Marc Benioff Says a Ranch May Be What Salesforce's Work Culture Needs
May 11 2021 - 3:17PM
Dow Jones News
By Lauren Weber
Salesforce.com Inc. Chief Executive Marc Benioff has thoughts on
how to reinvigorate the software company's workplace culture in the
post-pandemic era, and it involves the great outdoors and possibly
a ranch.
Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything
Festival on Tuesday, Mr. Benioff said that following Covid-19,
business leaders will look to the past and the future to create new
models of work. In Salesforce's case, he said, that includes the
possible purchase of a large property to use for team- and
culture-building activities, as well as employee orientations and
training sessions.
"We're looking at maybe buying a large piece of land, maybe a
large ranch in the United States or some other type of acreage
where we can build the next generation of Crotonville," Mr. Benioff
said in an interview with Journal Editor in Chief Matt Murray,
referring to the storied New York state campus that General
Electric Co. built in 1956 as its epicenter of culture and
training.
He said Walt Disney Co.'s theme parks also were an inspiration.
"What they've done so successfully with their parks is you show up
at a Disney park and you smell Disney, you see Disney, you feel
Disney, you hear Disney. That's what I want my new employees to
feel for Salesforce. That's the culture coming through," he said,
adding that he envisions a place where employees might bring their
families.
This vision, he added, is "very different from what we were
thinking a year ago before this pandemic began."
Addressing a wide range of questions about leadership and the
role of chief executives today, Mr. Benioff said that Facebook Inc.
founder Mark Zuckerberg should make the final call on the
controversial question of whether the social-media platform should
permanently ban former President Trump.
Facebook's Oversight Board, created to independently rule on
difficult issues around content moderation, last week upheld the
platform's temporary suspension of Mr. Trump and sent the question
back to Facebook's management for a permanent decision.
That was the right call, said Mr. Benioff, a frequent critic of
Facebook. Difficult decisions like the one facing Mr. Zuckerberg
are a key responsibility of a chief executive, he said.
"They were right to punt it back," he said of the Oversight
Board's call. "They basically said, this is your company, you are
the leader, and you have to know what is right in your heart to do,
and if you cannot do that, then you should probably not be the CEO
because that's the CEO's job. The CEO's job is not just to have a
shareholder return. The CEO's job is also to have stakeholder
return and you have to do both."
Mr. Benioff has been outspoken on political and social issues
for many years, and continues to say that business can be a force
for good, including pressing for equity internally and externally.
He said that when he was labeled an "activist CEO" in a 2016
Journal profile, "I was quite offended by the term. But I
understand it now." He said CEOs "do have a responsibility, they
have a responsibility to their employees, to their customers, to
their partners, to all of their stakeholders."
Salesforce recently sent a planeload of supplies to India to
help with the Covid-19 outbreaks there. "Am I supposed to sit idly
by when I know I have the ability to provide some relief or some
capability out of Salesforce? No," he said, "I must act."
Mr. Benioff said he has no plans to retire soon or enter an
executive chairman role. "I've been very gratified to be a CEO
especially in the last year, when I can demonstrate that business
really is the greatest platform for change," he said. "This is what
I want to be able to continue to do."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 11, 2021 15:02 ET (19:02 GMT)
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