Salesforce India will increase its headcount in the country to 10,000 by January next year from 7,500-plus currently, according to chairperson and CEO Arundhati Bhattacharya. She added that in the order of priority, the focus areas for Salesforce in India are banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, services and social services. “We are (Salesforce India’s headcount) at about 7,500 plus. We are expecting that we will end FY23, which for us ends in January of 2023… We expect to be in the range of 10,000,” she said.
Currently, cloud-based services provider Salesforce has offices in six Indian cities of Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Gurugram and Jaipur. Salesforce increased its headcount significantly in India during the pandemic to 7,500 from 2,500 in April 2020.
Replying to a question on flexible and hybrid work culture post-pandemic, she said, “We will see more and more workforce returning to the workplaces.” Bhattacharya pointed out that when people come back to offices, the sense of collaboration and belonging increases.
Asked what will be the next set of skills Indian youth need to learn, she suggested that they need to learn niche technology such as those that are used by Software as a Service (or SaaS) companies and cloud-based companies.
Pointing out that the hallmark of the current economy is that all cycles (economic, market cycles, fashion) are becoming shorter and shorter, she said, “Without the help of technology, you can’t remain nimble and agile, and can not possibly meet the demands of the changing needs of the people.”
Bhattacharya emphasised that the ability of people to adopt digital is going to drive the uptick in India’s GDP that the country wants to see.
Noting that technology and finance are getting very closely aligned, the Salesforce India CEO said, “Without technology, you will not be able to see the kind of growth in finance that you would otherwise have.”
She emphasised that post-Covid, productivity and efficiency have become very important and that is where actually digital becomes such an important part.
“Because achieving more with less you can only do when you use digital in many of your activities,” Bhattacharya said.
