Aravind Natarajan
Life at Zoho
What role does Zoho’s company culture play in your identity and the work that you do?
Zoho's culture figures a lot in my everyday life. I discuss the open, almost no-hierarchy culture with my family, relatives, and friends. As someone who's been part of the India PR operations (media relations) since 2012, all the interviews and articles that have appeared in the Indian media play an important role in how a Zoho employee (me) is perceived in social circles.
Describe your current role in the organisation.
I work as a Marketing Manager at Zoho. I have been marketing Zoho Analytics, previously known as Zoho Reports. I groom young product marketers in various marketing activities like content writing, webpage creation, analyzing marketing data, creating advertisements and marketing videos, interacting with people on social media, designing, and managing trade booths, etc.
At Work
Your most embarrassing blunder?
This happened when I was pretty new to Zoho. It was 2001, and I suddenly became a Java programmer from being a mechanical engineer. Though I knew how to code in Java, I needed to learn more about how the Java classes I wrote went into a product build and got compiled. We were working on WebNMS 2.3 Beta, which was nearing completion and about to be released. We had daily product builds, and almost 125-150 engineers worked feverishly on various code modules. I checked in some code based on an older branch one day and left the office. Remember, it was 2001, with no cell phones. The daily product build didn't compile. Someone else reverted my code and made sure the build got compiled. The next day, I became the guy who needed help checking in simple code correctly.
Tell us about a time you overcame a challenge you didn’t think was possible.
My first switch was from being a Java programmer to a marketer for ManageEngine OpManager and then to ServiceDesk Plus. Marketing was new to AdventNet then. As with most things at AdventNet (Zoho), this was a “we will push you into the pool, you learn to swim” exercise. I had to learn marketing tasks like SEO, running Google AdWords (now Google Ads) campaigns, creating and updating webpages, writing help documentation, answering customer questions in our user forums, etc., on the job.
My second switch happened from being a ManageEngine marketer to a Blogger-Marketer-Tech Support for Zoho (Writer, Show, Planner, Challenge, and Projects). It was challenging too. Web 2.0 was just getting started, and many things were new then. Like TechCrunch, Hacker News, TechMeme, GigaOm, ReadWriteWeb, etc., I was trying to create visibility for Zoho products and get new users to sign up then. These were heady days, constantly interacting with bloggers worldwide, attending bar/blog camps, writing blog posts, and answering the questions of the nascent Zoho community in our forums.
Is there a project or an accomplishment at Zoho you’re proud of?
There are quite a few:
Getting Personal
Any memorable moments of your journey captured?
Anchoring the first Zoholics for Zoho Reports in Pleasanton, 2015.
What are some of your favorite activities outside work?
I was a regular quizzer and conducted the first AdventNet quiz in 2001. I also started the first book club in AdventNet, “Circa 2003,” and held regular meetings. I played cricket and participated in many CricFests (our in-house cricket tournament), the highlight being runners-up in the first tournament. My current hobby remains reading books.
What are the top three books that you recommend?
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond — one of the books I deeply enjoyed reading. Diamond narrates the whole journey of mankind, starting from us being homosapiens to how various continents developed at varying rates.
The Dandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai. Pabrai is a value investor and a big fan of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. He explains how the Patels went to dominate the motels business in the United States, and how investing in companies in the form of equities is the best and easy way to grow one’s wealth in a very lucid way. It is a good read for youngsters just coming into the workforce.
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner — a good book.
Words of Wisdom
Think long term.
Have empathy and aspire to be a mentor, you will command respect from your peers and team.
Don’t fall for fads like cryptos and NFTs for trying to make a quick buck.
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