Marc takes a page from Steve Jobs and obsesses about the details of how things are perceived. Be the leader in something. Not Regus, not the client’s office, not even the hotel restaurant. There were some interesting operational and growth lessons, but for me, the real gems are when you get to see how Marc Benioff thinks. This allows you to have a common language for setting targets, resolving misalignment and analyzing performance. When recruiting and interviewing, Marc favors an approach where you intentionally put meaningful hurdles in your hiring process. First, this is another example of how much Marc values the “soft” side of leadership. And as in the quote above, there was even a time where he turned a CASTLE into an office! There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Some of the advice he gives is highly contextualized and specific to his situation, and as a people studying these lessons —  we must hold these caveats in mind. Instead of optimizing for rewarding top performers, he optimizes for overall team morale and motivation. This complete summary of the ideas from Marc Benioff's book "Behind the Cloud" explains how he started with an idea and grew it into a billion-dollar business. Each summary is about 8 pages long and contains the stripped-down essential ideas from the entire book in a time-saving format. January 1st 1982 Instead of a system that operated something like “Press 1 for English, 2 for French”, Marc’s team made sure to minimize any friction regarding which language the customer preferred. You subscribe to email newsletters. The must-read summary of Marc Benioff's book: "Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went From Idea to Billion-Dollar Company- and Revolutionized an Industry". The cloud brings rain, moisture, hail, and snow, and gives shade. Check out Salesforce’s rating on Glassdoor: Of all the lessons Marc shares in the book, this one was the most counter-intuitive. This is another area where Marc differs. So he positioned Salesforce as the standard-bearer for the powerful, inevitable trend of SaaS and the consumerization of IT. Marc quotes Sun Tzu a few times throughout the book, and it’s clear that he’s internalized the lessons about turning weaknesses into strengths. Not only was it a different era in tech; Marc was a millionaire when he founded Salesforce, had a super deep network of Tier 1A talent at his disposal, picked the right wave to ride, and timed it perfectly. Marc notes the importance of showing constant improvement and making people feel like they’ve picked the winner. By investing less than one hour perweekinthesesummaries,subscribersgaina workingknowledgeof the top businesstitles. There’s a huge meaty section about V2MOM, Marc’s management framework. Get the latest posts delivered right to your inbox, If you’re here, it’s because you’re a little like me. Early in the book, Marc recounts how his experience working at Apple influenced how he thought about business. Selling software via subscription was a strange, new concept in the early 2000s. As you go through the book, you can feel how much Marc cares about things like culture and team motivation. Behind The Cloud is Marc Benioff’s account of how Salesforce grew to the behemoth it is today. Here’s an example: Marc’s insight here is that customers love it when you have a reliable cadence for progress. I’ve seen it constantly recommended by entrepreneurs I respect, so I, Stay up to date! So Marc advocates a different approach than most CEOs. He’s prioritized HR and recruiting, right from the beginning. by Longman Publishing Group. Testimonials help prospects and customers feel safe that they’re in the right hands, building trust right off the bat, and starting the relationship off on a positive note. For many executives, HR is a nuisance that gets in the way of “real work.”. Marc thinks that if he just positioned Salesforce as a company that does really great sales force automation and CRM, the company wouldn’t be where it is today. Only people who really buy into your vision and your culture will make it to the end. He is incredible at nailing market positioning, delighting customers, and creating a passionate, loyal team that will follow him into war. It’s potentially dangerous if you follow advice blindly without considering the difference between Salesforce’s early history and yours. According to Benioff, the key to creating a truly successful company is not improving what has already been done; it’s about being bold enough to make dramatic changes. This was when they opened their first European outpost in Dublin. For example, he says you should “always” run events, always build a sales team, and support multiple languages on day one. A lot of the principles from Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People are also on full display. Don’t play to be in the middle. Marc made sure everything was consistent and on-message. Each summary is about 8 pages long and contains the stripped-down essential ideas from the entire book in a time-saving format. So, for me, the biggest takeaway from Behind The Cloud was this: Even if you don’t have Marc’s background, you can build an industry-leading business if you master some of the elements that make up the soft side of company building. It is rare to find a company that has the discipline to follow such a rule. It's National Novel Writing Month, the annual event designed to... To see what your friends thought of this book. So in this summary of Behind The Cloud, I go over 3 specific areas where Marc used this superpower to transform Salesforce from a tiny apartment startup into the company that invented SaaS as we know it today. When they could do it, they’d situate their offices next to a major brand like Microsoft and feed off the halo effect. Progress is important, but Marc takes it one step further and makes how he presents the progress a big deal as well. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Second, in order for a company to pull this off, they would need to have a steady pipeline of new candidates to interview. The net result is that team morale goes down, which leads to bad outcomes for the company. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Behind The Cloud is Marc Benioff’s account of how Salesforce grew to the behemoth it is today. His reasoning is that if you only reward the best people — say, the top 10% — then 90% of your people aren’t getting rewarded, and thus, don’t get any positive feedback. This complete summary of the ideas from Marc Benioff’s book “Behind the Cloud” explains how he started with an idea and grew it into a billion-dollar business. And Marc was convinced that this new model was going to be the future, even if people didn’t know it yet.