Zoholics India

I happened to be at the Zoholics event here in Bangalore the last couple of days and here is an account of my experience.

Frankly, I didn't know Zoho was an Indian company. To say they have done some good work would be an understatement. Their product suite is very impressive. But I don't share the same thoughts on their event Zoholics. They claimed throughout that the conference was going to be the "ZOHO WAY", I fear to use their platform if it is built and run in the same Zoho way.

It looks like for team ZOHO the the world started and ended on software, or rather in their current scenario it ends in the Cloud. 


So here is how the event really took off. They started late, which is where the reference to the "ZOHO WAY" started. Introduction to the founders and the story of how they started off. Interesting, and I do very much appreciate every bit of their hard work in getting to where they are now from where they started. Sridhar Vembu and team are great at what they have done, but I can't say the same about their presentation skills or their opinions on many topics.

Here are a few statements, thoughts and interpretations that I totally disagree with;

• Regarding VC's
• VC's are not really the biggest daemons as they were made out to be.
• Any VC is in-it for the money, VCs put in money to get returns, they care a damn of how great your product is, that is a given.
• Some businesses and market segments can only run, compete and survive on large scale. These are segments where VC funds are required. Without the deep pockets, you cannot think of building something in the segment. eg: eShops, Social Media Platforms,...
• If you go to a VC for a venture where you don't stand to gain from the infusion of funds, then it is your foolishness.
• Microsoft, SalesForce,...
• These are not companies which have fooled or conned people to become enterprises, they have earned their places.
• They have built systems and software that have addressed needs, many of which are now being replicated or enhanced (by bits and pieces) by Zoho and claiming we are better. Agreed Windows still hangs, SalesForce charges a bomb, but everybody have their good and bad.
• Microsoft law-suits and legal action - everybody pushes their own products first and as default, and nobody would want to do all the hard work and offer it on a platter to a competitor. If ZOHO plans to do that it is a death wish. The only way you offer anybody to work on your platform is within the confines of your rules.
• Microsoft is buggy, crashes, makes you pay for licenses, is milking everybody,... but so is every other software service or product in the market, that includes ZOHO.
• The only reason Zoho or others offer free stuff is just to get you hooked on. Remember "There is no such thing as a free meal"
• Please stop comparing your products with products like Microsoft Office Suite and SalesForce, atleast not now! What you have is the bare back versions of these applications, probably covering only 50% of the use cases that those products are built for. Look and Think deeper!
• Prejudice
• "Made in India - Made for the world" - Excellent, I can see that happening, Truly! but why do we have to push the same in a way that the Americans do? Criticize US and Praise India? That's typical US style of marketing, so what are you doing different from what they have been doing all these years?
• "We can do better' is a statement that has positive connotations, even "We are the best" is positive, but "We can do better than them" is not.
• I am very much proud of the fact that ZOHO was built in India and by Indians. That's good to talk about, yes! but donot belittle companies that are not Indian or not even in the same league as ZOHO.
• The fact that it was built by predominantly people from Tamil Nadu, from their own backyard "Thenkasi" and by nearly 50% of the workforce being known or first contacts makes it a small world. Again, good work, but nothing to harp about. Infact if there was diversity in the team and then you say we still work as a team, yeah! that is great.
• For all that Made in India..., the stats you are quoting to the Indian audience were all in $?
• Disregard
• No not all Engineers who pass out of college are worthless, you should know, you have 3 from IIT, who have now 2500 without IIT. So who is driving this? The 3 from IIT
• Education system in India or even across the world is a farce? Not really, it is made so by all the stakeholders - Students, Institutions and Companies. Its because they get into a rat race (peer pressure, herd mentality, parental pressure,...) without knowing what they really want to do. What they end up doing is loose their advantages and do things half heartedly or just for the sake of getting good grades. Again these are what companies look for when they hire, so everybody is to blame.
• So SalesForce has built this super structure in Silicon Valley, good for them, look how even ZOHO is talking about it by not wanting to talk about it. Location is important and yes working out the cost is equally important. So here are thoughts on location,
• Cost matters and no its not all about being economical, its ROI.
• Location is also based on who you want to sell to and at what price you want to sell at.
• A whole in the wall office can only sell to a SOHO or at best a mid-level enterprise who believe in economical solutions. I am afraid I do fall into that category. But there is certain point beyond which you understand why that additional 5% of frills cost me 50% of the cost.
• Simple example, why do your conference in Bangalore? in Ritz Carlton? bang in the middle of Bangalore? You could have picked a resort, or better still, picked up the whole crowd and taken them to your "Thenkasi" center? I know you have the answers so I'll not go further into it, though I really think "Thenkasi" is not a bad idea.
• But why do you have to do it the SalesForce way? Well, this is a bigger discussion, perhaps a good Branding and Marketing person would put it better, but let me give it a try
• Actual Value Vs Perceived Value
  Let me take an example of the same designer brand that you picked up, ZARA. Take any product from ZARA, what is the price? Let's say XXX INR (Perceived Value). What do you think is the actual cost of manufacturing it (Actual Value)? So Perceived Value, for all that has gone into design + manufacturing (Actual Value) + logistics +... and most importantly Brand Value. Do you think ZARA would have the same perceived value if they had a "Hole-in-the-wall" kind of outlet?
• Who do you really want to sell to?
