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25 Lessons Learned Over 25 Years In Business: Part Two

Forbes Business Development Council

Chief Strategy Officer at Zoho Corporation overseeing strategy, channels, account management and various marketing and operational efforts.

In part one of this series, I wrote about Zoho's culture, corporate values, employee experience and how other businesses might use our quarter-century story as a roadmap toward developing their own companies. Here, we'll explore Zoho's circuitous path through the technology industry, with its boundless potential and evolving challenges. In total, these two articles represent 25 lessons learned over decades, but Zoho as a business has learned 25 more this year alone, which I imagine is true for most companies. We've found the best course for longevity, even through difficult times, is learning from and leaning on foundational values.

Technology

Don't start with an endgame. Zoho has now built more than 50 business applications, but 20 years ago, that wouldn't have seemed possible, nor was it the company's goal. When businesses form with an endgame in sight – whether that be IPO or merger or a big skyscraper or 100,000 employees – there's no wiggle room to adapt to changing conditions and values, especially in the technology industry. If Zoho had, for example, started with the finite mission of developing a cloud office suite, the business would have fulfilled its endgame 20 years ago. Flexibility allows for continued growth.

Buy is faster than build, but it's not always better. Building in-house has allowed us to keep costs low for customers, expand our workforce and differentiate ourselves from competitors. Obviously not every business is going to be able to build their own tech stack, but with the rise of low-code and no-code development platforms, citizen developers and employees can build their own apps or improve existing ones, leading to cost and functionality benefits for their company.

The platform approach has been the right approach. As the industry continues to favor platforms over best of breed, we've learned that not only can trusting your gut pay off, but anticipating customer demand is vital to growth.

The more you own, the easier it is to build. The team builds and owns every level of the technology stack, from servers to services to storage to apps, and this has made creating and integrating new products much easier and more cost-effective. Businesses outside of technology can still apply this logic to their own growth plans. An online retailer, for example, can more readily improve its order fulfillment process through an in-house employee using personalized software rather than through a third-party consultant using their own system — it's just a matter of time and priorities.

Leave money on the table. The team aims to keep prices low, add services and capabilities to the solutions for free and avoid outside funding because nickel and diming people does not foster trust. Zoho helped pioneer transparent, per-employee pricing models, and other businesses should look for ways to buck trends that value profits above all else.

Take data privacy seriously. Third-party trackers are removed from all sites and apps. Guided by our own privacy conviction, we've found ourselves ahead of the pack and ahead of regulation — more of which is coming. This comes down to trust, as well. Business leaders can differentiate their companies through more proactive data privacy actions, such as removing trackers or simply not using some of the more intrusive data collection and digital marketing techniques out there today.

Invest in tight security and protocols. By routinely testing our systems and not storing unnecessary data, we've gained customer trust and prevented serious attacks. If your business deals heavily in customer data, simply relying on a third-party storage or infrastructure service isn't enough to keep that data safe. The onus of customer data security lies with any business collecting it, which is why it's good practice to only collect what is needed for a given process, such as asking only for the name and email address of prospective customers to sign up for an app trial.

Tests measure test-taking ability. In my opinion, tests do a bad job of measuring how somebody will grow into a job, so wherever possible, my team and I don't use them. It's worth wondering whether the hoops you are making a prospective candidate jump through are a worthwhile measurement of how that person will perform in their role or grow with your company.

Don't overspend on marketing. The team tends to pick spots for advertising and marketing expenditures, preferring instead to use that money elsewhere in the company — mainly R&D.

Growth Lessons

Numbers don't tell the full story. Assembly-line thinking works for putting together machines, not developing meaningful, lasting relationships with people. Good relationships lead to better business outcomes, always. So whether it is relying on user data or counting impressions for advertising or employee productivity numbers, treating a person as a statistic can jeopardize any relationship.

Don't marry a business plan. Zoho might still be an IoT solution or network management company had leadership not remained flexible and adaptive. Just as businesses shouldn't start with an endgame in mind, they shouldn't rely on a rigid business plan to get there. Being organized is one thing, but a company that is too committed to a business plan will struggle to adapt during times of adversity or changing market demands.

Trust is the foundation of loyalty. Zoho is fortunate to have great customers — many of whom have been with the company for decades. Likewise, many of Zoho's employees have been here for 10 or 15 years. The basis of this loyalty is trust, whether that's through pricing transparency, privacy, continued support for customers or initiatives that improve the quality of life for employees.

Good ideas come from all over. Some of Zoho's best ideas and improvements come from discussions with customers, employees, partners, analysts and people in our communities. Those ideas have turned into products, alternative revenue streams, new hires, new departments and new ways of seeing the industry.


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