a free one-way domestic air ticket each year.
GoZayaan promotes a healthy work culture where all talents can have the freedom to express and discuss their ideas and innovations.
To promote a dynamic working environment, the company follows a ‘flat organizational structure’, meaning all talents have proper access to ownership.
The company maintains an open workspace where team members can choose to work from wherever they want. There are no fixed desks or workstations.
The company also hosts tours for individual teams and yearly events to boost morale. Monthly team lunches are a must for every department.
Moreover, to keep everyone in sync, town halls are arranged almost every other week to introduce new talents, announce exciting events or celebrate birthdays.
The teams are very interdependent which ensures that everyone helps everyone grow. The company is made up of primarily young people. The average age of talents is 30. Young talents are taught to lead, rather than to follow.
The company went into crisis mode when the 2020 pandemic overnight brought the majority of the tourism industry to a standstill. During difficult and uncertain times, the people who believed in GoZayaan stayed and helped it grow over 12 times.
Humayra Jahangir Adrita started as an intern handling queries with a team of only 15 people. Due to the small size of the company during its beginning, she had to work with every team to help the company grow. “I started my full time responsibilities as an executive of Customer Experience. But my passion was always for brand communication. I got a few opportunities to work with Imamul Islam Suprio bhai, our Chief Commercial Officer. I used that experience to transition into the Marketing team. Now the team is expanding again and I am getting the opportunity to lead an entirely new team.” said Adrita, who is now the Manager of Alliances & Partnerships.
Extensive research by its people helped GoZayaan discover an untapped market in domestic travels during the lockdown. So the company focused on onboarding local hoteliers and tours into their platform. This was all made possible by the extensive effort of a group of resilient people working together.
Fatema Tuz Zohra, Senior Executive of Talent & Culture at GoZayaan says, “I have seen people become more resilient and outspoken as time progressed. I can proudly say I am part of a company where people go the extra mile everyday. Our talents are the reason we, as a company, have been able to grow so much during the pandemic that we were even able to acquire a foreign travel platform in 2022.”
The company has been welcoming new talents on a daily basis due to its rapid growth. GoZayaan believes in the philosophy that every talent deserves to be nurtured according to their passion.
Difficult time brings out the best in humans. And difficult times often help forge the best camaraderie. The same goes for GoZayaan. The pandemic has helped create a team of individuals who are confident about their strengths and more willing to take risks.
GoZayaan’s work culture revolves around giving people the flexibility and freedom to grow. With the goal of retaining talents in mind, GoZayaan nurtures them so they can take on leadership roles in the future.
