Marc Benioff Biography
Marc Russell Benioff is the founder of salesforce.com. Born in 1964, Benioff was raised in a Jewish family in the San Francisco Bay area. He is a self-made billionaire whose company has turned 15 years old this year, achieving a groundbreaking sales record of $5.5 billion. Salesforce.com is the first cloud computing company to have crossed $5 billion mark (Bort 2014). Marc Benioff is one of the most illustrious business leaders of the 21st Century America. He is considered as one of the most successful CEOs of the modern era, in the line of other promising leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Larry Homes (Konrad 2014). His leadership style is markedly different from other leaders like Jack Welch and Steve Jobs. Besides being one of the richest people in the San Francisco Bay area with a net worth of $3.3 billion, he is known for his generous philanthropic contributions (Bort 2014). This essay will discuss Marc Benioff’s achievements and leadership style, furthering touching upon his life and his influence on me.
Achievements of Marc Benioff
California has produced some extraordinary leaders in the late 20th and 21st centuries, with Steve Jobs and Marc Zuckerberg being some of the brightest among them. Raised in a Jewish family, Benioff went to Burlingame High School in 1982. While in school, he started his own company called Liberty Software at the age of 15 years. Through Liberty Software, he designed and sold games like King Arthur’s Heir, Escape from Vulcan’s Isle, Crypt of the Undead, and the Nightmare (Swartz 2007). Upon completing his high school, he went to the University of South California to complete his degree in Bachelor of Science. In 1986, after completing his college education, he joined Apple computers an assembly language programmer. He was heavily influenced by Steve Jobs and his style of working. Steve Jobs himself was a programmer and visionary. After a short stint at Apple, he joined Oracle Corporation in the marketing division. Within the first year of joining Oracle, he received the Rookie of the Year award at the age of 23 years. He held various executive positions in sales, marketing, and new product development in Oracle before being promoted to the post of Vice-President at the age of 26 years (Konrad 2014). He was the youngest Vice President of Oracle.
After working with Oracle for 13 years, he left the organization in 1999 to form his own company called salesforce.com. He was motivated by the idea of creating a cloud based platform that will facilitate the sales and marketing team and bring an end to the CRM based software, which he termed in his own words as “the End of Software” (Konrad 2014). While working with Oracle for 13 years in the sales and marketing department, he observed that companies are bound by CRM software capabilities of different companies like SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft. Customizing the CRM platform based on the customer needs was difficult. He wanted to create something that will not only be more customer centric, but will also be an open source so that even very small customers can afford to use salesforce.com for their sales and marketing functions. In 1999, he chose a route that was completely against the flow of the industry trend. However, the model worked and salesforce.com became a successful company within a matter of a few years of its launch. Marc Benioff was so influential that the President George W. Bush appointed him as the co-chairman of the president’s information technology advisory committee (Swartz 2007). He served in that committee between 2003 and 2005, overseeing reports on health care, cyber security, information technology, and computational sciences.
Salesforce.com and Marc Benioff have received many accolades in the last 15 years. Benioff was named as one of the smartest 50 people in technology by Fortune Magazine. San Francisco Business Times named him as the executive of the year in 2009. Wall Street Journal named salesforce.com as the most innovative company in 2010. Benioff also received an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from the University of South California for his contribution to the society.
Marc Benioff is not only a pioneer and an inspirational leader in the area of business; he is also a leader in the area of philanthropy. Benioff pioneered the 1-1-1 philanthropic model by which his company contributed 1% of its profit, 1% of its equity, and 1% of the employee hours back to the communities (Bort 2014). This model was later adopted by many companies including Google. Benioff received excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award in 2008 from the World Economic Forum where he became the director of the board afterwards. In 2010, Benioff and his wife donated $100 million to children’s hospitals, another $100 million for the advancement in children’s hospitals in UCSF and Oakland (Bort 2014).
Marc Benioff as a Leader – A Critical Analysis
Different inspirational leaders are motivated by different ambitions. For instance, Steve Jobs’ ambition was not only to become a successful business person, but also to be recognized for his acumen for innovation. Bill Gates’ ambition was to make the use of computer accessible to all. Marc Benioff was motivated by his ambition of creating a virtual platform that would provide customers with the flexibility to customize their own softwares, which are accessible from anywhere around the world. He also wanted his creations to be affordable to everyone. That is why he started his company salesforce.com on Cloud.
In order to analyze the leadership style of Marc Benioff, it is important to know the definition of a leader. According to Clemmer and McNeil (1990), leadership is the ability to initiate an activity and motivate others in the direction of shared goals. According to Gannon (1979), leadership is the very foundation without which an organization cannot function effectively. Though there are many leadership theories available, the two most discussed ones include transactional leadership and transformational leadership theories. Transactional leaders are the ones who extract performance and obedience from their subordinates through reward and punishment behaviors. They do not expect their subordinates to assume greater responsibilities for self-development or leading others. They give promotions, praises, and monetary rewards to motivate employees. Transformational leaders, on the other hand, are the ones who try to bring positive changes in the followers, by presenting himself as a role model and inspiration to others. They let employees assume greater responsibilities for self-development and encourage them to make independent decisions (Riaz and Haider 2010).
