In praise of mafia in a software studio

Kaz has always had a mafia. It is an institution that is deeply ingrained in our culture. We have always had a Don in our history and the personality of the Don defined the nature of our culture and our outlook at that point in time.

​"A mafia!" you might say.

"Yes a mafia" we would answer. A mafia with all the characteristics of the real thing. A parallel force to the legal authority, a group with great power with dubious ways of getting things done, running a protection racket yet somehow benevolent to those who accept its existence. 

The mafia at Kaz or "The Underground" as it is euphemistically referred to most of time is a real force. A force of good. They set the tone of all our fun events. Their activity covers just about everything - from setting up a cricket tournament (where they run the betting ring) to arranging gifts for our weddings (where they send out their goons to collect money). Kaz mafia has also been rumored to be very much in contact with the authorities too! 

We think this alternative force is absolutely essential for us. Since this force is given a lot of power to act and speak in our system - it is possible for voices to be heard from a different group than the management. Underground has an image of the protector of the techies from the evil (and acts of insanity) of the mad group of non techie sub human droids that run the management. This image makes it easy for dissent to be voiced about policies or rules at Kaz. And this makes it possible for the management to "understand" their mistakes and make amendments to the rules and policies. It is really like a check and balance in the organization. And for a software studio where the main groups that are essential to the business are software people who run from a slightly different dimension than rest of the human population (to put it lightly) - this check and balance is very important.

​So I sing today the praise of our mafia and our great Don. 

N.B. Just in case you are new here: we are a software company in Bangladesh making custom web, desktop and mobile apps for other companies and being very good at it! Check out this page to know more about our software development work culture and environment.