Here is a survival advice for BYJU’s: Just copy ZOHO

It is an established notion that you reap what you sow. This old saying aptly fits BYU’s current scenario. BYJU made one mistake after another. In the last few months, due to unplanned acquisitions, financial mismanagement, and predatory market practises, the company has incurred heavy losses.

ZOHO prefers substance over style

Recently, at Zoholics India, the company’s annual user conference, the software major announced new investments in R&D. It is also planning to open 100 network PoPs (points of presence) around the world in the next five years. As per media reports, the company will double its investment in advanced technologies like Blockchain and AI. The company further stated that it has crossed the $1 billion mark in terms of annual revenue.

Zoho is one of the best-known software-as-a service (SaaS) companies and arguably the most successful business company. They provide tech solutions to their customers. The work culture, customer relationship management (CRM), and customer experience (CE) are the main strengths of Zoho.

The main difference between Zoho and another Edtech giant, Byju’s, is that Zoho cares about its employees and customers. Zoho gave opportunities to semi-skilled youth from rural areas and trained them in state-of-the-art technologies. Today, the same youth have shouldered the responsibility of the behemoth as engineers and taken up technical projects.

This positively reflects in its numbers as well. Riding the wave of scaled growth and improved margins, Zoho has managed to increase annual profits by 2.4 times to nearly Rs 1,918 crore ($255.7 million) during FY21 as compared to profits of Rs 800.8 crore ($106.8 million) in FY20.

Though the expenses of Zoho have also increased, major expenses have been incurred on employee benefits. They have also reduced their advertisement costs, which is a stark difference to Byju’s, which has been badly relying on marketing tricks to maintain and expand its business.

Zoho’s positive reviews and services have proven its mettle in the SaaS sector. As the saying goes, “Light reflects light,” and the same is happening for the Zoho and Byju’s. Simply put, both are reaping the rewards of their actions.

Byju’s paying heavy price for its actions

On one hand, Zoho cares so much about its customers, employees, and working conditions. On the other hand, along with the toxic work culture, Byju’s is also firing its employees like there is no tomorrow, scamming their customers, and having devastating financial management. These are the reasons for the problems.

The displaced priority of Byju’s is pretty evident from their recent decisions. To achieve profitability, it was forced to take cost-cutting measures. Yet, in such times of financial crunch, it doled out millions for marketing gimmicks and built an aura through one of the world’s highest-paid athletes, Lionel Messi.

Also Read: BYJU’s Messi move is the last flicker before the lamp extinguishes

Byju’s can learn lots of things from Zoho, and that will be survival advice for them.

Also Read: BYJUs is inching towards a slow and torturous death

Zoho invests in its product, and Byju’s is simply doing the opposite. Byju’s needs to improve its study material and its image in the market. Evidently, its unfriendly market practises and the alleged irregularities in the EMI payment system for parents have done great damage to its image.

It is a well-established fact that recognition of the problem is the first step towards achieving a solution, but top management is unwilling to either recognise or acknowledge the core problems.

The best advice for Byju’s

Firstly, Byju’s needs to cut down on expenses, improve product quality, pay heed to the customers, and leash their acquisition mindset. Unnecessary and wild acquisitions have dragged them into the current situation.

Obviously, these acquisitions are not in the best interests of the company, so it’s high time for them to take a good look at all these things; otherwise, the Messi move can be the last nail in the coffin.