Benioff is a transformational leader who influences his employees through his charismatic personality by presenting himself as a role model to others. All the key executives of his organization echo the same theme about him that they joined the company because of the broader vision of Benioff, the CEO of the company. Benioff like Steve Jobs is known for his innovation. The company's approach to innovation under his guidance has held firm for years, earning the reputation of the Most Innovative Company as per Forbes for the four consecutive years. Benioff is a visionary leader who pioneers the field of innovation (Dreamforce 2014). His role has been instrumental in making the life of his customers happy by providing the solution of social and mobile cloud technologies to connect to customers, employees, partners, and products in innovative ways. Under his leadership, salesforce.com has swelled from a company of $50 million in annual revenue to a company worth $5 billion (Konrad 2014). His company is the market leader in the enterprise cloud computing.
Like a true transformational leader, trust is an important component of Benioff's leadership style. He puts "trust" at the top of his business philosophy. In Benioff’s own words, "That’s the product that we sell, trust. Customers work with us because they trust us, and employees work for us because they trust us” (Konrad 2014). In order to keep employees focused and interested in their jobs, Benioff makes sure to rotate the employees around different divisions within the company. He has created an environment of entrepreneurship within the organization. Every year, Benioff and the management team create a list of projects according to priority. The top project leader assumes the role of the CEO of the company for the next year. This way, different people assume the top role every year (Konrad 2014). Thus, Benioff like a transformational leader allows employees to develop a sense of belonging to the organization by letting them assume greater responsibilities. The role changes also expose the employees to different challenges, retaining their interest and focus on the job.
Marc Benioff has also fostered a culture of “figure it out” in the organization. His philosophy is that since he does not have all the answers, he lets others in the organization figure out the future path of new product launches. For example, when Alex Dayon, a senior executive, launched the service cloud, Benioff did not interfere in the process, seeking an explanation as to how the product would work in the market. He simply let Dayon figure it out himself (Konrad 2014). This philosophy has created a free thinking organization in which Benioff encourages employees to think freely and allows them to make independent decisions.
One of the problems of Benioff ‘s “free agent philosophy” or entrepreneurship philosophy is that it leads to the creation of so many ideas that it is easy for the leader to get lost and forget about the core strength of the company. So far the company has done well, but this leadership style may create a problem, if from the hundreds of ideas that are generated, Benioff is unable to choose the right one and steer it in the right direction. Many a time, too much innovation and less structure can lead an organization to doom.
Another drawback of the entrepreneurship model is that it creates competition. In fact, three out of the five co-founders of salesforce.com have left the company and opened their own businesses. A lot of other executives too have left the company to start their own venture. However, Benioff tries to share a good relationship with the old employees who have left his organization and sometimes provide help in setting up their own businesses so that salesforce.com becomes their partner in the long run when these organizations grow.
Benioff’s Influence on Me
I have full of admiration for Benioff’s leadership style. Benioff is a transformational leader who leads his followers by presenting himself as a role model to them. He allows his subordinates to think freely and take independent decisions so that they feel attached to the organization. His customers as well as his employers are happy because of the philosophy of “trust” that Benioff so diligently follows. His leadership is the backbone of his organization and its success. I am impressed how the top executives of his organization look up to him. I would also like to foster the same leadership style as that of Benioff in my managerial style so that my subordinates follow me not because they have to, but because they trust me and look up to me. Furthermore, Benioff’s courage to think beyond the traditional software model and establish a cloud based product at a time when it was unthinkable is inspirational. I am also very much inspired by his idea of giving back to the community. He not only gives back to the society a part of his personal wealth, but also inspires many others to do the same through his 1-1-1 model. This philanthropic side of him has a deep influence on me as I am someone who also values the idea of giving back whatever little we can to the society that nurtures us.
Conclusion
Marc Benioff is one of the iconic business leaders of the modern day. He is not only a self-made billionaire, but also a great philanthropist. Benioff is a charismatic leader who draws inspiration because of philanthropic nature and an honest approach to the business execution. He encourages new ideas, entrepreneurship and role changes. Under his leadership, salesforce.com has been able to come up with many new technologies, and has acquired the status of one of the most successful companies in the CRM space. He has also created a 1/1/1 philosophy of giving back some of the profits earned by his company back to the communities, an action that has inspired many other companies to follow in Benioff’s step. He is a hero to me for his unique leadership style and philanthropic nature.
Work Cited
Konrad, Alex. ‘Salesforce Innovation Secrets: How Marc Benioff's Team Stays On Top’. Forbes. 20 Aug 2014. Web. 1 Dec 2014 <http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/08/20/marc-benioffs-innovation-secret/>
Bort, Julie. ‘The Fabulous Life Of Tech Billionaire Marc Benioff’. The Business Insider. 1 Mar 2014. Web. 1 Dec 2014 <http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fab-life-of-billionaire-marc-benioff-2014-2>
Dreamforce. ‘Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO, salesforce.com’. 2014. Web. 1 Dec 2014 <http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF14/keynotes.jsp>
Swartz, Jon. ‘Salesforce CEO leads charge against software’. USA Today. 24 Jul 2007. Web. 1 Dec 2014 <http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2007-07-22-benioff_N.htm>
Clemmer, J. and McNeil, A. Leadership skills: New techniques to improve organizational effectiveness for every manager. London; Piatkus Books. 1990. Print.
Gannon, M. Organizational behavior: A managerial and organizational perspective. Boston: Little Brown and Company. 1979. Print.
Riaz, A. and Haider, M. H. ‘Role of transformational and transactional leadership on job satisfaction and career satisfaction’. Business and Economic Horizons. 1(1). pp. 29-38. 2010. Web. 1 Dec 2014 <http://academicpublishingplatforms.com/docs/BEH/Volume1/05_V1_PAKISTAN_BEH_Adnan%20Riaz_d.pdf>
