Our topic today is one of India’s most underrated legends.The narrative is about Sridhar Vembu who is leading a radical experiment that aims to address India’s unemployment issue by establishing world-class IT centres in the remotest regions in the country.
Meet ceo of zoho sir Sridhar Vembu
The person that I’m talking about is the ceo of ZOHO Corporation and goes by the name Sridhar Vembu Sridhar sir stays in a small village named Mathalamparai which is about 650 km away from Chennai. And he operates his $5B company from this village itself Now this is what you call ‘practicing what you preach’. Now, the reason why Sridhar sir is a legend is because the model that he is building is a scalable model that can be replicated by several billion dollar companies all across the country.
A moment of great honor and prideāthe Government of India has bestowed the prestigious Padma Shri on our CEO, @svembu!
ā Zoho (@Zoho) January 26, 2021
Our heartiest congratulations to you. š #PadmaAwards2021 pic.twitter.com/MmSVKLrw6L
Why did he do what he did?
Sridhar Sir is a Princeton graduate who had the perfect job in the silicon valley startup Qualcomm and that is when he realized that there are so many Indian engineers working at crucial positions at multiple billion-dollar companies all across the world, and yet very few Indian companies were strong contenders in the software industry.
he decided to enter this field with the vision of creating a software company that can empower the youth of India and that is how he started AdventNet which then became ZOHO Corporation. and since the past 22 years, ZOHO has gone from an ordinary startup to becoming a billion dollar company with an estimated market value of $5 Billion However, the most surprising thing is not the growth of ZOHO, but what Sir Sridhar Vembu is doing with his company’s massive influence
A revolutionary Zoho-university.
ZOHO University was founded in 2004 by the company’s founders. and this is where they began to on-board and teach students with diverse skill sets and abilities at an early age.
What makes this method unusual is that instead of charging students tuition fees or collecting contributions, ZOHO gives students a stipend of ā¹10,000 per month for the duration of the two-year course. During this long instruction, children are taught Math, English, Programming, and any other topic necessary to transform an ordinary child into an employable applicant. And, regardless of their degree, they are hired by ZOHO after completing the course.
And with this employment, these kids may permanently raise their families out of poverty. and do you know what else? The facilities are made available to the rural kids of India so that not only are they able to earn money, but they are also able to receive an education.because ZOHO believes that skillsets and abilities are far more valuable than paper credentials.
Abdul Alim From a regular security guardĀ to one of the engineerĀ in zoho.
One of the most successful stories of the ZOHO system is this boy names Abdul Alim who was an ordinary security guard working 12 hour shifts at ZOHO but one fine day, one of his seniors decided to tap into his potential and started training him.
Fast forward to a few months later, today, this boy works as an engineer and takes up technical projects in the very same company wherein he was working as a security guard And today close to 10% of the entire workforce of ZOHO consists of ordinary kids like Abdul Alim who became capable engineers after hailing from the remotest villages of the country.
The remotest villages becoming the tech hubs of India
ZOHO is experimenting these models in 10 villages in Tamil Nadu wherein 200 of its engineers 20 in each village will collaborate and build a software for the world. And the leaders of ZOHO are working very hard to extend its empowerment models to the villages of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh also Now people, while most of us dream about having corner offices in the city of Manhattan.
Vembu sir believes that village offices would be the future of work, as village economies begin to prosper.
Why big companies should follow his footsteps ?
instead of giving out donations for a short term impact through this model, companies can create a long term impact and also make a ton of profit. This is how they can create a win-win scenario wherein companies can get capable employees and people can get opportunities.
Now if many such billion dollar companies start setting up institutions like ZOHO to build a direct bridge between academics and employement, can you imagine what kind of a magical revolution could come up.
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Conclusion
This is the reason why we need to start promoting incredible ideas like these. So that, we can have many such leaders like Sridhar vembu sir, who don’t just talk about the problems but also act on the solutions and this is what will make India a truly incredible country.