Introduction:
Namaste viewers! welcome to our Zoho business case study. In this session, we learn all the things that Zoho uses in this business and how Zoho became the most profitable start-up in India.
Zoho was founded in 1996 by “SHRIDHAR VEMBU”, his brother, and “Tony G. Thomas”. If you don’t know how Zoho actually works, then read the full blog we give all the details. Zoho is India’s most profitable start-up and it is without loans and takes one investment at a time (2023) Zoho is a bootstrap company. According to the source founder of Zoho rides a bicycle right every day and does farming as a side business. Zoho profit 2022 “RS. 2700 crore”.
so first we discuss the life and background of Zoho’s founder “ Shridhar Vembu”. How did he start this company and what did he face a problem to starting a business in which he became successful it.
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SHRIDHAR VEMBU founder of ZOHO:
Shridhar vembu is a basically belong from small village Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu. He is born in 1968 in middle class family. He is a intelligent student, he is completed his bachelor
in electric engineering from “IIT MADRAS”. He completes his Ph.D. at “PRINCETON UNIVERSITY”. His education qualification was very great and high at that time so he got a job in a company in foreign.
He is a very simple personality person he never ego about his money and power. It is a big and important lesson for becoming a good and high personality person.
Story of Adventnet:
When he was doing a job in the company, his brother proposed to start his own business in India. He accepted this and he returned to India and started a company named “Adventnet” in 1996.
Starting off this company he produced a hardware product. But it was not going successful. He spends his most of money developing new products but they can’t work. So now he has started to make some software so he uses less money to develop and during this he has success. Both brothers started a company from a small room. But no one of the brothers has a talent for marketing and finance. but the product of both brothers is good so one customer buys from this that time customer gives advice to him, “he can’t buy a product from both brothers because they haven’t a knowledge of marketing.” This thing has give very impact on Shridhar Vembu who hired one marketing person and one finance person to manage it. He is always in contact with a marketing person and learning a marketing skill.
In 2000, one company gave an offer of 25 million dollars to sell this company but he discussed it with his colleagues and decided to not sell and ignore this deal.
ZOHO: a profitable start-up
Nowadays (2023) Zoho has 25+ years of experience in this field, 55+ products, and 150+ countries where zoho exports their services. And another one is across 1 million+ users all over the world.
In 2009 they thought he should register their company in India he registered their company name with “ZOHO”. Before that time zoho is the name of the product that he provides to customers.
In the starting he would name their company name “SOHO” which means “small office home office” but this name was not available, so he fixed this name. if you don’t know that now the day’s slogan of the company is “small office home office”. Before that time its slogan was “Made in India, made for the world”
If we discuss the revenue of zoho then it increases every year and in 2022 it become 1 billion dollars. In Indian rupees, it becomes approximately 8300 crores.
To make this successful business is not easy without a loan and without investment. Then what kind of magic has Shridhar Vembu done in Zoho to make the most successful start-up.
Strategies of ZOHO: a key to success
In the world, the reason for business growth is strategy. Someone uses a marketing strategy someone uses a product development strategy now we see which strategy Shridhar is used in his business.
Strategy no. 1: CLASSIC GIO-ARBITRAGE PLAY
If you don’t understand the meaning of it, then don’t worry we explain fully. The meaning of this strategy is if you go to market and buy some things like technology items and you go to the small village of your town that time in village this type of product can’t available. You notice it and sell it with a 10% or more margin, so you profit 10% in just one sale using of find market gap. This game is about price and place. If you have a place, where you produce a product at a low price and another place where the demand for your product is high then you will definitely earn good money.
In ZOHO’s caser, Shridhar develops software in India because the cost of light-bill, salary, and other expenses are low compared to other countries so he develops here and sells in the us market where the price of the product is high because there demand for this type of technology is high.
Strategy no. 2: R&D IN PRODUCT
You need to do an R&D every year so you increase the stability of your product and become user-friendly. If you notice all billionaire companies spend millions of money on R&D so they meet customer’s needs.
If you have a good team then you launch a new product with new quality and uniqueness.
Strategy no. 3: Freemium business model
In this strategy, we need to give a free service to customers starting 1-2 months or more to understand and be a habit of the product. This strategy is used by Jio, if you know that starting of jio they provide a free network service starting of 0.5-1 year so all people make a habit of using the internet after that launch a recharge on use but people can’t ignore it and do not stop using it so they increase their profit.
