Behind the cloud : the untold story of how salesforce.com went from idea to billion-dollar company - and revolutionized an industry

How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world's fastest growing software company in less than a decade? For the first time, Marc Benioff, the visionary founder, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, tells how he and his team created and used new business, technology, and philanthropic models tailored to this time of extraordinary change. Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dotcom implosion of 2001, but went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a $46-billion dollar industry, Benioff's story will help business leaders and entrepreneurs stand out, innovate better, and grow faster in any economic climate. In __Behind the Cloud__, Benioff shares the strategies that have inspired employees, turned customers into evangelists, leveraged an ecosystem of partners, and allowed innovation to flourish. Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company—and Revolutionized an Industry 1 Contents 5 Foreword 13 Introduction 19 Part 1: The Start-Up Playbook: How to Turn a Simple Idea into a High-Growth Company 29 Play #1: Allow Yourself Time to Recharge 29 Play #2: Have a Big Dream 31 Play #3: Believe in Yourself 33 Play #4: Trust a Select Few with Your Idea and Listen to Their Advice 35 Play #5: Pursue Top Talent as If Your Success Depended on It 36 Play #6: Sell Your Idea to Skeptics and Respond Calmly to Critics 37 Play #7: Define Your Values and Culture Up Front 39 Play #8: Work Only on What Is Important 40 Play #9: Listen to Your Prospective Customers 41 Play #10: Defy Convention 42 Play #11: Have—and Listen to—a Trusted Mentor 42 Play #12: Hire the Best PlayersYou Know 43 Play #13: Be Willing to Take a Risk—No Hedging 46 Play #14: Think Bigger 48 Part 2: The Marketing Playbook: How to Cut Through the Noise and Pitch the Bigger Picture 51 Play #15: Position Yourself 51 Play #16: Party with a Purpose 53 Play #17: Create a Persona 55 Play #18: Differentiate, Differentiate, Differentiate 56 Play #19: Make Every Employee a Key Player on the Marketing Team, and Ensure Everyone Is On Message 61 Play #20: Always, Always Go After Goliath 62 Play #21: Tactics Dictate Strategy 65 Play #22: Engage the Market Leader 67 Play #23: Reporters Are Writers; Tell Them a Story 68 Play #24: Cultivate Relationships with Select Journalists 69 Play #25: Make Your Own Metaphors 72 Play #26: No Sacred Cows 72 Part 3: The Events Playbook: How to Use Events to Build Buzz and Drive Business 75 Play #27: Feed the Word-of-Mouth Phenomenon 75 Play #28: Build Street Teams and Leverage Testimony 77 Play #29: Sell to the End User 80 Play #30: The Event Is the Message 82 Play #31: Reduce Costs and Increase Impact 85 Play #32: Always Stay in the Forefront 88 Play #33: The Truth About Competition (It Is Good for Everyone) 88 Play #34: Be Prepared for Every Scenario . . . and Have Fun 89 Play #35: Seize Unlikely Opportunities to Stay Relevant 91 Play #36: Stay Scrappy . . . but Not Too Scrappy 93 Part 4: The Sales Playbook: How to Energize Your Customers into a Million-Member Sales Team 95 Play #37: Give It Away 95 Play #38: Win First Customers by Treating Them Like Partners 97 Play #39: Let Your Web Site Be a Sales Rep 100 Play #40: Make Every Customer a Member of Your Sales Team 101 Play #41: Telesales Works (Even Though Everyone Thinks It Doesn’t) 104 Play #42: Don’t Dis Your First Product with a Discount 106 Play #43: Sales Is a Numbers Game 107 Play #44: Segment the Markets 108 Play #45: Leverage Times of Change 110 Play #46: Your Seeds Are Sown, so Grow, Grow, Grow 114 Play #47: Land and Expand 123 Play #48: Abandon Strategies That No Longer Serve You 124 Play #49: Old Customers Need Love 125 Play #50: Add It On and Add It Up 126 Play #51: Success Is the Number One Selling Feature 128 Part 5: The Technology Playbook: How to Develop Products Users Love 131 Play #52: Have the Courage to Pursue Your Innovation—Before It Is Obvious to the Market 131 Play #53: Invest in the Long Term with a Prototype That Sets a Strong Foundation 134 Play #54: Follow the Lead of Companies That Are Loved by Their Customers 135 Play #55: Don’t Do It All Yourself; Reuse, Don’t Rebuild 137 Play #56: Embrace Transparency and Build Trust 138 Play #57: Let Your Customers Drive Innovation 143 Play #58: Make It Easy for Customers to Adopt 147 Play #59: Transcend Technical Paradigms 148 Play #60: Provide a Marketplace for Solutions 153 Play #61: Harness Customers’ Ideas 155 Play #62: Develop Communities of Collaboration (aka Love Everybody) 159 Play #63: Evolve by Intelligent Reaction 160 Part 6: The Corporate Philanthropy Playbook: How to Make Your Company About More Than Just the Bottom Line 163 Play #64: The Business of Business Is More Than Business 163 Play #65: Integrate Philanthropy from the Beginning 167 Play #66: Make Your Foundation Part of Your Business Model 168 Play #67: Choose a Cause That Makes Sense and Get Experts on Board 172 Play #68: Share the Model 174 Play #69: Build a Great Program by Listening to the Constituents 176 Play #70: Create a Self-Sustaining Model 181 Play #71: Share Your Most Valuable Resources—Your Product and Your People 184 Play #72: Involve Your Partners, Your Vendors, Your Network 187 Play #73: Let Employees Inspire the Foundation 189 Play #74: Have Your Foundation Mimic Your Business 194 Part 7: The Global Playbook: How to Launch Your Product and Introduce Your Model to New Markets 197 Play #75: Build Global Capabilities into Your Product 197 Play #76: Inject Local Leaders with Your Corporate DNA 198 Play #77: Choose Your Headquarters and Territories Wisely 200 Play #78: Box Above Your Weight 203 Play #79: Scale Without Overspending 204 Play #80: Understand Sequential Growth 205 Play #81: Uphold a One-Company Attitude Across Borders 206 Play #82: Follow Strategy, Not Opportunity 207 Play #83: Going Far? Take a Partner. Going Fast? Go Alone. 208 Play #84: Fine-Tune Your International Strategy 210 Play #85: Send Missionaries to Build New Markets 214 Play #86: Handle Global Disputes with Diplomacy (aka Light and Love) 216 Play #87: Edit an Overarching Outlook 220 Play #88: Bring Old Tricks to New Regions 224 Play #89: Don’t Use a ‘‘Seagull Approach’’; the Secret to Global Success Is Commitment 226 Part 8: The Finance Playbook: How to Raise Capital, Create a Return, and Never Sell Your Soul 229 Play #90: Don’t Underestimate Your Financial Needs 229 Play #91: Consider Fundraising Strategies Other Than Venture Capital 231 Play #92: Use Internet Models to Reduce Start-Up Costs 234 Play #93: Set Yourself Up Properly from the Beginning, Then Allow Your Financial Model to Evolve 235 Play #94: Measure a Fast-Growing Company on Revenue, Not Profitability 236 Play #95: Build a First-Class Financial Team 237 Play #96: Be Innovative and Edgy in Everything You Do—Except When It Comes to Your Finances 238 Play #97: When It Comes to Compliance, Always Play by the Rules 243 Play #98: Focus on the Future 246 Play #99: Allow for Change as Your Company Grows 248 Part 9: The Leadership Playbook: How to Create Alignment—the Key to Organizational Success 253 Play #100: Use V2MOM to Focus Your Goals and Align Your Organization 253 Play #101: Use a Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach 258 Play #102: Build a Recruiting Culture 261 Play #103: Recruiting Is Sales 264 Play #104: Keep Your Standards High as You Grow 267 Play #105: How to Retain Top Talent 270 Play #106: The Importance of Mahalo 272 Play #107: Foster Loyalty by Doing the Right Thing 274 Play #108: Challenge Your Best People with New Opportunities 275 Play #109: Solicit Employee Feedback—and Act On It 277 Play #110: Leverage Everything 280 The Final Play 283 Play #111: Make Everyone Successful 283 Notes 289 Acknowledgments 293 About the Authors 297 Index 299

