Marc Benioff Quotations

The future of communicating with customers rests in engaging with them through every possible channel: phone, e-mail, chat, Web, and social networks. Customers are discussing a company's products and brand in real time. Companies need to join the conversation.

The world is being re-shaped by the convergence of social, mobile, cloud, big data, community and other powerful forces. The combination of these technologies unlocks an incredible opportunity to connect everything together in a new way and is dramatically transforming the way we live and work.

You must always be able to predict what's next and then have the flexibility to evolve.

Presentation skills are key. People who work for you represent your brand. You want them to present themselves - and represent you - in a certain way.

You can do things in every part of the world. You can do things in every discipline. You can do large things, you can do small things. But it takes a while to figure out what you actually want to do. And it changes. As you change your interests and desires in philanthropy change, I think you have to be open to that change.

In business, we say that people overestimate what you can do in a year and underestimate what you can do in a decade. This is true in philanthropy as well.

If someone asks me what cloud computing is, I try not to get bogged down with definitions. I tell them that, simply put, cloud computing is a better way to run your business.

The only constant in the technology industry is change.

Learning how to interact with customers is something that anyone starting any business must master. It's an amazing opportunity to be able to learn the ropes at an established company and then employ your expertise at your own company.

Most of all, I discovered that in order to succeed with a product, you must truly get to know your customers and build something for them.

I think the most surprising thing about giving is it takes a while to find out what you're really interested in and what you really want to do.

I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I started my own software company in high school and went to college to study entrepreneurship.

Journalists immediately think of me as a resource for a quote or comment because they know that I will be available to offer fresh insight and meet their deadlines.

There are a lot of politicians who are just obstructionists.

Although I loved working on technology - I've always been a computer geek at heart - my professors encouraged me to get a real-world job working with customers.

My approach to politics is that I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I'm an American and I always support candidates I think are great for the country.

I have failed a lot in my philanthropy, where I will make philanthropic contributions and they just won't be effective.

In school all I wanted to do was build technology. That's what I loved.

When we heard the news this morning, it was clear to me we're moving up to the next level. Consolidation in the client-server computing industry is opening the door for software on demand.

When I was at Oracle, we watched Computer Associates buy all those mainframe software companies and milk them for their license revenue. I never thought that's what Oracle would be doing one day, and yet, here it is,

I went to the Big Island of Hawaii and sat in a house on a point by the ocean. I thought about some of the amazing things I had seen recently in the industry. Two of the most spectacular were the emergence of the browser 18 months before, and Amazon.com.

January was not our best month ever, far from it, and that was disappointing.

Please note that most - but not all - Siebel employees are currently eligible for hire at salesforce.com today and that the recruiting department will screen for eligibility,

Like some of our best ideas, trust.salesforce.com was inspired by our conversations with customers. We have a tradition of leading the on-demand revolution with breakthrough innovations, and we hope that trust.salesforce.com will take its place among some of our best new products.

We haven't seen any loss of customers from any service interruptions. A lot of the problems were around a new data centre, and we believe a lot of those issues are resolved.

We still have so much people don't understand,

What if there was an eBay of enterprise applications? What if there was an iTunes music store of enterprise applications? We call that the AppExchange,

What if there was an eBay of applications, where companies could buy and sell software, running on our platform? ... What if there was an iTunes Music Store of online applications?

We're trying to provide a platform for applications. We think that's the next level. We are trying to become the Windows of the internet.

We would be delighted to hear from any Siebel employee that would like to join our company that meets our rigorous standard for excellence and dedication to customer success,

Our customers are not just customizing fields and tabs--they are building their own applications across a wide range of functional areas.

This is a fulfillment of our vision of 'The Business Web,' enabling companies of any size to manage, organize and share all of their business information on demand.

They have created a culture of acquisition instead of innovation. It's a lot easier just to write big checks than it is to innovate.

It's a big leap for us. We think it will show the world the next step for on-demand computing, just as we showed the world the first step.

Following the proposed acquisition of Siebel by Oracle many existing Siebel employees may be concerned about their career prospects, ... We want to offer them an alternative to an environment of declining commissions, confused customers and uncertainty around career viability.

I never thought that's what Oracle would be doing today.

You need to have a beginner's mind to create bold innovation.

Nothing is going to make you happier in your life than giving

One problem we discovered, for example, was that our "create a new account" button was in the wrong place...By simply moving it to the left side, mirroring the way people read, we saw a huge improvement in the way people used the site.

I've seen how important this concept is in business. To be truly successful, companies need to have a corporate mission that is bigger than making a profit. We try to follow that at salesforce.com, where we give 1% of our equity, 1% of our profits, and 1% of our employees' time to the community. By integrating philanthropy into our business model our employees feel that they do much more than just work at our company. By sharing a common and important mission, we are united and focused, and have found a secret weapon that ensures we always win.

