India’s Top 500 Value Creators 2023

6 | India’s Top 500 Value Creators 2023 [ EXPERT’S VIEW ] What are some of the key milestones in Zoho Corporation’s journey as a value creator? Zoho Corporation was founded 28 years ago with the vision of building a product company from India. This was when service companies were the norm. The company’s strong R&D focus enabled us to build its entire technology stack from scratch. This longterm approach has helped Zoho build one of the broadest and deepest portfolios in the industry, and get 25 patents in recent years. At Zoho, we bel ieve privacy is a fundamental right. We don’t use or sell customer data. We also don’t show advertisements in our products, even free offerings. We have also removed third-party trackers from our website. We recently launched a privacy-first browser, Ulaa, which aims to safeguard users’ online journey from intrusive, and exploitative mechanisms used by third-party data hoarders. Zoho Corp. has 15000+ employees globally, and follows the transnational localism policy. As part of it, we hire locally, work with local partners, and Bharath Kumar B Head of Marketing and Customer Experience Zoho Creator invest in partnerships for local business communities. The company has also adopted a hub-and-spoke model. In India, there are five hub offices and around 30 spoke offices, even in tier 2/3 towns and villages. This year, Zoho became the first bootstrapped SaaS company to cross 100 mn users. The company also reached 1 bn USD in annual revenue in 2021. What key initiatives has the company taken to enhance operational efficiency and overall productivity in its business operations? To enhance efficiency, Zoho leverages its own products for operations. Given its diverse portfol io, Zoho offers products for each business function, a productivity and col laboration suite, Zoho Workplace. This platform comes with tools like Zoho Mail, Zoho Cliq (team chat), Zoho Meeting (video conferencing), Zoho Connect (intranet), AIengine (Zia), and, office tools. This suite also helps in trickling- down the cultural values. For instance, to promote open communication our CEO hosts a virtual town hall every Friday, in which employees can even post questions anonymously. How is the company leveraging data and technology to improve its business resilience? For Zoho, business resilience comes from strategic decisions that the founders have taken. For example, we operate from non-urban areas, which brings down operational costs.We also choose to build products in-house, instead of acquiring companies, which helps build capabilities for the long- term. Our focus on R&D is another factor that aids business resilience. The ratio of our marketing to R&D spend is 1:3. The cost savings from this go to end customers, making our software affordable. These decisions helped us survive the dot-com bubble burst and the global financial crisis. We believe that our investments in R&D, and our people have helped build a strong foundation, and stay resilient in a turbulent economy. How is company’s sustainability commitment aligned with its overall business strategy? Zoho has integrated ESG values into its operations, making philanthropy a part of its business model. We have implemented several initiatives in our local communities, including establishing organic farms in India and the US. Furthermore, we followa “transnational localism” approach to expand our business. We focus on smaller cities, ageing towns and villages that lack necessary infrastructure, institutions, and economy to ensure opportunities for their residents. We invest in these places by funding local schools, partnering with city management, building offices, and upskilling. Du & Bradstreet