Trailblazer by Marc Benioff
Two sentence summary
This book shares Marc’s story of founding and building Salesforce, which is now a massive multinational tech company. He talked about building “a business that’s equally committed to doing well and doing good” - one where values, culture and being part of the wider community are central , in a particular a focus on building trust.
Three things I took from the book
1. VALUES ARE VALUABLE … IF THEY ARE LIVED EVERYDAY
The core message of the book is:
“A culture rooted in values creates value.”
Values can’t just be words on the wall - they need to be turned into consistent behaviours every single day. It’s important to help people do that.
And give your people permission to hold the whole leadership team to account for upholding the values through what they say and do day-to-day, and the decisions they make. Marc gives examples of when this has happened and he’s been challenged by his team.
2. THE BEST LEADERS ARE OPEN TO BEING CHALLENGED
Marc’s openness to being challenged by his team shone through - e.g. around inequality and unconscious bias. He has since made hefty pay outs to equalise pay, showing he genuinely listened to the feedback and created change.
They were brave enough to ask some pointed questions in their staff survey, asking questions that they hoped would elicit honest responses. For example “whether people felt there was a culture of politiikcing and backstabbing as ways to get things done or whether they were feeling burned out or bullied”.
This all helps build trust.
3. THEIR APPROACH TO ‘GIVING BACK’ IS STRATEGIC, DATA-DRIVEN AND ALIGNED WITH THEIR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
I love, love, love that he realised in 2012 that they were taking a scattered approach to supporting causes they cared about and that this meant they weren’t having a meaningful impact. This is something I talk about a lot!
Since then they’ve taken a more data-driven, strategic approach to volunteering and philanthropy. And they have aligned their ‘giving back’ to their core skills and experience - e.g. through training students and apprentices in tech, addressing a skills gap and helping people become more employable.
Three questions it prompted
1. WHERE’S THE BEST PLACE TO MAKE DECISIONS?
Marc shares some advice he’d been given:
“The most dangerous place to make decisions is in the office. You need to make decisions where the customer is.”
I don’t disagree with this (far from it) but I have a build. What about doing that in nature? Or at least making some of your more important decisions in nature? There’s lots of evidence that it changes the way we make decisions.
2. DO LEADERS VALUE WELLBEING MORE IF THEY HAVE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF BURNOUT (OR SIMILAR)?
Marc talks about the focus on wellbeing:
“When people are healthy, they are more engaged, more productive, and happier, and more likely to stay with the company.”
I wonder if business leaders are more likely to see the value of focusing on wellbeing when they have lived experience of burnout - either themselves or close friends / family / colleagues. Marc does.
3. WHAT IF ALL INNOVATION ENERGY WAS FOCUSED ON SOLVING OUR MOST COMPLEX SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES?
This is how the book ends and I think it’s such a great challenge for us:
“Imagine a future in which CEOs and their companies around the world applied the same focus and innovation they bring to solving their most complex business problems to solving our most complex social ones.”
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