Blah Blah from The TeaBreak Team.

When I first met Farzal Dojki, I thought to myself “What a serious young man! He hardly ever smiles”. But over time, I have got to know him better and although he is serious about a lot of things (which is a good thing), I have discovered that he also has a great sense of humour as you will see in this episode of “In the Line of Wire”.

After getting his Intermediate degree in Pre-engineering from Adamjee Science College , Farzal opted for a dual Bachelors in Computer Science and Economics  from UT Austin (not something we hear much of in this country although it really makes such great sense). He then went on to do his MS in Information Systems from NYU while he was working with Merrill Lynch.

To truly understand what goes on in the mind of this young man, one only has to read what he says on  his LinkedIn profile:

Life is too short to be doing boring and ordinary stuff. Let one of the 6 Billion people work on that. I want to use the privilege of having university educated parents (a novelty in Pakistan during the 1980s), excellent schooling, and 7 years spent in Austin and NYC to produce extraordinary stuff!

He says he is passionate about delivery channels – from Branchless Banking and 24×7 direct insurance to mobile multimedia and social networking.

This can be seen from the kind of companies he has chosen to work with in Pakistan;

1. amaana: amaana is the payment platform for emerging markets that bridges the gap between the banked and the unbanked population and helps to digitize transactions being conducted at the bottom of the Pyramid.
2. PixSense: A pioneer in mobile media solutions.
3. Trakker Direct Insurance: Employee 001, at the first direct insurance company in Pakistan, along the lines of Geico in US and Direct Line in UK.

Farzal is also Visiting faculty at the Institute of Business Administration in karachi and is teaching IT/MIS/CS related subjects to BBA/MBA students. One of the things that Farzal does very effectively is use the internet to connect with his students. He posts course work, assignmnts, notices, information regarding guest lectures and exam notices and reviews online and maintains an open communication channel with the young people he teaches. I wish more teachers would use the power of the web so effectively. It doesn’t take very much technical expertise to set it up and maintain it.

In this episode of ITLoW, Farzal talks about a host of topics including education, internships, the lack of sufficient innovation in the business sector and the tendency of IT companies to develop technology solutions for the sake of technology and not really as an answer to innovating the way business is done.

We also talk about how mobile solutions can help connect the rural parts of Pakistan to services and benefits that are not available to them at the present time. As you will see throughout the interview, Farzal is a bright young Pakistani who is intent on being a part of the solution to whatever ails this country. We have many such young people here, and with their participation in the overall development of business and of the society, there is every reason to hope that we will continue to progress.

This cup of tea was served by: In the Line of Wire