. Marc Benioff, chairman, CEO, and founder of Salesforce
Marc Benioff took to computer entrepreneurism at an
early age. At only 15 years old, he had already started his own software
company. The profits from that company were enough to put him through college.
When he graduated, he jumped right into a position at the software company
Oracle, quickly climbing the corporate ladder and becoming the youngest vice
president in the company’s history within a few years.xii
Benioff
eventually left Oracle to start his own software company, Salesforce. At its inception, Salesforce was a
revolutionary approach to software, in that it delivers centrally hosted
applications over the Internet to its clients. The bold move of charting a
cloud approach to computing proved successful and, as of 2017, Salesforce was
pulling in $8.39 billion in revenue.
Rather
than take his success for granted, however, Benioff has tried to use his wealth
and position of power to support ethical causes, such as promoting sustainable
growth and diversity. He is a big supporter of stakeholder capitalism as well.xiii This is an approach to business that
attempts to consider the interests of all major stakeholders rather than
catering merely or disproportionately to the investors.
And
Benioff has tried to put his money where his mouth is. Since 1999, he has
maintained what he calls his “1-1-1 model.” This is a company program that
donates 1% of equity, 1% of employee time, and 1% of products to nonprofit
organizations operating in locations where his companies do business. According
to Benioff, this is just one way for him to demonstrate that “the business of
business is improving the state of the world.”xiv Another way is by ensuring that there is
pay equity between men and women working in the same positions in his company.
When Benioff realized a few years ago that men and women were not being paid at
a comparable rate, he took action to change this.xv
Beyond
philanthropy and striving for equity in his company, Benioff recognizes that
technology innovators like himself need to take initiative in ensuring that
business is done ethically. He knows that the volume of innovation coming out
of the industry makes it difficult to manage, and he does not trust individual
CEOs and companies to always do the ethical thing. “We’re moving rapidly into a
new world where we know the government is going to have to be involved in these
next-generation technologies—like AI [artificial intelligence], biotech,
etc.—which are all so new, and could have unintended consequences,” he said in
2018. To manage the disruption that comes with these changes, he suggested it
might be necessary to create a regulatory government body not unlike the Food
and Drug Administration, except for technology.xvi
Recently,
his ethical approach to business has led him to speak out on the autocratic
style of many other leaders in Silicon Valley. Speaking in Davos, Switzerland,
in 2018, Benioff challenged leaders in technology to step back from the
all-too-common position he summarized as, “I’m the entrepreneur and I am in
charge no matter what happens.” Citing the infamous aggressive leadership style
of Uber’s founder and former CEO, Travis Kalanick, he warned against adopting
this approach. Instead, he proposed they embrace the concept of trust.xvii “It’s a culture issue. What is the most
important thing in your company—is it trust or is it growth? If anything trumps
trust, we are in trouble.”xviii
Watch this video of Marc Benioff
discussing the crisis of trust in Silicon Valley to learn
more.
Watch this video of Marc Benioff
discussing the crisis of trust in Silicon Valley to learn
more.
Ethical Business
Executive report
– Appendix
chapter in textbook has profiles of 9 business leaders committed to ethical
management.
For each leader, there is a written summary, and a link to a video about the
company/executive.
– select 1
of the 9 executives profiled
– read the
summary, watch the video for the leader selected
– prepare a
written report in a Word doc discussing the leader selected
– length
usually about 1-2 pages, turn in thru drop box located on course website
