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1st September 2023 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Sridhar Vembu is the CEO and Co-founder of Zoho Corp, which he describes as “…a state-of-the-art tech company with a very old-fashioned approach to company building.” Founded in an apartment, in 1996, Zoho now has over 15,000 employees, more than US$1 billion in annual revenues, and over 100 million users. All of this ‘bootstrapped’ as a private business, with no external or public investors. In 2005, he launched the Zoho University (now called Zoho Schools of Learning) programme with six rural high-school students, trained for two years in computer science, maths and communication before being absorbed into the company. Today, around 15% of Zoho’s workforce is made of ZU Graduates who benefit from the business wishing to open offices in small towns, suburbs and rural locations rather than metros. Today, Zoho continues to scale, and Sridhar Vembu is a self-made billionaire, recognised as one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs & philanthropists. In 2021, he was recipient of the Padma Sri (one of India’s highest civilian honours). In this interview, I speak to Sridhar Vembu, CEO and co-founder of Zoho Corp, recognised as one of the world’s most successful technology entrepreneurs who has bootstrapped his business from launch to over US$1 billion in revenues, whilst making huge social impact. 

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01-09-2023 9:28:14
Thought Economics

1st August 2023 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Bjørn Lomborg is President of the Copenhagen Consensus and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His new book Best Things First brings together 12 new, peer-reviewed studies which highlight how to make the world a better place, in the best [and most cost-effective] way. These studies show that by spending $35 billion a year (the same as the increase in annual global cosmetics spend in the last 2 years), on 12 specific policies, we could save 4.2 million lives a year, and generate over $1.1 trillion in new wealth. For every dollar spent, these policies generate $52 in global benefits. In this interview, I speak to Bjørn Lomborg, President of the Copenhagen Consensus. We discuss the 12 most impactful solutions to some of our world’s most pressing challenges – saving millions of lives, generating trillions in economic gains, and huge returns in the process.

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01-08-2023 10:37:21
Thought Economics

26th August 2022 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Dame Stephanie Shirley CH, also known as Steve, is a workplace revolutionary and successful IT entrepreneur turned ardent venture philanthropist. At 88 years old, her story has many strands which, woven together, have produced a lifetime of exceptional achievements. Dame Stephanie’s story begins with her 1939 arrival in Britain as an unaccompanied five-year-old Kindertransport refugee. This defining experience equipped her with fortitude at a very young age and made her determined to live a life worth saving. In 1962, she started a software house, Freelance Programmers, and pioneered radical new flexible work practices that changed the landscape for women working in technology. She went on to create a global business and a personal fortune which she shared with her colleagues, making millionaires of 70 of her staff at no cost to anyone but herself. Since retiring in 1993, Dame Stephanie’s life has been dedicated to venture philanthropy in the fields of IT and autism. She initially founded Autism at Kingwood in 1994 to support her late son Giles, then there was the ground breaking Prior’s Court School for pupils with autism and her charitable Shirley Foundation went on to make grants of £70 million. It spent out in 2018 in favour of Autistica, the UK’s national autism research charity founded by Dame Stephanie. In 2009/10 she served as the UK’s first ever national Ambassador for Philanthropy. In 2017, Dame Stephanie received a Companion of Honour (CH), a membership limited to only 65 individuals globally, for her services to entrepreneurship and philanthropy. In this interview, I speak to Dame Stephanie Shirley CH. We discuss her remarkable life story from arriving in Britain as five-year-old war refugee, to building one of the UK’s most successful information technology companies, changing the landscape completely for women in technology, and her work as one of the UK’s most prominent, and impactful philanthropists.

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26-08-2022 12:28:14
Thought Economics

11th March 2021 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Tim Peake is a former Apache pilot, flight instructor, test pilot and current European Space Agency astronaut. A veteran of eighteen years military service, Tim has flown over 3000 hours on operations worldwide. In December 2015, Tim became the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station and conduct a spacewalk during his six month mission. He also ran the London marathon from space. Tim’s mission engaged more than two million students in outreach activities. In this exclusive interview, I speak to Tim Peake about our fascination with space, how seeing the earth from International Space Station changed his view of humanity and his learnings on resilience from training to be an astronaut and spending 186 days in space.

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03-12-2021 8:27:06
Thought Economics

21st December 2020 · Articles & Interviews by: Vikas Shah MBE

Throughout the world, capitalism and democracy are being challenged with great force. The world must change, but we cannot change it by throwing money at old ideas that no longer work. We need a new path to a new world where inequality is shrinking, where natural resources are regenerated, and people can benefit from shared prosperity. This is the world being created by the Impact Revolution. Sir Ronald Cohen is a preeminent international philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor, and social innovator, who is driving forward the global impact revolution. He is Chairman of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) (which succeeded the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force, of which he was also Chair); Chairman and co-Founder of The Portland Trust; co-Founder of Social Finance UK, US, and Israel; co-Founder of Bridges Fund Management UK, US, and Israel; and co-Founder of Big Society Capital. Each of the initiatives he leads today aims to shift the allocation of human and financial resources to creating positive impact. In 1972, he co-Founded what became Apax Partners Worldwide LLC, which he led as its Executive Chairman until 2005. Each day, he strives to live by a simple principle: Do Good, Do Well! In this exclusive interview, I spoke to Sir Ronald Cohen about the impact investment revolution, a fairer capitalist model, and how impact investors are tackling some of our world’s biggest challenges.

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03-12-2021 8:26:16
Thought Economics

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