  You have a great product, which is a result of years of toiling, your best minds thinking up solutions for real world problems. Your engineers, aren't they the best in the world? I hope you believe that, even if they are not. So don't you think there solution is worth the best money in the market? Then why price less? Why target a customer who looks at cost and not quality? Please note, I am saying target, not sell. Eventually every organization sells products at a price less than what they want to. The perception of quality comes from the overall brand image.
• You say SalesForce does events spending huge amounts of money, returns of which might or might not be realized. ZOHO did an event, on a much smaller scale, but proportionate to what their market value and in the league that they are in. So I don't see the jib at SalesForce event really justified.
• SalesForce has far more vertical specific solutions that you have not yet started of with.
• Microsoft has far more features built into it than you could put together with your entire team. Its only when you start looking at more users with more varied needs is when you will realize it. Nevertheless, you have the most common use-cases of a Doc writer covered, but not all. Remember the 80:20 rule?
• All the biggies you compared with are way beyond your league. Many, if not all, of your products are inspired by these big products. You are just building a "poor man's Ferrari". A low cost airline, no frills (you want a snack mid-air? pull on a parachute and jump - couldn't resist that.)
• Appreciate Scale and Depth
• It's difficult to survive in the current scenario with a slow growth rate. Why? Well your presentation on where things are headed gives you that information. Knowledge, computing power, information, all of these are increasing exponentially. Rapid Application Platforms are available across technologies. Before you know it you will have a competitor over your shoulder, maybe even passing you by. So do you think you can wait years to capture the market-share?
• Building scale also involves catering to many different needs. Take for example your CRM (which was your own example to compare many things). Your CRM is no frills and works for any domain. Look at it in a different perspective. It's Vanilla, and you can add your flavour of sauce, for which we will charge or let you make your own sauce and add it. On another hand, domain specific CRM solutions are out there in the market, Manufacturing, Logistics, IT, Retail, you name it, so building that is what will help build scale and when you want to do that you need a much bigger pool of resources, your youth from "Thenkasi" are not going to be enough.
• People and Process
• ZOHO Way, you build your teams from people you know. Your attrition is low. 90% of the managers joined you at the lower levels. These are advantages, but these are also disadvantages.
• If your attrition is low, look at your team more closely, maybe they are not leaving because they are not competent enough.
• Your workforce are all predominantly from the same region, so where is your cultural diversity?
• Where are your ideas gonna come from?
• Building great software is not the only thing to do in the world.
• When you need to build great solutions that serve every corner of the world, you need to understand every corner of the world. And understanding doesn't come by researching on the web or reading about them in books. You have to be there to understand.
• Can you disqualify the way in which Mumbai works relentlessly 24 hrs a day? can you explain that culture to your team in "Thenkasi" without actually having them live or interact with people who have lived in Mumbai? Can you educate them about Bangalore's Cosmopolitan crowd? Without really putting them into places where they can experience it? How would they know or understand the people for whom they are building software?
• "ZOHO Way", though not explained in terms of points and philosophy in detail, seem to have some unwritten practices. Don't publish an end time, you never know when we will actually release a product or an upgrade. If there is one thing that people don't like (especially clients) are surprises, again something that one of your presenters talked about it. 
• Process is what will ensure that you deliver. Deliver quality, deliver on time and deliver consistently. You have to have a process for everything, you need not have an elaborate document for it, but you need to put it down. And as you build scale, the documents will build by themselves.
• ZOHO University
• Really appreciate how a lot of the underprivileged youth have been helped in these programs. But aren't you looking again only at the bottom half of the tip of the iceberg? How are you helping advancements in technology? 
• What you are doing is just building a talent pool for yourself. Not giving them real education which will give them a degree or certificate that gives them a free will to work where they want and not get tied to ZOHO?
• You are limiting them to technology, experience and time of what is available at ZOHO.
• Presenters and Presentations
• Considering that the event was a pay and participate, I would have expected better presentations.
• Hardly any take away from most of the speakers
• 50% of your speakers lacked basic presentation skills. If you had put me on stage I would have faired much worse, but that's why I am not on stage.
• You can test your beta's all you like, but not in an event where you want to showcase you are platform
• Call a marketing pitch a marketing pitch, its not difficult for anyone to see one when it hits them. Though most of it was not marketing, there were still some that creeped in. But this was expected so no real complaints on this.
• You broke all the rules, you told who all can't be trusted and gave a lot of gyan on what not to do. But only half the speakers spoke about what to do.
• I particularly appreciate Sridhar, Vijay, Raju and another presenter whose name I can't seem to remember, but here too there were certain statements that would be stereotyping companies and products.

Several things I admire though

1. No Fear of failure, and the fact that they learn from their mistakes is great.
2. Ability to face adverse situations and come up victorious.
3. Self sufficient, they are building systems they can use so the end user perspective is something that lets them build good usable applications.
4. The humbleness of their founding directors.
5. The conviction to work within their means.
6. Help in giving back to the society.
7. Share ideas and mentor fresh startups.
8. The pride and commitment towards their brand and products.

All said and done, my take aways from the conference was more of what not to do rather than what to do. But having the entrepreneur bug, I tend to find what is missing and think on how it can be fulfilled.

Yes, it has given me the confidence that I can try something and fail badly and still live with it, learn from it and fix it the next time around.