Marc Benioff is a busy guy.
The latest book by the chief executive of Salesforce.com hit store shelves last month.
View Larger ImageHis pioneering cloud computing company reports third-quarter earnings this afternoon.
And the organization's annual conference, the Dreamforce Global Gathering 2009, kicks off this evening at Moscone Center and is expected to draw a crowd of around 15,000.
Between all that, Benioff managed to find the time for a sit-down interview with The Chronicle. But then, a reading of "Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went From Idea to Billion-Dollar Company - and Revolutionized an Industry" reveals why.
Page 41 informs the reader that making oneself available to journalists is critical to business success. In fact, The Chronicle makes a cameo in the book as the featured example of how Benioff artfully leveraged reporter relationships to get his "story told."
That story, by now familiar, is how cloud computing is upending the business software industry, as companies increasingly opt to run applications hosted online rather than installed on site.
Salesforce.com became a billion-dollar company by recognizing this demand early and delivering intuitive software that could be set up quickly and cheaply. It has continued to rapidly expand even through the recession, as cost-conscious businesses come to embrace the cloud.
But what the book shows - and the interview reinforced - is the extent to which marketing was key to the company's success.
That's marketing broadly defined, from ingratiating himself to reporters by exhibiting a rare willingness among public company CEOs to slam competitors, to rolling out hyperbolic advertising like the company's infamous "End of Software" campaign, to throwing user events that tapped customers as product cheerleaders.
Or, of course, by taking the time to meet with the local media, say just in advance of such an event. In the wide-ranging conversation, Benioff, 45, discussed what MC Hammer taught him about business, why he craves Microsoft's validation, and the reason San Francisco should get its head out of the clouds.
Q: Within two pages of your book, you cite both MC Hammer and the Rev. Billy Graham as business influences. What did each of them teach you about cloud computing?
A: It's probably the only book that talks about Billy Graham, MC Hammer, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs and Neil Young all in the same book.
When I look out from my own business career, I tried to learn from some of the best people, regardless of the industry.
I've been able to kind of glean the essence from them and tried to bring it into how we've made Salesforce.com into one of the fastest-growing companies in the technology industry.
Q: What is the essence of MC Hammer?
A: One of the things we learned specifically from him was that in the rap music industry, the way they apply marketing for top new songs is something called street teams.
They actually get young people organized in local communities and get them out marketing these new songs. The street team concept was something we were able to directly pick up and use at Salesforce.
Q: As you've evolved from scrappy underdog to billion-dollar public company, how do you ensure that your story remains a compelling one to tell?
A: Staying relevant is key. When you're telling your story, you better have a modern story to tell. If I was still saying the same story I was saying 10 years ago, it would not be that interesting.
If you look at the top 10 enterprise software companies, a lot of them are important but irrelevant companies. It's really important to be relevant and important.
Q: Who's irrelevant?
A: I don't want to name names. They're my friends.
Q: You did name names in the book. You say: "Our current battle: We have to save the customer from Microsoft, Oracle and SAP." Why?
A: Customers get vested in certain paradigms of computing, and those large vendors will try to keep those customers in those paradigms of computing for as long as possible. That's where you basically get the term cash cow.
In our paradigm, we're offering something dramatically lower cost and much easier to use to release companies from those old paradigms.
Q: If it's such a compelling proposition, why does any intelligent company stick with traditional business software?
A: I ask myself that question every day.
Q: As successful as Salesforce.com has been as a pioneer in cloud computing, at a $7.8 billion market cap it's still pretty small compared to an Oracle or Microsoft.
What happens when the business software paradigm shifts entirely, and these giants focus all their resources on this market?
A: We want them to enter the market, we want them to validate us, we want them to explain to customers what cloud computing is. You don't want to be the only car company.
When you're the only car company and there's no competition, customers may not know what a car is, the roads may not be developed for cars, there may not be gas stations everywhere.
Q: From a 30,000-foot level, what are we witnessing here in the history of computing?
A: The fundamental empowerment of people who were previously unempowered. The kind of technology that I can build, that I can distribute, and that I can use to make either my community better or my business better is just awesome.
You have this cloud of computing power that is accessible from anywhere on any type of device in any kind of geography and any kind of language and any kind of currency.
Q: You have long San Francisco roots. If you could change one thing about the city, what would it be and why?
A: I just cannot understand why we can't have better schools. That private schools are the only option for the kind of high-net-worth crowd, I think, is ridiculous.
It should be a major initiative. It should be something we're all working on. We have to get our head out of the clouds.
All this green stuff is great, it's great we don't have plastic bottles or plastic bags and all of that, but how about some great schools?
Q: What do you think about the local business climate?
A: We're one of the largest tech companies, if not the largest tech company, in San Francisco. It's been hard to stay here because of the way that the city taxes you.
If we moved to Oakland, we would save our shareholders quite a bit of money. I don't really want to move there because I like San Francisco, but I don't really think the Board of Supervisors understands how easy it is to make those choices.
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