At the Zoholics Austin event, CEO Sridhar Vembu discussed the importance of staying private, prioritising customer data privacy, and AI’s impact on programming jobs.
Sridhar Vembu, the billionaire CEO of Zoho Corporation, didn’t just stop at sharing his vision for the company that offers software solutions to businesses at the Zoholics event in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday. Dressed in a maroon silk shirt and a white veshti, a traditional garment in Tamil Nadu, Vembu spoke for an hour to hundreds of partners, customers, and analysts about the future and where Zoho stands on some key issues, including the impact of AI on jobs, data privacy, layoffs in the tech industry, and more. Here’s a brief recap of what he had to say
‘Profitable companies shouldn’t cut costs’
“I don’t understand why companies cut costs, especially when they’re profitable,” the billionaire CEO said. “I don’t want to cut costs because we are profitable,” he added, saying that “I wouldn’t be able to make this statement if I were a public company CEO today, which tells you something about the realities of the company business. So, we don’t want to face that type of pressure.”
Despite being cash-rich and holding enormous resources, tech giants such as Alphabet and Microsoft have made layoffs and continue to do so. In fact, the entire tech industry has seen layoffs in recent months, raising questions about whether getting a job in the tech industry should still be regarded as a “dream job.”
CEO Sridhar Vembu who was dressed in a maroon silk shirt and a white veshti spoke for an hour to hundreds of partners, customers, and analysts. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)
“I’m extremely old-fashioned in all this. We do some skilled technology while remaining extremely old-fashioned in many of the ways we operate,” he said, highlighting why the company is privately-held and not listed.
In his address, Sridhar said the company’s balance sheet has remained debt-free. “We can afford the luxury of not cutting costs only if we avoid debt — our balance sheets are completely free of debt,” he added, “I sleep well at night, our CFOs sleep well at night, and that’s why our employees sleep well at night.”
‘Data belongs to customers, not the companies that hold them’
“Your data is your data we don’t ever monetize that. You pay us to use our software, we host your data, keep it safe and secure, but we don’t monetize it,” he said.
Vembu’s pitch to be a privacy-focused company is a business model Zoho wants to capitalize on. For decades, Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta have been questioned for their data-sharing practices. However, these companies have been forced to make changes to their products and alter their business models in the wake of stringent laws that have come out in Europe.
“In any jurisdiction you operate, you are subject to local laws. If you’re operating in the Middle East, you’re subject to those laws. If you’re operating in India, you’re subject to Indian laws. In China, they have their own laws. No private company can say, ‘We just record all those; we operate there; we have the laws.”
“Programmers jobs to be automated with AI”
“It could affect programmer jobs. That may shift more towards customer experience. It’s still early days, but I think programmer jobs are something that could be affected by the rise of artificial intelligence,” according to Vembu.
Programmers belong to a higher-earning professional group. However, the tough job market and the speed at which AI tools are deployed may push companies to use artificial intelligence to automate some tasks and increase their efficiency. But that may not affect the responsibilities of experienced programmers, as AI will assist programmers in tasks like code reviews. Automation will affect some tasks that junior programmers previously performed, which will be replaced with AI.
(The writer is in Austin at the invitation of Zoho)
Source:indianexpress.com