Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change

by Marc Benioff

As The New York Times reported, a new study that “brings scientific thoroughness to mindfulness meditation” conclusively showed that “unlike a placebo, it can change the brains of ordinary people and potentially improve their health.”

Tim Ferriss interviewed for his book Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers, he found that more than 80 percent of them practiced mindfulness or meditation—

for reasons you’ll read more about in Chapter Nine, “A Beginner’s Mind.”

I still think of Salesforce as a scrappy, trailblazing start-up.

“Does this feel like Salesforce?”

When I got back to San Francisco I walked up and down each floor of our buildings, which make up our urban campus. With all the incredible growth over the years, our workspaces had been added somewhat piecemeal, the result being, I suddenly realized, that each new addition reflected its own moment in time. We looked like very different companies depending on what door you opened; there was no consistency in the spaces we were creating for our employees and visitors. Worse yet, it also felt much too “corporate.” We could be any nondescript company!

During this process I was struck with two bursts of inspiration. One came from a Zen phrase: “A garden is not complete until everything is taken out of it.” The other came from a quote often attributed to Einstein: “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

“Let’s create the world’s best living room,” I told Elizabeth. The living room in the clouds ended up being a warm and welcoming space with 360-degree views and a coffee bar, comfy furniture, and window seats for hanging out. We covered the beams in thousands of living plants and flowers and even brought in a Steinway piano. Then we hung up a sign that read OHANA FLOOR, ALL ARE WELCOME.

In April 1997, I had just returned to Oracle from my sabbatical in India determined to do more with my life than advance my career in Silicon Valley.

Salesforce, we had some fifty employees, which was

enough critical mass to mobilize volunteers and do some good in the world.

Alan Hassenfeld, chairman of the toymaker Hasbro (who would later become a Salesforce board member),

shared how Hasbro employees were given four hours a month of paid time off for community service.

After a few weeks of reflecting on these examples, it dawned on me that our new model needed to integrate all of our resources—our money, products, equity, and people. The answer: Take 1 percent of equity, 1 percent of product, and 1 percent of employees’ time and put them into our own nonprofit.

And these organizations need a tool for managing those customer relationships (across sales, customer service, marketing and commerce), just like any other business. By offering them additional subscriptions at a steep discount, we removed a significant barrier—price—to the efficiencies that such a tool could offer. At the same time, even at a discounted price, these subscriptions began bringing in revenue that we could put back into our communities.

At my favorite breakfast spot, Ella’s,

As a result, San Francisco became the very first school district in the United States to have a computer science curriculum for every grade. We have more Wi-Fi in more classrooms, more fulltime teachers and coaches for math and technology, and smaller class sizes. And the results are measurable. A full 90 percent of San Francisco’s public school students are now proficient in computer science, and we’ve seen a 2,000 percent increase in girls and 6,600 percent increase in underrepresented groups taking computer science. In my mind, that progress, more than how much money or time we donate, is the real measure of success.

Giving Back by Skilling Up When

Somehow, in the middle of all that, he managed to greet the physician and engage him in an extensive conversation.

Clearly, Rubens was an exceptional person. He had a unique mental capacity to travel down several distinct paths of thought at the same time. I’m sure he would have made a formidable CEO.

Although I still meditate most mornings,

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

fad. But I can tell you with utmost certainty, this practice hasn’t just made me a happier, more productive human being. It has also been an essential business strategy.

Learning to meditate is one of the best investments I’ve made in life.

“What is the use of having more money if you suffer more?” Thay said. “You should understand that if you have a good aspiration, you become happier because helping society to change gives life a meaning.”

You need to prioritize.

My mentors were people whom I’d never met, like Deepak Chopra, whom I found hugely inspiring and who forced me to think about what’s truly important to me, and my values. I must have listened to hundreds of hours of self-improvement lectures on cassettes in my car in those days.

brand based on its music, and be the “most socially connected band in the world.”

What Klaus was really saying is that the only way a company truly thrives is if it fully integrates into society and into the greater effort to build a better world.

Heroin needles and human feces litter the sidewalks.

A study by the University of California, Berkeley, found that areas of San Francisco were more unsanitary than impoverished, developing countries.

In 2017, a few days before Dreamforce, I walked down Third Street near the Moscone Center, where we hold the event. It was filthy, strewn with trash,

feces, and drug paraphernalia.

In a corporate social responsibility survey of online shoppers across sixty countries, conducted by Nielsen, 66 percent said they were willing to pay extra for products and services from companies committed to driving positive social and environmental impact.

The 2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey found that millennials believe business success should be measured by more than profits, citing the creation of innovative ideas, products, and services; positive impact on the environment and society; job creation, career development, and improving people’s lives; and promotion of inclusion and diversity in the

workplace as the top priorities. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer, 75 percent of consumers say they won’t buy from unethical companies, and 86 percent...

The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 71 percent of employees surveyed said it’s critically important for their CEO to engage on challenging issues, and 76 percent of the general population said that they want CEOs to take the lead on addressing societal issues rather than waiting for governments to weigh in.

My guiding light during the Prop C campaign was our city’s namesake and patron saint, Saint Francis of Assisi, who inspired me with these words: “Where there is darkness may we bring light . . . and where there is despair, may we bring hope.” And finally, “For it is in giving that we receive.”