Over-spending by consumers and high leverage on the enterprise side is the problem. India is lucky because of the RBI managing the economy. Why do you say that, and what are the implications for India in such a case? You have mentioned a few times that there is downturn waiting to happen. It is about an entire new platform that has its own dynamics of user interface and performance.ħ. By the way, building a mobile app is not about replicating the web world to a mobile form. Our suite of office productivity apps and the CRM have all moved mobile. Today, our mobile device management application for enterprises is a popular product. Software is the business today and business is defined by the power of software. Today, this small device can control large machines. That changed the entire ecosystem of services on the mobile. In 2007, when the first iPhone was out, I was invited to a conference and almost everyone in that room had the iPhone. SV. This was one thing that no enterprise predicted. What about the mobile? Could anyone have predicted its growth in such a short span? IoT, as you know, has many applications in the connected world.Ħ. The WebNMS business is about preparing firmware of the future, which can then be implemented with device manufacturers for an IoT play. The delivery of this product will also eventually move to the cloud as enterprises begin to share their APIs to deliver such service. It enables them to figure out the downtime and availability of nodes. The Manage Engine business is for large telecom vendors who want software to manage switches, nodes, printers and other access points of an enterprise. But the Zoho suite of products will grow faster. SV. Manage Engine is still a large business by value. You have two big businesses, Manage Engine and WebNMS. You have many Indian global CEOs the same cannot be said about many other Asian countries.ĥ. I think Indian philosophy and global history has enough examples of preparing leaders for running global companies. The mark of a leader is to learn constantly and understand different people without being troubled by their expectations. Now, I am learning Hindi because I want to be able to communicate with my new hires. Ten percent of my young engineers are from Bihar and this number is only increasing. I relate this to dynamic leadership because it enables me to understand and accept people across borders. I say English is important for economic growth, but one should also know everything about his or her culture. My company is global and yet I have not forgotten my cultural roots. For example I am Tamil, but I can also speak English. Indian culture has been a fluidic culture and it teaches us to accept so many changes. That’s how most of our products in Zoho were born.Īs a leader, I believe in being fluidic. Failures are good and experimenting is a key to success. I am open to ideas in my organisation, which is why we have every team working with an idea that can become a product. These startups are in the areas of core technology. SV. I have invested in four companies and the founders share a common vision of building long-lasting businesses. Have you invested in startups and how do you manage leadership in a culturally diverse organisation? I must advice startups that you need partners or investors who will stay invested with you for life and help build great technology.Ĥ. Deep down I think Google and Apple would know that after a certain scale you do not require to go public. Now, I have shown everyone that sometimes you do not need VC money. I respect that theirs is a different philosophy and it is their view of building companies. That said, many VC company founders are my friends. It was a good decision because today I can experiment with technology and invest 50 percent of my money in R&D without having someone telling me where I should put my money. But, at the time, I was termed arrogant by the VC and he left the office fuming. So, like a good man, I said no to the money. The philosophy of taking somebody’s money and promising them what they want looks like a gamble to me. My point is that the whole construct is questionable and not glued to reality. However, that is a standard clause for all VCs and everyone signs it. I did not know finance back then, but my mind kept saying that this clause is just not right. The clause said that I must go for an IPO or generate liquidity in eight years. In fact, I was given a term sheet in 1999. Was it tempting to go to a venture capital fund?
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