W-01: Company Operating Rhythm¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Document | W-01 |
| Title | Company Operating Rhythm |
| Status | Draft |
| Owner | CDO |
| Created | 2026-04-05 |
| Review | Quarterly |
| Depends On | STD-GOV-135 (Execution Framework), STD-GOV-136 (Performance Management) |
Purpose¶
Define the heartbeat of Simpaisa. Every meeting, review, and reporting obligation across the company at every level, from the Board down to daily engineering stand-ups.
If a meeting is not on this page, it does not exist. If a cadence changes, this page is updated. This is the master clock.
Operating Rhythm Overview¶
ANNUAL
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Board AGM [Board]
Annual strategy review [CEO + ELT]
Annual budget cycle [CFO + ELT]
Annual external audit [CFO + External]
Annual security pen test [CISO + External]
Technology Radar update [CDO + ARB]
Operating Model review [CEO + CDO]
QUARTERLY
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Board meeting [Board]
Audit & Risk Committee [Board Committee]
Compliance & Regulatory Committee [Board Committee]
Technology & InfoSec Committee [Board Committee]
Remuneration & Nomination Committee [Board Committee]
Quarterly Strategy Review [CEO + ELT]
Quarterly initiative review [Leadership Forum]
Architecture health assessment [ARB]
Technical debt review [CTO + CDO]
Regulatory compliance review [Global Head Regulatory]
MONTHLY
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ELT Monthly Business Review [CEO + ELT]
Performance Review (red items) [CEO + Dept Heads]
ARB meeting (1st Tuesday) [CDO + ARB members]
Security posture review [CISO → CDO]
Channel health review [COO + CDO]
Revenue review per corridor [CFO + Commercial]
Country Heads monthly [CEO + Country Heads]
FORTNIGHTLY
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Leadership Forum [CEO + CDO + COO + CFO + Dept Heads]
Engineering retrospective [Per Kanban team]
WEEKLY
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ELT Weekly Standup [CEO + ELT]
Department standups (per dept) [Dept Head + Team Leads]
Engineering weekly planning [Per Kanban team]
Engineering demo (show what shipped)[Per Kanban team + stakeholders]
Operations daily handover [COO + Ops Leads]
DAILY
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Engineering stand-ups (15 min) [Per Kanban team]
Operations shift handover [Ops team]
NOC/SOC monitoring review [CISO team]
Detailed Cadences¶
Board Level¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Attendees | Purpose | Outputs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board Meeting | Quarterly (minimum) | All directors | Strategy oversight, financial review, risk oversight, regulatory matters | Board minutes, action items |
| AGM | Annually | As per jurisdiction | Statutory requirements | AGM minutes |
| Extraordinary Board Meeting | As required | All directors (5 business days notice) | Material events, urgent matters | Board resolution |
| Audit & Risk Committee | Quarterly | Committee members + CFO | Financial statements, risk register, audit findings | Committee report to Board |
| Compliance & Regulatory Committee | Quarterly | Committee members + Global Head Regulatory | Regulatory compliance status across all jurisdictions | Committee report to Board |
| Technology & InfoSec Committee | Quarterly | Committee members + CDO + CISO | Technology strategy, security posture, major programmes | Committee report to Board |
| Remuneration & Nomination Committee | Twice yearly minimum | Committee members + Head of HR | Executive compensation, appointments | Committee report to Board |
Board papers circulated minimum 5 business days before meeting. Company Secretary responsible for minutes and action tracking.
Executive Leadership Team (ELT)¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose | Rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELT Weekly Standup | Weekly (Monday) | 30 min | CEO, CDO, COO, CFO, CSNO, CTO, CISO, CPO, Country Heads, Global Head Regulatory | Performance updates, blockers, cross-functional alignment, escalations | Standing meeting. No presentations. Each person: 2 minutes max. |
| ELT Monthly Business Review | Monthly (last week) | 90 min | Full ELT | KPI performance, financial results, risk and compliance status, strategic initiatives | Written pre-read circulated 48 hours before. Meeting is for decisions, not presentations. |
Leadership Forum (from STD-GOV-135)¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership Forum | Fortnightly (alternate Tuesdays) | 90 min | CEO, CDO, COO, CFO, department heads | Initiative status review, new proposals, unblock, reprioritise |
Agenda per STD-GOV-135: Blockers (10 min) → Status by exception (20 min) → New proposals (15 min) → Strategic alignment (15 min) → Resource conflicts (15 min) → Decisions summary (10 min) → Actions (5 min).
Rule: No presentations. Written status submitted 24 hours before.
