Chief Strategy Officer at Zoho Corporation overseeing strategy, channels, and various marketing and operational efforts.
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In 1996, when our business was founded, there was no guidebook for starting a technology company. Cloud computing was in its infancy, and companies were focused on hardware, not software. What began as a network management service provider in New Jersey has grown into a global cloud software and technology company. Over 25 years, there are 25 lessons learned. The first half impacts the company's culture, values and employee experience — and has relevancy to any organization. The remaining lessons — centered on technology and growth — will appear in the next part of this two-part article series.
Culture
Interviews measure interviewing skills. At Zoho, prospective hires meet a lot of different people within the company. This way, no single interview dooms or promises a future. The more time and resources a business can commit to finding an employee, the better the fit between that person and the company. Instead of only meeting with an HR representative and a direct manager, ideally, prospective hires would interview with a future colleague outside of their department, someone on their level within their department and somebody higher up. Consensus among all these people will lead to a better fit for a new hire and potentially a longer career with the company.
Titles do not define you. There is no extensive hierarchy within the company. The flat structure encourages open communication, especially during all-hands meetings and town halls. The fastest way to reach a fellow employee at Zoho is through our chat application, Cliq. For other global businesses, especially ones with a flatter corporate structure, chat applications are a great starting point for communication, and from there, the conversation can go to a myriad of different formats, depending on the need. For organizations with a strict hierarchy, a tool or system where employees can give anonymous feedback to leadership or managers is vital for both building trust and sourcing ideas.
Experienced employees make great mentors. In our India office, there is a leadership layer of experienced employees who mentor the next generations. This ensures there is minimal to no loss of product and customer expertise and creates cultural continuity over time. Nobody should be forced to mentor, and in fact, business leaders should already have good onboarding and upskilling opportunities in place. In order to encourage mentorship, however, businesses should make allowances for mentors and mentees, whether that's extending deadlines or providing better access to more resources — such as equipment or even senior-level employees themselves.
Values
People, culture and values last. We have learned to be flexible in our products and technology offerings but to be rigid in defense and support of our workforce and their values. Losing your people can mean you have lost your identity as a company.
Know when "no" is the right answer. Whether it is "no" to a marketing campaign, product launch or innovating on the latest technology trend, sometimes it is the right move for a business. For our company, chasing short-term profits at the expense of long-term growth and autonomy is a "no." Every business is going to have its own "no." If sustainable growth and longevity are core interests of a company, saying "no" to anything that might dilute decision-making ability could be the right answer.
Define your approach to innovation. For Zoho, innovation centers around the principle that our products and company should have an impact. Zoho One, for instance, was built as a means toward democratizing software and removing barriers of entry for customers such as high costs. This is why for any business, defining a mission statement and stating one's values are critical for accelerating innovation. By starting with a clear and ideally humane mission, employees, developers and leadership can more effectively innovate.
Rapidly scaling can backfire. By staying private, not acquiring other businesses and keeping operating costs low, we have sustained seismic changes in the industry brought on by consolidation, disruption and economic uncertainty.
Determine a big-picture mission. We have opened offices in small towns and rural areas throughout India, the United States and now Canada. Rather than striving toward increased revenue or scaling or a more productive workforce (all important things), the big-picture mission is a company's chance to work a problem that is bigger than the business. In our case, we want to revitalize small rural areas while bringing opportunity. Other businesses may want to affect change in other ways, and the big-picture mission is a necessary springboard for both establishing company values and creating a framework for sustainable growth.
Employee Experience
Education is more important than credentials. By not requiring the credential of a four-year college degree from applicants, I, along with other company leaders, have opened the door to a diverse global talent pool that enriches the company's culture. Of course, diving into work history and checking references are useful ways of evaluating a candidate, but no matter how decorated an applicant, they will always need training. Eagerness and ability to learn on the job can mark some of the best and brightest employees. These are traits that can be teased out during the interview process. Business leaders should be trying to discover who an applicant is as a person rather than where they used to work or went to college.
Talent is universal, but opportunity is not. We created a large-scale talent pipeline in India where young people can learn for free and, upon graduating, join the team. On a small scale, businesses can recreate this kind of talent pipeline by encouraging mobility within the company. An employee who enters an organization in one role may build up an interest in and talent for a different role. When a business encourages this movement across disciplines and departments, new opportunities open up. This also frees companies from the pressure of hiring the perfect person for a specific job because that person may switch roles, creating space for new talent.
Invest in research and development. We take revenue and invest it back into our engineering teams that can develop and innovate. Determining R&D investment really comes down to how a business is structured and its long-term goals. Regardless of how much a company spends on it, R&D is a crucial way a business can innovate to stay relevant in its industry. So instead of overspending on marketing, I think more companies should consider investing that money into developing new products or improving aspects of the ones they already have.
Nurture employee innovation. Fifty-seven start-up companies have been founded by former Zoho employees, raising $1.5B in capital to date. This type of innovation can only happen when an employee or team is given the tools and time to develop something outside their stated scope of work. Leaders may obsess over metrics and efficiency, but happy and excited employees have the best ideas, and organizations would do well to get out of their way. Companies can hold coding contests, support clubs and outside interests of workers, and again encourage people who show interest in other departments. That is how great projects are started and new revenue streams are born.
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