Why Indian-origin techies rise to top abroad? Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu explains

Sridhar Vembu said that the Indian-origin employees in USA are likely to be loyal to their workplaces.

Zoho founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu has offered a sharply different explanation for why Indian-origin professionals often rise to the very top of global tech companies, pushing back against claims that academic pressure alone is responsible for their success abroad.

Vembu was responding to a remark by entrepreneur Jasveer Singh, who had argued that Indians are not “naturally smart” but are shaped by intense academic and population-driven pressure at home, a “perform or perish” environment that prepares them to excel once they move to highly developed economies.

Rejecting that thesis, Vembu said the real differentiator lies in long-term loyalty to organisations. According to him, Indian-origin employees are far more likely to remain with the same company for decades, even when compared with peers of similar intelligence or educational background.

His thesis is Indians must perform or perish due to our population and a few rise to the top in Western orgs under that pressure.

I will offer a different explanation: Indian employees are some of the most loyal to their organizations and American corporations get to experience… https://t.co/LROGd4wSSd — Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) February 3, 2026

“To put it simply,” Vembu explained, “if you track a group of employees who joined a company in the same year say, 2000, a much higher proportion of Indians would still be there 20 years later.” Over time, he said, organisations develop cultural continuity around those who stay the longest, and senior leadership naturally emerges from this group.

This, Vembu argued, helps explain why Indians increasingly occupy top executive roles across American corporations. He also pointed to a broader historical trend of the “immigrant drive,” where every new wave of immigrants tends to outperform established groups over time. “That phenomenon isn’t unique to Indians,” he noted, “but when you combine it with Indian cultural loyalty, the outcome becomes more pronounced.”

Addressing the idea that Indians succeed due to extreme pressure at home, Vembu disagreed strongly. He said India’s extended family system functions as a powerful social safety net, offering psychological security rather than constant fear of failure. This, he argued, contradicts the notion that Indians grow up under relentless, destabilising pressure.

In fact, Vembu suggested that the same cultural mindset carries into the workplace. “Many Indians instinctively view their organisations as extensions of family,” he said, adding that corporate slogans about being “one family” resonate more deeply with Indian employees than with many others, and that this cultural trait fuels long-term commitment.

Drawing from personal experience, Vembu also referenced a school he runs for more than 200 children from impoverished backgrounds. While financial support helps address poverty, he said the deeper challenge arises when societies lose their psychological safety nets. “Economic hardship is fixable,” he said, “but once the social foundations that provide emotional and mental security collapse, recovery becomes far more difficult.”