A recorded speech delivered at the Bay Area Council Business Hall of Fame honoring Marc Benioff (Salesforce founder/CEO). The speaker strongly praises Benioff and Salesforce for pioneering cloud software, rapid growth since founding salesforce.com in 1999, influential corporate culture, and formalized philanthropy (1% equity, 1% profit, 1% employee time). The clip emphasizes Benioff's leadership, impact on San Francisco, and the company’s role in innovation and social giving.
Questions this video answers
1999.
1% of equity, 1% of profit, and 1% of all employees' time (to a nonprofit).
Chapters
We've been pioneers, inventors and explorers. From the night Benjamin Franklin flew his kite in an electrical storm to the day that Mark Benioff realized he could sell software services over the web to make life better, healthier and more productive. Now, regular viewers know that I'm a huge fan of Salesforce, the outfit that practically invented the cloud. It definitely has sort of caught everybody's imagination. Growing like wildfire. The fastest growing company in the industry by far. I haven't seen any technology that changed how you deal with a consumer faster than Salesforce. The power to change and improve. Right now, we are in the midst of a technology revolution. We need to partner with the best. And that's why we've chosen to work with Salesforce. Its growth has been explosive. I saw the vision that you had and I thought, this is what I want. He may be the most influential man in San Francisco. What is extraordinary is how you become the company that defines modern future enterprise computing. Because you got it right. We started salesforce.com in 1999. It was a boom time. Just a few people in an apartment here on Telegraph Hill together could create a new paradigm. I see it in your eyes. I don't think I would have started a company if it wasn't for Salesforce. Quite honestly, Mark Leet's a company that is widely considered to be one of the best places to work, not only in the technology industry, but any industry. What Mark has done here is he's attracted people who share those same values, and as a result, it's improving businesses bottom lines, but it's also creating cultures where people thrive. We're talking about a company that's got one of the greatest corporate souls. We're going to make giving back a core part of our DNA. From the very beginning, you can be in business, you can have a great company, and that can be one of the greatest vehicles for giving that you'll ever have. He takes that to heart. That's not marketing. That's Mark. I'm so proud of what got started seven or eight years ago, and I see it building and building and becoming one of the truly great partnerships in our wonderful city of San Francisco. He is a consummate salesperson. We weren't Salesforce customers right at the beginning, and I hope you are now. Oh, we are. Yes, of course. We have no choice. That's true. That's true. How big a deal is this? This is huge. One of the largest gatherings San Francisco has ever seen. Isn't this an unbelievable dream for us already? The biggest software event ever Innovation, fun and giving back. Fifteen years ago one decision was to take 1% of our equity, 1% of our profit, 1% of all of our employees time and put it into a non profit. That was the best decision we ever made. Business needs to realize they're part of the solution. They're not part of the problem. I believe that the business of business is to improve the state of the world. Everyone wants to be on his team. There's no question of that. It elevates all of us just to work with this man. He lights up a room. He captures imaginations. He talks about the future behind each and every one of these interactions on the Internet there's a customer. You canceled company events in Indiana. All I want is to have equality for all. He's connecting people together to make the world better. It's pretty cool. Here's a guy who's changed the world. He's only getting started.