Praise for Behind the Cloud

"Salesforce.com and Google share a vision for how the cloud will revolutionize computing. Behind the Cloud gives us a rare glimpse at the development of one of the most important trends in business today."—Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google

"In Behind the Cloud, Marc Benioff takes us through the ups and downs of building one of the most extraordinary businesses of our time and reveals the tactics that gave salesforce.com its amazing edge. This book will show you how to focus your vision, think differently, align your organization—and transform your business and your life." —Anthony Robbins, author, Awaken the Giant Within and Unlimited Power

"Reading this book, I laughed out loud many times as Marc told his story, a story of great ideas, thunder-stealing pranks, and a world consciousness that is at the heart of salesforce.com."—Neil Young

"Reading, but also afterwards, practicing the 111 plays described by Marc Benioff opens the door for entrepreneurial success much better than any MBA program."—Klaus Schwab, founder, World Economic Forum, and cofounder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

"Cisco and salesforce.com share a vision of how the network is the platform to transform business. In his book, Benioff outlines how salesforce.com has used cloud computing to disrupt and reshape the enterprise software space. It is clear that we are just beginning to understand the potential of networked business and the future benefits and productivity gains of the next phase of the Internet."—John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco

"Behind the Cloud demonstrates what happens when companies act as good citizens. Everyone—from employees to shareholders to the community—wins. Get ready to be inspired and make a difference."—Charles Moore, executive director, Committee EncouragingCorporate Philanthropy

"How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world's fastest growing software company in less than a decade? For the first time, Marc Benioff, the visionary founder, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, tells how he and his team created and used new business, technology, and philanthropic models tailored to this time of extraordinary change. Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dotcom implosion of 2001, but went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a $46-billion dollar industry, Benioff's story will help business leaders and entrepreneurs stand out, innovate better, and grow faster in any economic climate. In Behind the Cloud, Benioff shares the strategies that have inspired employees, turned customers into evangelists, leveraged an ecosystem of partners, and allowed innovation to flourish"--Publisher's description "How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world's fastest growing software company in less than a decade? For the first time, Marc Benioff, the visionary founder, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, tells how he and his team created and used new business, technology, and philanthropic models tailored to this time of extraordinary change. Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dotcom implosion of 2001, but went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a $46-billion dollar industry, Benioff's story will help business leaders and entrepreneurs stand out, innovate better, and grow faster in any economic climate"--Resource description page Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is a complete update to the international bestseller. This teaching guide is a must-have for new and experienced teachers alike. Over 700,000 teachers around the world already know how the techniques in this book turn educators into classroom champions. With ideas for everything from classroom management to inspiring student engagement, you will be able to perfect your teaching practice right away.