If you see this strategy in ZOHO then starting new customer relations they provide a free service to understand and be friendly with software, behind the mind of zoho if some company use their product they train employees first and if employees are trained and they think it is useful then company buys a product so if they can’t like a product then they find another company and train again their employees for it and company loss their most times in this so they buy it.
Strategy no. 4: No Marketing Cost
In business, only a few businesses exist that can’t spend any money on marketing. In this list zoho is also considered they can’t do marketing they believe in marketing through a customer. If your product is good, then the customer suggests another customer to buy your product. Zoho also gives a commission to sell your product. So, if you like their product and you suggest some one and they buy then zoho gives a commission out of the product sell.
Strategy no. 5: Find market gap:
Last but not least we always research in market to find the best market gap. If you see this thing in zoho then they see all big companies provide this service but it is so expensive so they start a provide this service at low cost and all small customers are affoard it. So nowadays Zoho’s costumer no. is very high compared to any other companies that provide a cloud service.
ZOHO university: a true place of knowledge
If you don’t know the hiring method of zoho then it is the best thing about zoho. Let us start a what is zoho university and how it works?
In 2004, zoho started their own university where they provided technical knowledge like coding and others which helpful for students in the future. In this institute, students come after completing a diploma or 11 or 12 complete or complete after a bachelor’s. This course duration is around 6 months. In this course, they can’t take any fees from students, but they give a 10000/- Rs per student. If students are intelligent then they offer a job in zoho. Nowadays 12-13% of the company employees are not graduates and most of them come from Zoho University.
Zoho also nicely treats its employees. They provide facilities like traveling, gym, playground, free canteen, and health insurance to employees.
Zoho’s struggle story:
If you think this unicorn company become without any problem and struggle then you are wrong. They face many difficulties in the way of it.
If we look at the start of the company they have most of the customer from Japan because so they in 2001-02 when the market crashed they lost 90% of their customer. Intel and Oracle company share prices almost break 50% of the price but Zoho can’t register in the us market so they can’t affect the share price. Now their business can’t grow like ago years. At that time all it companies fired their employees to manage funds but that time Shridhar used their mind and Indian person personality help to fix it. He couldn’t use money on investments and any loans so they saved some money and spent it on the company they didn’t fire any employees at that time and worked on R&D to develop a product. At that time they develop a masterpiece of their life which is a golden product of that time.
This product name is “manage engine” which was launched in 2003.in 2005 when Google launched its “google docs”. That time Shridhar launched their CRM and said “Compared to Google, salesforce is easy to competitor so we launch a CRM” In 2007, zoho had a 600 cloud engine, and at that time the market leader in cloud service “Salesforce” was the only 100 cloud engine.if you don’t know about Zoho CRM then it is a cloud-based software-based company.
ZOHO CRM manages a company’s sales, marketing, and customer support in only a single system. It provides services for new start-ups, small businesses, freelancers, and marketing and sales agencies so they increase business.
Today zoho CRM is used by 250,000 businesses in 180+ countries. If we see Zoho’s future goal then they will provide a cloud service to all Indian small villages and educate for it. They will start their office in a small district and provide jobs to all small talents in India.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, zoho is India’s best start-up example for new entrepreneurs. It is changing the definition of start-up. Nowadays all start-ups take a fund and grow but all need to know about zoho and learn from it.
FAQs:
The Zoho Business Case Study explores the real-world application of Zoho solutions in addressing specific business challenges. It delves into the details of a particular business scenario, highlighting how Zoho’s products and services were implemented to enhance efficiency, productivity, and overall business performance.
The case study discusses the specific Zoho products and services that were utilized to address the challenges faced by the business. This may include a combination of CRM, project management, collaboration tools, finance applications, or any other relevant Zoho offerings tailored to meet the unique needs of the showcased business.
The case study provides valuable insights into how Zoho’s tools have been implemented to address specific challenges, enhance productivity, and drive positive outcomes. It serves as a practical guide for businesses seeking to optimize their operations with Zoho solutions.
The case study highlights the tangible benefits and results that the business experienced after adopting Zoho solutions. This could include improvements in workflow efficiency, cost savings, enhanced customer satisfaction, or any other measurable outcomes that demonstrate the impact of integrating Zoho into the business operations.
You can access the Zoho business case study through Zoho’s official website or other authorized platforms. Look for case study sections, success stories, or related resources on the Zoho website to find detailed information and insights.