Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff has spent years trying to bring former executives back to the company. Benioff recently told Insider that the new partner to run the company will be COO Brian Millham, who already has many responsibilities and is co-CEO. announced that he may be appointed to
Two former executives who worked alongside Mr. Benioff and Mr. Milham, employee number 13, told Insider on condition of anonymity that bringing back many seniors could be good for the company.
One former executive explained that Benioff is surrounded by people who “know how Salesforce works and how Benioff works.” Another former executive said working with Benioff wasn’t easy.
Benioff is a gregarious, pitchable, and persuasive type of leader. But while he’s a “genius” when it comes to communicating his vision, two former executives say he’s not very good at telling executives what he wants. People around Benioff say they need to read his thoughts and get to know him better to know what he wants.
Plus, Salesforce is a huge, complex company with an inherent culture modeled after Benioff’s very personality. Sales are extremely strong, but cooperativeness and competitiveness coexist. The company is best known for its cloud customer management software, but it also offers many other products, including cloud services for marketing, customer support, and data analytics. And then there are large philanthropic endeavors, a huge venture capital arm, and a large arm devoted to non-profits.
Attempts to find a co-CEO who can convince Benioff to step back from his day-to-day operations have failed twice in the past, and Milham isn’t the only one singled out for “third degree honesty.” Although it is publicly said that Mr. Milham is a candidate for succession). Benioff is building the whole so that returning ex-executives can run the company alongside Milham.
Benioff just brought back Miguel Milano as chief revenue officer, Ariel Kelman as chief marketing officer and Kendall Collins as chief of staff.
A few years ago, Benioff brought back Steve Fisher as chief technology officer, poached retired co-founder Dave Moellenhoff, and brought in Jim Steele. When I reinstated him as sales manager, the old folks began to return to Salesforce. In 2022, Clara Shih will return to lead AI in general.
Salesforce declined to comment for this story.
Benioff trusts them
Someone who knows how best to work with Benioff and understands the culture of Salesforce might be able to help Benioff loosen that grip. Benioff trusts them to run the company the way he wants.
So if Milham is co-CEO, he will eventually become the next sole CEO and the first person other than Benioff to assume the role. And Benioff will likely focus on specific areas of Salesforce, much like his mentor, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, stepped down as CEO to become CTO. can be done.
Benioff alluded to that in an interview with Insider. Benioff said in a recent phone interview about the role of former executives at other companies, including Oracle and Amazon.
“Importantly, they always feel like they are part of Salesforce. They go through what we call ‘outside training.’ How wonderful isn’t it?”
Eight months ago, when Salesforce looked like a building on fire, this final round of restructuring by former executives is a big change.
Benioff’s first co-CEO, Keith Block, resigned in 2019. The next co-CEO, Bret Taylor, also resigned on November 30, shocking Benioff. Soon after, Slack founder Stewart Butterfield, who was seen as a potential successor within the company, also left, along with Tableau CEO Mark Nelson. rice field.
Amid this management chaos, the company cut 10% of its workforce, closed offices and shifted its stance on remote work in early 2023 as activist shareholders demanded better profits. . As a result, profit margins have improved over the past two quarters.
Now that all the new blood from the acquisition has been washed away, Benioff seems to think that the step back has allowed Salesforce to move forward. Several people who know the company well agree.
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(Edited by Toshihiko Inoue)
Source: BusinessInsider
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