Life at Zoho
What is your current role within the company?
I work as the Manager of Video Production, and take care of promotional and product launch videos.
What does your work space currently look like?
Our workplace is a mini self-sufficient studio. The best part of this space is that we planned, designed, and defined the interiors of the space. We are grateful to the Admin team, the engineering, and the architects team for helping us in getting a convertible workspace cum studio. I feel happy that the space has given us the opportunity to produce a lot of creative work.
Whoever visits our space says, "Wow this is different!". In fact, our CEO, Sridhar Vembu, commented that we have created a different office inside Zoho.
What were your expectations when you started and how have they changed over time?
I never had any high expectations. I had jumped a lot of companies when I started my career and Zoho is my 10th company.
I came from a video production background and it took me some time to convince people here about the importance of videos. There were hardly one or two people working on videos and were mostly experimenting. I started with creating videos for Zoho CRM but today we do videos for almost every product.
What role does Zoho’s company culture play in your identity and the work that you do?
Zoho’s culture has always been to allow experimenting with new things. If you come up with an innovative idea, Zoho allows you to try it. It is this belief system that has actually allowed me to experiment with different types of video production. By God’s grace, all these experiments have been successful. And when I see others trying their hands on similar video styles, it feels good.
At Work
Is there a project or an accomplishment at Zoho you’re proud of?
We always try to do something different and try new ways of video production. We made a CRM video completely with origami, stop motion animation for Zoho SalesInbox.
Zoho Omnichannel CRM
We’ve also created a video for Omnichannel CRM completely in cardboard and shooting it in a miniature video setup.
Canvas for Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM & SalesInbox
We made a CRM video completely with origami, stop motion animation for Zoho SalesInbox.
Qntrl
Recently, we shot videos during the lockdown. We’ve also shot for Zoholics—our flagship event—in the US for the past few years, and published them for customers in just a few weeks. Proud of them all.
Tell us about a time you overcame a challenge you didn't think was possible.
Every project brings a new challenge for us. The first is the promo video we did for SalesSignals in Zoho CRM. When the CRM marketing team asked us to do this video, we were like "Seriously!?" And the time we had with us—from ideation to completion of this video was just 36 hours.
We started planning in the evening, the same night we got into production, and by the end of the next day, we had completed it. Here's the link:
Getting Personal
Are there any habits or routines you take part in, to refocus or to keep yourself motivated?
I try to think of something creative and do something creative to keep myself focused.
What are some of your favorite activities outside of work?
On weekends, I prefer to do something creative which is not related to work. Sometimes, I indulge in doing some craft with my kids, playing shuttle, or going for long drives.
Words of Wisdom
Just be focused on whatever you do, and whatever you do should give you satisfaction.
You should have the conviction and the passion to do something good for the product or company you are working for, and at the bottom of your heart you should have the satisfaction of doing it.
Do not work for your own fame. If you are in a team, be a great team player. Your talents will definitely get highlighted, but do not try to force it.