By Christopher David, Founder & Managing Editor, Techitup Middle East – reporting from Zoho Corporation Headquarters, Chennai.
Zoho headquarters at Estancia IT Park in Chennai reflects a company built with intent. There’s no Silicon Valley gloss, no obvious signaling of its scale as a global SaaS player. Instead, the focus is on long-term thinking and operational discipline. The campus story is for another day. This piece focuses on how Zoho was built — told directly through the perspective of the CEO and Co-founder.
That philosophy came through clearly in a conversation with Shailesh Davey, CEO and Co-founder of Zoho Corporation, who spoke candidly about the company’s early decisions, its refusal to follow the venture-funded playbook, and how decades of enterprise experience — particularly through ManageEngine — shaped Zoho’s approach to growth, AI, and global expansion.
The Zoho Story – Choosing independence before it was fashionable
When Zoho began its journey in 1996, India’s technology industry was largely defined by services companies. Building global product businesses from India was the exception, not the rule. Davey recalls that from the outset, the founders were clear they wanted to work on medium- to long-term technology problems — not short cycles driven by external expectations.
“One of the core beliefs was independence,” he said. “Once you take money from someone, even if they’re well-meaning, there’s always an expectation of returns within a certain time frame. We didn’t know if success would come within that window.”
That decision — to remain fully bootstrapped — was driven from a practical standpoint. The founders understood that deep technology problems take time, and that pressure to deliver quick outcomes often distorts priorities. Independence allowed Zoho to move at its own pace, accept uncertainty, and invest patiently.
Nearly three decades later, that choice continues to define the company’s culture and strategy.
Where Zoho learned enterprise discipline
Much of Zoho’s operational maturity was forged through ManageEngine, its enterprise IT management division. Long before Zoho became known for its broad SaaS portfolio, ManageEngine was building software for IT teams grappling with real-world complexity — networks, endpoints, identity, security, and service management.
Today, ManageEngine contributes over half of Zoho’s global revenue, but more importantly, it has shaped how the company thinks about enterprises. Working closely with CIOs over decades exposed Zoho to the realities of long sales cycles, mission-critical systems, regulatory pressure, and the need for stability alongside innovation.
That experience matters at a time when enterprise IT itself is changing rapidly.
IT moves from cost center to boardroom
Davey notes that for many years, IT was viewed primarily as a cost center. As long as budgets stayed within limits and incremental savings were shown, organizations were satisfied. That model no longer holds.
“Today, IT is strategic,” he said. “In many industries, it has a board-level seat.”
Retail, banking, and financial services illustrate this shift clearly. Businesses now operate across multiple digital channels simultaneously, requiring tight coordination, real-time visibility, and secure infrastructure. Add growing security concerns and regulatory pressure, and the challenge facing CIOs becomes clear.
What enterprises are looking for, Davey believes, is not vendors chasing every trend, but long-term partners who understand technology cycles, can filter hype, and prioritize security.
This is where Zoho — and particularly ManageEngine — draws on its long institutional memory. Many of its enterprise products have undergone multiple technology transitions since the late 2000s. Teams working on them have stayed remarkably stable, giving Zoho one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry.
“That continuity shows up in how we build,” Davey said. “People who’ve lived through multiple cycles understand what matters and what doesn’t.”
AI, but without shortcuts
As AI dominates enterprise conversations, Zoho has taken a notably grounded stance. Rather than positioning itself as an “AI-first” company overnight, it has focused on where AI can deliver tangible efficiency — particularly in service, IT support, HR, and legal workflows.
From Davey’s perspective, the limiting factor is not models, but readiness.
“LLMs will work,” he said. “But you have to give them the right data.”
He emphasized that organizations must first capture institutional knowledge properly flawlessly, through disciplined processes, validated knowledge bases, and lifecycle management. Without that foundation, AI systems may function, but they won’t earn trust or deliver full value.
Many of Zoho’s applied AI use cases are already visible within ManageEngine’s portfolio, particularly in IT service automation and endpoint management. These are not headline-grabbing demos, but practical implementations designed to reduce noise, improve response times, and support overburdened IT teams.
The message is consistent: AI should amplify well-run systems, not compensate for broken ones.
Expanding globally, one step at a time
Zoho’s recent expansion of data centers — including new investments in the UAE — reflects the same measured approach. Rather than leading with infrastructure, the company typically enters markets through local partners, builds customer trust, and tracks growth carefully before committing further.
“When growth is strong, partners are confident, and data sovereignty requirements become clear, the next step is to invest locally,” Davey explained.
In regions like the Middle East, government-led digital transformation has accelerated demand, particularly for cloud services where data residency is critical. Zoho’s approach aims to remove barriers for customers — especially in regulated sectors — by ensuring compliance without friction.
Surprising growth stories
While markets like Southeast Asia and the Middle East followed expected patterns similar to India’s digital evolution, some regions surprised Zoho. Latin America and South Africa, in particular, emerged as strong growth markets.
Davey attributes this not just to policy shifts or economic factors, but to how Zoho engages customers.
“We’re willing to sit with customers, listen, and talk at the same level,” he said. “Being humble and close to the ground matters.”
That mindset — repeated often inside the company — appears less like a slogan and more like an operating principle embedded over time.
A company built for the long haul
Zoho’s story is not one of overnight disruption or aggressive expansion. It’s a story of complementing decisions — independence, enterprise discipline through ManageEngine, patient global growth, and a cautious embrace of new technology.
At a time when many SaaS companies are racing to redefine themselves, Zoho’s confidence seems to come from knowing exactly who it is — and who it is not trying to be.
And perhaps that is its quiet advantage.
