Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily news and commentary show, hosted by Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the Cloud.
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In this Cloud Wars Minute, Bob Evans comments on the launch of the transformed Marc Benioff, as the Salesforce CEO shared his new top priorities at the recent earnings call.
Highlights
00:35 — Salesforce’s Marc Benioff has been one of the drivers of the greatest growth market the world has ever known. Bob highlights the “extraordinary transformation of Marc Benioff” as he has led the company through a period of “sustained growth unrivaled by almost any other company in history.”
01:29 — At Salesforce’s fiscal Q4 earnings call last week, Benioff made it unmistakably clear that his priorities now include profits, margins, and productivity rather than how he previously emphasized growth.
02:00 — Bob quotes Benioff from the earnings call: “Profitability is truly the number one strategy for the company. And it is my number one strategy as well.” In the call, he also outlined a four-point transformation plan that’s underway at the company:
- Short- and long-term restructuring of the company
- Improve profitability and productivity
- Prioritizing core innovations
- Establishing deeper and stronger relationships with shareholders
02:50 — However, Bob notes how Benioff left out customers from his list of top priorities. This is the launch by Salesforce of “Marc Benioff 2.0 — he has a lot of the same energy, same vigor, but he’s not talking about customers, not talking about growth, not about whipping the tails of its competitors in this market and boosting market share,” Bob notes. Rather, Benioff is talking about margins, profitability, and productivity.
03:34 — While these are important things to prioritize, it’s not what made Salesforce the company it is. Bob suggests that its competitors are going to see this new posture from Salesforce and “surge in.”
03:52 — Although it’s unclear what this will mean for customers, Bob still acknowledges how it’s not easy to make such a dramatic change at any point in your life. “He’s doing this because I think this is his child…It’s something that he feels so closely about.” Bob is hopeful that Marc Benioff will ensure that this is the right thing for customers.
