India innovation

New India Country Manager Anil Goel on the opportunities that drew him to RingCentral.

Asia Pacific is rapidly becoming one of the world’s biggest, most exciting UCaaS markets – increasing by over $5 billion since 2015. Add in the challenges of COVID-19, and you’ve got a market that’s incredibly ripe for growth and innovation. According to RingCentral’s new India Country Manager Anil Goel, the opportunities this supercharged environment offers means big things for both RingCentral and the region itself. 

“I see a very big opportunity to provide a much better communication experience than what’s available today. While we might see an array of strong video products available in India, messaging might not work as seamlessly, so we’re talking about a challenge in terms of our vision of making communication — whether it’s business or personal— simpler for everyone. Communication is such a critical skill in general that I think any company taking on the ways people improve it is taking on an inspiring, exciting set of challenges.”

Expanding in India

Establishing a strong presence in India means strengthening the company’s brand, for both consumers, and prospective employees. Goel thinks there’s a big job ahead, but also sees RingCentral’s fundamental strength as a game-changing asset.

“When I started telling people I was joining RingCentral, the  first thing people asked was, “Who?” But a day or two later, I’d get a call from them saying, “Hey, this is a great company!” which tells me, what we really need to do is get our story out there – both for consumers and prospective new hires. The Indian market naturally looks up to products and companies that do well in the US, so if we can continue our success in North America, and build on that story here, we’ll be in a good place. We’ve definitely got our (brand-building) work cut out for us but that’s what’s exciting and challenging.”

With major new locations rising in Bangalore and Guragon, Goel sees opportunities for engineers at all levels. 

“Great tech talent always faces a choice between working at a large company where their work might feel somewhat inconsequential, or a startup that might be more exciting, but also might not have the resources and reach they’re looking for. We’re able to give them both— the excitement of a new journey with the rigor and scale of a large consumer base. We’re creating products and technology that hundreds of millions of customers will use, and solving very complex problems at massive scale. That’s exciting to me, and I know it will be to applicants, too.”

Conquering the Indian talent market

In India’s competitive talent market, the right mix of experience and energy is a priority for the teams Goel is building. And that means a lot of opportunities for both experienced talent and new grads.

“We’re starting with a fairly balanced approach to our talent mix. Very senior principal engineers, mid-level talent and new grads.  By summer we’ll have 300-400 experienced engineers in place, and next year we’ll bring roughly the same number of new grads on board. It takes a little lead time, but it’s worth it. India has some of the best universities in the world. There’s a lot of talent—all English-speaking, with the high levels of expertise in computer science and math India is known for; and we plan to go after the best of the best. In 2021 we’re planning to make 500 offers across the 50 best colleges in India, and comparable numbers in 2022, but that will give us a significant boost that we’ll start to see next year and every year going forward.”

Goel believes there’s a particular value India’s talent pool will add to RingCentral’s global expansion.

“As a global organization, we encounter local issues in all the countries we serve. For example, bandwidth is a bigger challenge in countries like India and a lot of the developing world. But that’s also an opportunity. How do you deliver the same seamless experience in areas bandwidth might be slower is going to be a very, very interesting problem to solve. And I’m looking forward to that, because I know from my own experience—necessity is the mother of invention. 

Combine a talented, highly-proficient workforce with a global demand for UCaaS that isn’t slowing down anytime soon and it’s easy to see why Goel is bullish about the future for both RingCentral and its employees. 

“We’re opening two locations simultaneously  – one in Bangalore and one in Gurgaon, which is a suburb of New Delhi. This will give us access to almost 90% of the top talent that exists in the country, and remember, these places are a very short flight from one another. What sets us apart, I think, is our ability to tell the most talented people – ‘“We can give you massive new challenges and opportunities to create impact.’ At the end of the day, we’re tackling a huge problem – unified communications – in the most modern way possible, even in areas where bandwidth and infrastructure aren’t where they need to be. That’s big. It’s exciting. And it’s a great way to make your mark. It’s not going to be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.”