Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has weighed in on the impact of organisational culture, contrasting workplaces where employees wait for instructions from the top with those where workers are encouraged to take initiative and act independently.
In a post on X, Vembu said highly metric-driven organisations often develop a "wait for instructions from the top" culture, which can offer greater predictability and certainty. However, he warned that such organisations can struggle if their leadership fails to set the right direction consistently.
On the other hand, Vembu said that an initiative-driven culture can feel chaotic, with frequent internal disagreements and a persistent sense that things are "not good enough". He added that in such environments, the external market may sometimes provide the discipline needed to keep the organisation on track.
"People who are full of energy and initiative often vehemently disagree with other," Vembu wrote, joking that “every smart programmer looks at another programmer's code and thinks 'it sucks, I can do better'!”
Vembu described this as a fundamental trade-off between organisational cultures. "We can provide comfortable certainty but lose the initiative or we can seize the initiative but keep feeling somewhat uncomfortable," he wrote.
{{/usCountry}}Vembu described this as a fundamental trade-off between organisational cultures. "We can provide comfortable certainty but lose the initiative or we can seize the initiative but keep feeling somewhat uncomfortable," he wrote.
{{/usCountry}}"In my experience, trying to square this circle: 'we will have a highly disciplined culture of seizing the initiative' produces the worst of both worlds," he concluded.
(Also Read: ‘We are not creating new jobs’: Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu flags AI’s impact on IT hiring)
Social media reactions
The post sparked a discussion among users, with several weighing in on how leadership, delegation and feedback systems can shape workplace culture.
One user wrote, "Both waiting for instructions from the top and seizing the initiative to run with it are perfectly valid & even formidable org cultures. However, being stuck with a #jalebi of #blind followers trailing #clowns at the top, grey cells firmly switched off, is the key issue, that has already pulled us decades behind."
"Firms that don't have genuine Skip Level feedback system can't sustain a uniform culture. All boils down to how the boss is.. is he promoting self or his team. Rest all looks good on paper. Bigger the firm, more the disconnect of top mgmt with ground. Prove me otherwise!" commented another.
"A key point is absence of psychology based HR thinking, who needs to create a global culture. I joined IBM as a dream tech company. But what I took away is the open culture across geographies, built for centuries. Modern trend is to build #startup, but build in a hurry," wrote third user.
"Having defined delegation of authority at different levels is a way to have a good balance of both. Sieze the initiative and run while aligning across the organisation from time to time and within culture of discussion instead of command and control," said another.