NOTICIAS

Marc Benioff, president and CEO of Salesforce.com, not only defined a new paradigm in selling Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) when he founded his company in 1999, but also established a new vision for companies after the dot-com debacle of 2001. In his book “Behind the Cloud”, Benioff tells us about how he and his team started their business through the best kind of start-up, in an empty house with tables and fold-up chairs. The book is not only enjoyable and inspiring, but also easy to follow: similar to how Salesforce has taken shape, the content was divided into 111 easy-to-implement “plays”, in which he explains how they developed innovative and award-winning products, shot down much larger competitors, and landed clients of all sizes, all the while maintaining an efficient philanthropic model. To view a small sample of this visionary’s ideas, let’s take a look at some of his plays in the following four key areas: start-up, marketing, technology, and leadership.

Start-Up

• Always give yourself time to recharge when you leave your job and look to start a business of your own.
• Have a really big dream and believe you can pull it off.
• Tell a select few what you’re planning on doing and then listen carefully to the advice they give you.
• Hire the absolute top talent in your field.
• Be fully equipped and willing to sell your idea to skeptics anywhere anytime and respond calmly to your critics.
• Work on what is most important only.
• Define the values and the culture you want to establish in clear cut terms right up front.
• Listen intensively to prospective customers.
• Have one trusted mentor and listen to what he or she says.

Marketing

• Position your company as either the leader in your industry or going up against the leader with something better.
• Make each and every employee a key player in your marketing team by ensuring everyone understands and uses the same message.
• Always position yourself as David against some Goliath.
• Let your marketing tactics dictate your strategy, not the other way around.
• Engage the market leader and force them to acknowledge you.
• Never forget reporters are writers so give them a juicy story they will really get into. Cultivate strong relationships with select journalists who will be most influential.
• Develop your own metaphors to explain what you’re doing.

Technology

• Have the confidence and the courage to develop innovations before the need becomes obvious to your customers. Do things that are worthwhile before the demand eventuates.
• Follow the lead of successful companies and involve customers in your development processes. Don’t develop things in isolation from their preferences and concerns.
• Find ways to reuse existing building blocks rather than doing everything from scratch.
• Embrace transparency and make it work to your advantage – or else it will automatically work against you.
• Make it possible for customers to customize features to suit their needs. Do this and you will move users from adoption to addiction.
• Provide a marketplace where customers can sell their solutions to other customers with comparable issues.
• Listen to customer discussions and become part of the ongoing dialogue.
• Grow and evolve by intelligently reacting to what customers suggest you should do. Engage end users as active participants in the development process.

Leadership

• Focus your goals and align your organization by using the V2MOM system:
  • Vision – what exactly do you want to achieve?
  • Values – why is your vision important to your organization?
  • Methods – how will you get what you want?
  • Obstacles – what might stand in your way?
  • Measures – how will you know when you’ve arrived?
• Build a culture that welcomes recruiting and is good at it. Take hiring as seriously as you do generating revenue, and hire people who are better than you at all times.
• Build a spirit of gratitude into your corporate DNA. Treat people well and they will want to stay forever.
• Always do the right thing by your people.
• Ask for employee feedback and then do what is suggested.
• Make everyone in your organization successful. Extend that also to partners, vendors and all others with vested interests in what you’re doing.

Author: Conciliac Team

Reference:

Marc Benioff, “Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-And Revolutionized an Industry”, 2009, Jossey-Bass Books.
https://amzn.to/2ZQhzW1

Marc Benioff, “Behind the Cloud”, summaries.com
https://summaries.com/files/8-page-summary/behind-the-cloud.pdf