Performance Review (from STD-GOV-136)¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Performance Review | Monthly (last week) | 60 min | CEO, CDO, COO, CFO, department heads | Metrics by exception. Red and amber items only. Green is silent. |
| Quarterly Strategy Review | Quarterly | Half-day | Full ELT | Assess outcomes vs strategy. Recalibrate targets. Close stale initiatives. |
Engineering (CDO Division)¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Stand-up | Daily | 15 min | Kanban team members | What I did, what I'm doing, blockers. Focus on blocked items and WIP. |
| Weekly Planning | Weekly (Monday) | 1 hour | Kanban team + Product Manager | Replenish the board. Pull highest-priority items from backlog. Review WIP limits. |
| Weekly Demo | Weekly (Friday) | 30 min | Kanban team + stakeholders | Show what shipped this week. Gather feedback. |
| Retrospective | Fortnightly | 45 min | Kanban team only | What went well, what to improve, actions. |
| CDO Division Standup | Weekly (Tuesday) | 30 min | CDO, CTO, CPO, CISO, Data Lead, team leads | Cross-team alignment, dependency management, escalations |
Delivery method: Kanban with weekly planning. Continuous flow. WIP limits per team. Deploy when ready. No fixed sprints.
Kanban teams: Pay-In, Pay-Out, Portal, DevOps/Infra, SQA (shared across teams).
Architecture Review Board (from STD-GOV-124)¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARB Scheduled | Monthly (1st Tuesday) | 60 min | CDO (Chair), Platform Lead, Security Lead, Data Lead, Rotating Engineer | ADR reviews, standards exceptions, architectural health |
| ARB Ad-hoc | As needed | 30 min | CDO + relevant leads | Urgent ADRs, significant incidents, architecture decisions |
Security Operations (CISO)¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOC Daily Review | Daily | 15 min | SOC team | Alert triage, incident status, threat updates |
| Security Weekly | Weekly | 30 min | CISO + Security team | Vulnerability status, pen test findings, compliance items |
| Security Posture Monthly | Monthly | 30 min | CISO → CDO | Security score update, findings status, risk items |
Operations (COO Division)¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ops Daily Handover | Daily | 15 min | Ops leads (shift handover) | Transaction health, partner status, incidents, queue status |
| Ops Weekly | Weekly | 30 min | COO + Ops leads + Country ops | Weekly ops review, SLA tracking, partner escalations |
| Channel Health Monthly | Monthly | 30 min | COO + CDO + Partner leads | Channel success rates, partner performance, remediation |
| Country Heads Monthly | Monthly | 60 min | CEO + Country Heads | Country performance, regulatory updates, market intelligence |
Finance (CFO Division)¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finance Weekly | Weekly | 30 min | CFO + Finance team | Cash position, settlement status, AR/AP, budget tracking |
| Revenue Review Monthly | Monthly | 45 min | CFO + Commercial + Country Heads | Revenue per corridor, merchant economics, FX exposure |
| Settlement Reconciliation Daily | Daily | 15 min | Settlement team | Daily settlement accuracy, discrepancies, escalations |
Commercial¶
| Meeting | Frequency | Duration | Attendees | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Pipeline Weekly | Weekly | 30 min | Commercial Head + Sales team | Pipeline review, prospect status, conversion tracking |
| Merchant Quarterly Review | Quarterly | Per merchant | Commercial + Merchant | Relationship review, volume trends, product adoption |
Time Zone Considerations¶
Staff span GMT+4 (Dubai/AE), GMT+5 (PK), GMT+5:30 (NP), GMT+5:45 (NP), GMT+6 (BD), GMT+3 (IQ).
Core overlap hours: 10:00-14:00 Dubai time (GMT+4). All cross-market meetings scheduled within this window.
Meeting-free blocks: No meetings before 09:00 or after 17:00 local time for any participant. Respect prayer times (Zuhr: ~12:30-13:30 in PK/BD/NP/IQ varies by season).
Calendar Management¶
- All recurring meetings in shared Google Calendar (or Outlook, per tool decision).
- Meeting invites include: agenda link, pre-read link, expected duration.
- Meetings start on time. If the organiser is not present within 5 minutes, the meeting is cancelled.
- All meetings produce written outputs (decisions, actions) within 24 hours.
- No meeting should exist without a clear purpose. If a meeting regularly produces no decisions or actions, it should be cancelled.
Annual Calendar¶
| Month | Key Events |
|---|---|
| January | Annual budget finalisation. Q4 previous year review. |
| February | Strategy refresh. Board Q4 meeting. |
| March | Q1 end. Quarterly reviews. |
| April | Leadership Offsite (Karachi, 2026). Q1 close. Board Q1 meeting. |
| May | First Leadership Forum under Execution Framework. |
| June | Q2 mid-point. Half-year performance review. |
| July | Q2 close. Board Q2 meeting. Annual pen test. |
| August | Technology Radar update. Architecture health assessment. |
| September | Q3 mid-point. Annual external audit prep. |
| October | Q3 close. Board Q3 meeting. Budget planning for next year. |
| November | Strategy planning for next year. |
| December | Q4 mid-point. Year-end prep. Reduced operations (holidays). |
Compliance with This Document¶
Every meeting listed here must happen. If a meeting is consistently skipped, the CDO or CEO must decide: fix it or remove it from this document. Ghost meetings (on the calendar but never held) are not acceptable.
New meetings can be added by any department head but must be registered here with purpose, cadence, and attendees. Unregistered meetings are not protected time.