Mathrubootham envisions a huge opportunity for SaaS. He sees India commanding its place on the global map as a product nation. And Freshworks becoming for IT products what Infosys was for IT services when it IPOed almost two decades ago. As Freshworks makes the transition from startup to a listed enterprise, Mathrubootham is convinced that the IT product sector can be a bigger creator of value than services, and that SaaS is a trillion-dollar opportunity. I won’t reveal any more, but for insights into Mathrubootham’s ambitions and the roadmap for the next stage of growth, Arakali’s ‘SaaS Appeal’ makes for a gripping read.
Like most tech-led businesses, Freshworks sees a huge opportunity in a post-pandemic world, which includes disrupting traditional customer relationship management. Elsewhere, the luxury sector—the subject of our special package this fortnight—seems to be stuck between the rock of a pandemic-induced shift to digital and the hard place of a tentative return to physical stores. Amid such uncertainty, when the virus and its variants seem set to keep us company in 2022 as well, the buzzwords for luxury providers and consumers are to either adapt or scale down. The best example of the former, as Kathakali Chanda writes, is the increasing popularity of ‘quarantourism’, which is witnessing the well-heeled flying into destinations like Belgrade and Mexico before entering the UK or the US. The scaling-down phenomenon—in terms of the guest list, but not necessarily the splurge quotient—will be best observed in the wedding season. As Monica Bathija puts it in ‘Fifty Guests and a Wedding’, there may be no grand baarats or huge entertainment acts, but the focus is on detailed décor and complete buyouts of luxury properties.
Luxury for the affluent often begins at home—even when they are working from it. For architects and designers, that means an opportunity to design residential workspaces with as much grandeur and personalisation as they would an extravagant villa. In the photo feature, Madhu Kapparath, our in-house shutterbug with an eye for the exquisite, presents what happens when the luxe life and HNI corner room come together.
Best,Brian CarvalhoEditor, Forbes IndiaEmail:Brian.Carvalho@nw18.comTwitter id:@Brianc_Ed
First Published: Sep 27, 2021, 10:27
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