Q. A lot of people complain that Gen Z doesn\u2019t have the same work ethic as millennials or previous generations. Do you think that\u2019s true?<\/p>\n
Two and a half thousand years ago, a Greek philosopher lamented that the youth had no discipline. One sign of getting old is thinking all young people are useless.<\/p>\n
Every generation has slackers. I had classmates in my generation who were slackers. It\u2019s never universally true. In any generation, you\u2019ll find some people who are hardworking and ambitious, and some who just get by.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same through every generation.<\/p>\n
So by labelling Gen Z, we are over-generalising.<\/p>\n
Q. Have you not been tempted to sell your stake in Zoho or a part of it, to earn big money?<\/p>\n
Yes, naturally. And now I\u2019ll come to Hindu philosophy. At its core, as taught by our saints, the virtues are contentment and humility. It\u2019s not about worshipping this God or performing that ritual\u2014those are secondary. The essence is having an attitude of contentment woven into your fabric, and humility about the universe.<\/p>\n
Humility is also a scientific attitude. A curious mind is a humble mind because it admits, \u2019I don\u2019t know this. Why does this work this way?\u2019 That\u2019s what sparks scientific questions. True engineers and scientists tend to be humble.<\/p>\n
As for contentment, at a practical level, there is no limit to greed. If I have four phones, why not five? There\u2019s no end. Modern economics assumes there should be no limit\u2014but that\u2019s incompatible with physics. We live on a finite Earth. Resources are finite. That\u2019s why, to me, the only attitude compatible with the long-term welfare of humanity is contentment. It\u2019s also essential for personal happiness. If I\u2019m constantly jealous of what someone else has, I\u2019m never at peace. Contentment removes those cravings.<\/p>\n
Q. Currently, Mani [Vembu] is heading the business side of things. What\u2019s it like working so closely with family?<\/p>\n
In fact, most of the time we only meet at work [laughs]. If I need to meet Mani, I go to the office. Everyone is so passionately tied to their work that it\u2019s actually nice. And when we argue, it\u2019s about technology or products\u2014always work-centric conversations.<\/p>\n
Q. Between the two of you, who\u2019s more risk-averse?<\/p>\n
Mani is much bolder. I\u2019m probably more risk-averse than Mani.<\/p>\n
Q. What\u2019s holding India back from building more world-class products?<\/p>\n
Fundamentally, it\u2019s about mindset\u2014self-belief. That\u2019s what we need first and foremost: Confidence that we can do it, and the will to make it happen.<\/p>\n
People complain about government, infrastructure, funding\u2014all of that is secondary. The first step is wanting to do this. Once that\u2019s in place, everything else will follow.<\/p>\n
Too often, we talk ourselves out of it. We say, \u2018It cannot be done\u2019. But if we get that right\u2014if we believe it can be done\u2014it will happen. Our own journey is proof of that. Zoho is proof it can be done. But it starts with the will. We must absolutely want to do it.<\/p>\n
Q. How do you think entrepreneurship is evolving compared to the Western model?<\/p>\n
Today, a lot of our startup ecosystem has unquestioningly borrowed from the Silicon Valley or American playbook\u2014100 percent. I would say, look deeper. Study experiences from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan\u2014all of them.<\/p>\n
Learn alternative models, because what fits us is not necessarily what worked in Silicon Valley. Even in America, there is only one Silicon Valley. All the attempts to replicate it\u2014whether in Boston, New York, Raleigh, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis\u2014have failed.<\/p>\n
Many of those places have technology companies, but none became a true alternative to Silicon Valley. So simply borrowing that model may not do us much good. We have to think differently.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Sridhar-Vembu7-2025-12-55750bc539725740f44b457940afe69a.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Q. Many founders today are quick to take their money and leave\u2014or take up non-executive positions. They don\u2019t like running operations. What\u2019s your take on this?<\/p>\n
Being a venture-funded or public company wears you out. Many people report feeling like they\u2019re on an endless financial treadmill. It\u2019s very stressful.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why you see founder attrition. Even the average tenure of an S&P 500 CEO has been dropping. It\u2019s not just startups or tech\u2014it\u2019s across the board. CEOs voluntarily quit after five or six years because there\u2019s only so much you can do.<\/p>\n
Every quarter, you have to meet the numbers\u2014never fail to make the numbers. It\u2019s drilled into you like a religious doctrine. Companies resort to \u2018cookie jar\u2019 accounting\u2014holding back from a good quarter to pad the next one. All of that happens.<\/p>\n
It becomes tiresome after a while. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve stayed away from that treadmill. We never had to deal with that part\u2014and I consider that a blessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q. Making in India for the world. What does it take to do that? We\u2019ve been doing this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[138,336,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-181313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}