Just finished reading “Behind the Cloud – Marc Benioff.” This is the man and the story behind Salesforce.com. If you want to get into the mind and understand the company ethos of the biggest success story of the last 10 years in the software as a service space its a must read – in fact Salesforce.com started SaaS as we know it now. He calls it a playbook – the whole story divided into 10 Parts and each part split in to around 10 “plays”. It covers his philosophy from startup to marketing, sales, technology and most importantly corporate philanthropy. The style of writing makes the book easy to dip in and out of as well as a cover to cover journey through the trials and tribulations of the evolution of startup to corporate.
To be honest his startup was a lot more glamorous than the ones I’ve been involved with (after all he seeded it with $6m from his pocket) – I’m not talking expensive jets and so on – but certainly great locations and interesting offices employing the true dot com lifestyle of relaxed attitudes, Hawaiian shirts combined with through the night working sessions. He talks about some of the guerilla marketing tactics employed to challenge Siebel, the then crm leader by camping next door to their offices, interrupting and picketing their (Siebel’s) conferences and trade shows – it makes for great entertainment. I can imagine when you have little to lose (in marketing terms) and much to gain, controversy like this will certainly win out against the establishment (old style ERP software for example).
To me it was not like a typical “I’m a great Entrepreneur – look at me” story, but something that will provide many people with some valuable tips or principles about how to approach business, run startups and run an organisation with real culture while providing value to the world around them. Its really worth looking at his 1-1-1 model (1% equity, 1% time and 1% product) model for using business to promote and contribute to good causes. The time element is probably worth more than anything else – as it allows all employees 6 days a year todo something that actively contributes to their community of choice.
Why is this important for HR? – Attraction and Retention of employees. GenY (Is that term overused?) candidates want to work for companies with a greater mission than profitability. They want not only a rewarding career and environment but also for a company that has values and contributes back into their community. But we know this right?
Grab the book – read it and enjoy it. It has an upbeat style and moves along with a compelling pace. Who knows you may feel inspired to implement a couple of ideas in your organisation.
