245 Case Study 6 CASE STUDY 6 Salesforce.com organizations. It's estimated that Salesforce.com has a 20 percent In 1999, Marc Benioff was writing software in a small San Fran- share of the $40 billion CRM software market. cisco apartment with two other cofounders of his new company. As of 2018, Salesforce.com's market capitalization was more Together they created a cloud enterprise software used by mil- than $98 billion, and it is one of the most valued cloud comput- lions of people today. Prior to starting the new company, Benioff ing companies in the United States. Even more amazing is how was a successful executive at Oracle. But he was tired of the big quickly Salesforce.com has grown. Since its initial public offering company culture. He wanted to leave Oracle, but leaving such a (IPO) in 2004, Salesforce.com's stock price has grown from $4 successful job was a very hard decision. After some deep reflection per share (adjusting for a stock split) to more than $130 per share and a bit of soul searching, Benioff decided to trust himself and (a P/E ratio of 147).28 That's a 3,150 percent increase in stock start a new company called Salesforce.com. price in 14 years, or 262 percent annual growth every year since its IPO. That is a tremendous amount of growth for any company. Growing Salesforce.com And Salesforce.com has gone worldwide, too. It has been trans- lated into more than 15 different languages. Benioff knew he wouldn't be able to go it alone. He didn't have Salesforce.com has been more than just a financial success. the experience or the skills he needed to create what he envi- It has been given numerous awards, including "100 Best Com- sioned. Finding the right people was a challenge. Even after he panies to Work For," "World's Most Admired Companies," and found the right people, he had to convince them that his vision "Most Innovative Companies in the World."29 of a people-focused software company would actually work. That As an organization, Salesforce.com focuses on four pillars was hard, too. Finally, once his team was in place, he faced a third of success: trust, growth, innovation, and equality. To build challenge-he needed to raise a lot of money to develop the large trust, Salesforce.com communicates openly with its customers. systems the company needed. It promises to do what it takes to keep customer data secure. To Investors and venture capitalists weren't really interested in promote growth, Salesforce.com focuses on the success of its his idea, so Benioff turned to friends. Luckily, he had some suc- customers. By maintaining positive relationships with exist- cessful friends, including founders and investors at companies ing customers, the company continues to grow. Salesforce.com like Oracle, Dropbox, and CNET. With money in hand, Benioff works to innovate in what it does with the hope that its ideas and his cofounders were able to launch one of the very earliest drive positive change in the company, the industry, and even the enterprise software as a service (Saas) companies in the world. world. Finally, Salesforce.com pursues equality and is committed to hiring employees from every background. This focus helps it A Force to Be Reckoned With thrive. Today. Salesforce.com dominates the market for customer rela- QUESTIONS tionship management (CRM) software. It consistently outsells 6-14. Go to www.salesforce.com, and click on the "Try for giants like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM. About one-third of Free" button. Fill in the required fields and start your Salesforce.com customers are small businesses; the rest are larger free trial. This will take you to a test site full of data for a company named Acme. Click on the "Take a Tour of Salesforce.com" link on the upper left-hand side of the screen. Walk through the automated tour labeled "Manage Your Pipeline (13 steps)." a. Why would these dashboards be useful to a market- ing or sales manager? b. How could Salesforce.com help a sales manager increase sales? c. How long do you think it would take you to learn the basics of Salesforce.com? salesforce 6-15. Explain why a company like Salesforce.com requires so much money to become successful. Once the software is built, what are the incremental costs of adding addi- Source: Richard Levine/Alamy Stock Photo tional customers? How does this affect profitability?245 Case Study 6 CASE STUDY 6 Salesforce.com organizations. It's estimated that Salesforce.com has a 20 percent In 1999, Marc Benioff was writing software in a small San Fran- share of the $40 billion CRM software market. cisco apartment with two other cofounders of his new company. As of 2018, Salesforce.com's market capitalization was more Together they created a cloud enterprise software used by mil- than $98 billion, and it is one of the most valued cloud comput- lions of people today. Prior to starting the new company, Benioff ing companies in the United States. Even more amazing is how was a successful executive at Oracle. But he was tired of the big quickly Salesforce.com has grown. Since its initial public offering company culture. He wanted to leave Oracle, but leaving such a (IPO) in 2004, Salesforce.com's stock price has grown from $4 successful job was a very hard decision. After some deep reflection per share (adjusting for a stock split) to more than $130 per share and a bit of soul searching, Benioff decided to trust himself and (a P/E ratio of 147).28 That's a 3,150 percent increase in stock start a new company called Salesforce.com. price in 14 years, or 262 percent annual growth every year since its IPO. That is a tremendous amount of growth for any company. Growing Salesforce.com And Salesforce.com has gone worldwide, too. It has been trans- lated into more than 15 different languages. Benioff knew he wouldn't be able to go it alone. He didn't have Salesforce.com has been more than just a financial success. the experience or the skills he needed to create what he envi- It has been given numerous awards, including "100 Best Com- sioned. Finding the right people was a challenge. Even after he panies to Work For," "World's Most Admired Companies," and found the right people, he had to convince them that his vision "Most Innovative Companies in the World."29 of a people-focused software company would actually work. That As an organization, Salesforce.com focuses on four pillars was hard, too. Finally, once his team was in place, he faced a third of success: trust, growth, innovation, and equality. To build challenge-he needed to raise a lot of money to develop the large trust, Salesforce.com communicates openly with its customers. systems the company needed. It promises to do what it takes to keep customer data secure. To Investors and venture capitalists weren't really interested in promote growth, Salesforce.com focuses on the success of its his idea, so Benioff turned to friends. Luckily, he had some suc- customers. By maintaining positive relationships with exist- cessful friends, including founders and investors at companies ing customers, the company continues to grow. Salesforce.com like Oracle, Dropbox, and CNET. With money in hand, Benioff works to innovate in what it does with the hope that its ideas and his cofounders were able to launch one of the very earliest drive positive change in the company, the industry, and even the enterprise software as a service (Saas) companies in the world. world. Finally, Salesforce.com pursues equality and is committed to hiring employees from every background. This focus helps it A Force to Be Reckoned With thrive. Today. Salesforce.com dominates the market for customer rela- QUESTIONS tionship management (CRM) software. It consistently outsells 6-14. Go to www.salesforce.com, and click on the "Try for giants like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM. About one-third of Free" button. Fill in the required fields and start your Salesforce.com customers are small businesses; the rest are larger free trial. This will take you to a test site full of data for a company named Acme. Click on the "Take a Tour of Salesforce.com" link on the upper left-hand side of the screen. Walk through the automated tour labeled "Manage Your Pipeline (13 steps)." a. Why would these dashboards be useful to a market- ing or sales manager? b. How could Salesforce.com help a sales manager increase sales? c. How long do you think it would take you to learn the basics of Salesforce.com? salesforce 6-15. Explain why a company like Salesforce.com requires so much money to become successful. Once the software is built, what are the incremental costs of adding addi- Source: Richard Levine/Alamy Stock Photo tional customers? How does this affect profitability