Salesforce, an American cloud-based software company, sees India as a “huge white space” with plenty of room for expansion, and the company has been ramping up its employee count to capitalize on the opportunity, according to Arun Parameswaran, SVP and Managing Director – Sales & Distribution, Salesforce India.
He stated that the company is committed to India’s growth story, stating that the company has grown from 2500 employees in 2020 to over 6500 now. “And I don’t think you’re going to see the pace of hiring slowing for any of the functions in Salesforce India,” he said.
Parameswaran also mentioned how India is responsible for much of Salesforce’s net zero cloud innovation. According to him, the net zero cloud assists customers in tracking their carbon emissions, taking decisive action on climate change, and providing insights into what they need to do to become a net zero company.
“A significant chunk of innovation for the net zero cloud has actually come out of India,” he said. “In fact, a very significant chunk of our employee base is actually involved in delivering cutting edge and next generation innovation for the company. This is just one example. Very large teams are focused on delivering industry clouds out of India.”
According to the company’s Global Digital Skills Index report, India ranks first in being digitally aware and prepared. However, he added that while India topped the rankings and the report is a promising indicator of the country’s capabilities, and the skill gap remains substantial.
“If we don’t fix the skill gap, it’s going to have an impact on the GDP,” he said. “We (India) are the digital transformation factory for the rest of the world, but skills are the biggest challenge. The second biggest challenge is the customer’s digital maturity, in terms of understanding what it will take to make a transformation. It requires a mindset and culture change.”
According to Parameswaran, the company is making numerous efforts to bridge the skill gap. Salesforce’s startup programme, he added, helps companies build on the platform and scale it globally. In addition, the AppExchange programme enables anyone to build apps on the Salesforce platform and then sell those applications in a global marketplace. “Through AppExchange and the startup programme, we’re taking a lot of these Indian companies into that global sphere, which earlier they would not have easy access to,” he said.
From a company standpoint, he stated that Salesforce reached a key milestone of $6 billion in cash flow last year and that the aim for the fiscal year 2026 is to reach $50 billion.
“We will continue to grow at 20% year on year globally,” Parameswaran said. “That is a secular growth story that doesn’t exist anywhere in this space. Most of our so-called competition is growing at single digits, we’re saying that we’re committed to this 20% profitable growth. We’re not just growing the top line, but also growing the bottom line in a very profitable way.”