I'm amazed by the potential of more companies employing integrated philanthropic initiatives at earlier stages in their life cycle. What if this were done on an even more massive scale? Consider what would happen if a top-tier venture-capital firm required the companies in which it invested to place 1% of their equity into a foundation serving the communities in which they do business.

Learning to code at a young age opened my eyes to the incredibly exciting world of technology and entrepreneurship. Our youth deserve the opportunity to learn the skills that will enable them to succeed in our connected world.

The concept that I like the most, and the one that I've taken most to heart, is the belief that people can't be united or focused unless they share a common philosophy-a philosophy that gives their effort a greater meaning.

We strive always to have a beginner's mind.

Philanthropy isn't just about big gifts; it's about participation. It is about the grace that comes from working together.

One person at a time, one company at a time.

Relationships with the media are really important. The media has a more important voice today than it has ever had. We don't advertise. We only have one marketing vehicle, which is editorial, and our ability to get our message out and communicate it effectively.

Once you know what you want and what is important for you to achieve, also define the values associated with it. What is important? That is something a lot of entrepreneurs pass by too quickly. For us, the things that were important were, No. 1, customer success. Nothing is more important to us than making sure every customer is successful in our service.

Some people would argue the other side: that the business of business is business, and companies should only be focused on profits. But in today's world, I don't think corporations can only be focused on profits, because they are inextricably linked with the communities that they serve. I do not believe you can be a leader in your industry without being a leader in your community. It's a fundamental shift in how you think about business.

Customers want new functionality, but they don't want the traditional complexity that has marred products in the past.

Philanthropy can be integrated into business. I believe strongly that companies can be incredible agents of good in the world.

Social embedded business processes that solve concrete needs are key to enterprise social collaboration.

Mult-Tenancyi is really the future of our industry.

Multi-Tenancy is a requirement for a SaaS vendor to be successful

I believe a balanced life is essential, and I try to make sure that all of our employees know that and live that way. It's crucial to me as a manager that I help ensure that our employees are as successful as our customers and partners.

You never want to be completely alone at what you do. Competition is good for everyone.

My summers at Apple had taught me that the secret to encouraging creativity and producing the best possible product was to keep people fulfilled and happy. I wanted the people who built salesforce.com to be inspired and to feel valued.

Our focus was directed at developing the best possible and easiest to use product, and this is where we invested our time. Realize that you won't be able to bring the same focus to everything in the beginning. There won't be enough people or enough hours in the day. So, focus on the 20 percent that makes 80 percent of the difference.

The real joy in life comes from giving. It comes from service. It comes from doing things for other people. That is what is so powerful about this. Nothing will make you happier than giving.

The cloud services companies of all sizes; the cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy.

The CMO is expected to spend more on technology than the CIO by 2017.

I also think that employees these days expect less of a separation of work and personal life. That doesn't mean that work tasks should encroach upon our personal time, but it does mean that employees today expect more from the companies for whom they work. Why shouldn't your workplace reflect your values? Why is "giving back" not a part of our jobs? The answer for us is to integrate philanthropy with work.

There is no finish line when it comes to system reliability and availability, and our efforts to improve performance never cease.

When I explain our company values and the foundation to prospective employees, they realize that they have an opportunity to do much more than change the way businesses manage and share information. When you take a workforce of smart, creative, dedicated people and say "take this company time to serve your community, and bring along your coworkers, customers, and partners" great things happen.

Don't forget to do something for other people.

I think a critical part of being successful in our industry is having a beginner's mind

The elites - or managers in companies - no longer control the conversation. This is how insurrections start.

This is what our customers are asking for to take them to the next level and free them from the bondage of mainframe and client-server software.

We believe in the art of war. We are trying to get our competition to attack us with angry, virulent energy, so we can transform that into larger market share.

I don't look at business as a zero-sum game. I don't. I've never seen it play out that way in our industry, and I think you innovate and you add value, deliver value back to customers, and you get value back from the world.

You have chosen the wrong path if it's not fun. And you are probably not taking enough risk if it's not hard and rocky sometimes.

I love software and I love technology.

90% of the world's data was created in the last two years

Life grows relative to one’s investment in it.

The era of the traditional software 'load, update and upgrade' business and technology model is over, ... It is time for 'The Business Web.' ... Just as mainframe companies struggled for relevance in the client-server era, Microsoft finds itself in a worse position today, facing not just the obsolescence of a technology model, but a business model as well.

As we talk about devices, you should never forget that behind every one there is a person - a customer. It“s not the Internet of Things, but the Internet of People - of customers. We are moving to one-to-one relationships.

If there wasn't any competition, I'd be very worried, because it would mean we were not doing very well.

You need to get to the future, ahead of your customers, and be ready to greet them when they arrive.

The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.