Well, it’s unofficial: The United States is in a recession after its second consecutive quarterly drop in GDP.
But there is no reason for small businesses to worry since the tools are inside every owner to survive this recession too (again).
This past week, I attended “Zoho Days”, the annual meeting of business analysts and influencers who want to learn about the small business solutions of the Zoho Corporation.
My favorite part is always the presentation of Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s CEO since there is no leader of a very large corporation like him.
First, he is genuine and transparent. Sridhar is not only interested in helping his 80 million customers, but is a true humanitarian that wants to change the world….and the world according to Sridhar is changing right now:
“There will be a lot of shotgun weddings (of companies) and Frankensteins (created) ahead that will be midwifed by private equity.”
His presentation this year focused on that fact that navigating stormy times requires a unifying culture with a strong sense of mission and destiny. He adds that unfortunately “prosperity leads to contentment.” Sridhar thinks that “work from home” did well for people who knew each other, but harder for new employees in the company since they were isolated. But, he sees a big demand to come back to the office now.
Sridhar has done a lot to create and nurture local talent to address economic balance and inequality.
“We go where the jobs are scarce. Companies need to buy, not just sell.”
He has done this by starting schools in some of the poorest areas of India and teaching these local residents marketable skills for today’s economy. Zoho has also launched a boot camp, Marupadi to bring women back in the workforce. He adds:
“Confidence is born of humility …we can only be sure of what we know if we know what we don’t know.”
While so many large companies took advantage of the stock market boom over the last decade by going public, he has decided to keep Zoho private since it “allows us the freedom and luxury to be ourselves.”
We are lucky to have Zoho as a company to look up to.
