Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change

I enjoyed reading this book and about how Marc's values influenced how he built the company and makes decisions today. His points on social responsibility are important and well made, and I strongly support the stakeholder model from conscious capitalism.However, I think Marc's writing is a too pretentious and pompous, and I might even go as far as saying he's doing classic "virtual signalling".The nail in the coffin for me is the acknowledgments section where he talks about writing the book, and how he got feedback from "hundreds" of friends, advisers, and colleagues. He says "I don't know if a CEO has ever written a book this way -- but that's what I mean by looking for innovation everywhere, from anywhere"I'm pretty sure most CEO books are written that way, Marc.

To start with I work with the author at Salesforce, I am sharing my honest impressions but feel free to add a grain of salt. Salesforce acquired our small family-like analytics business in 2013 and we were all worried about the transition. Salesforce has a dynamic and invigorating culture and we were skeptical of the environment at first.In the beginning, we thought people were urgently including and embracing us and collectively we thought there must be a secret fountain of cool-aid. Most of us had our BS shirts on for the first few months but slowly we realized we were adopting -and enjoying- this new culture. It is a multi-faceted culture that has something to offer everyone. And, if we don't like some aspect of the culture in the company, in a building, on a floor, or in a team we are encouraged and allowed to push for changes. As a company there are always pockets of issues - being human is a messy business but we have the tools, concepts and a mandate to work through issues. No matter how you slice it, our family, our customers, and our approach is very successful. Personally I do my best and go the extra mile for my co-workers, and ultimately Salesforce as it is a very special place to work and something we nurture and protect.The stories and the ideas in the book are well worth considering and embracing for your company. Some of these sounded silly to me at first but what I can tell you -from the inside- is that we have a shared set of values that helps people and teams align and we seldom have the bickering or dissatisfaction I have lived through in past jobs.When we added equality I was surprised a bit. I understood trust, doing our best for customers, and coming up with new and more effective ideas but I did not see how equality fit in. I'm a bit old school and it seemed at first a bridge too far. As a company though we were offered new ways to think about each other and Salesforce stood by the promises as we hired a more diverse workforce, promoting people who were not in the "typical corporate" mold. Like all new things, it was a bit awkward at first but over the last couple of years, I have personally experienced the power and joy diversity brings. Different thinking, unexpected contributions, and new backgrounds and flavors mixed into the pool have made us all stronger and more committed to progress.Give the concepts a chance. I don't think you will regret it and one has very little to risk. Changing a culture takes work, attention, and constant vigilance but the rewards are worth the initial efforts. This book exposes our secret sauce for success. The book is fun to read and is a candid and honest expression of whom we have become over time.

The idea that a company has to focus on their stakeholders just as much as their shareholders has been debated forever. This book genuinely dissects the ins and outs of the debate, and lands on the side of stakeholders. By the end of the book i was convinced that a company can do well by doing good. I’m totally on board! Loved this book.

This is not a book about hiring/recruiting, creating, or maintaining a certain environment and culture. It is about Marc Benioff's values and how you don't fit in at Salesforce if you don't share his values--diversity of political leanings and values be damned. This book is about CEO activism and how great Marc Benioff thinks he is for giving women equal pay after it was brought to his attention they weren't getting equal pay.It'll be awful if more CEOs use their pulpit to fight for other important and divisive issues such as right to bear arms/gun control, abortion/pro-life movement, death penalty, illegal immigration, pro-war/anti-war, etc. If CEOs want to fight for issues in their private lives, awesome. If you own 100% of a company, do what you want. But don't abuse your position as a minority shareholder and executive to push your political and social agenda.

Let me just say that I didn't know too much about Marc Benihoff before I read this book. However, now I have nothing but complete and utter respect for the guy. He is a standup human being! It's often rare that we look at billionaires as role models, I am very careful to make sure that I don't put Jeff Bezos, Elon musk, or Bill Gates on a pedestal… Marc, however, is in a completely different class on his own. This guy is a combination of brilliant computer scientist, disruptive entrepreneur, and social justice warrior.I think this book made me realize just how important business is for the betterment of society. I 100% percent agree with his assumption that Milton Friedman was wrong back in the 1970s and 80s he stated that the sole responsibility of a business is to make profits for its shareholders; Benihoff states, "He was wrong then, and he was wrong now."I am now officially a Salesforce fan and it sounds like a wonderful company to work for. More companies need to take Mr. Benihoff's examples to heart, because if they did—humanity would all be in a much better place. I would highly recommend this book for any leader in any organization.

I agree 100% with Marc’s summation that values are the most important ingredient of success, and that values are becoming more important to valuable employees. However, I don’t think he does a good job of convincing the reader the values were as important to Salesforce’s success as he suggests. Maybe he wants to be remembered for such, but then I think he still has some work to do.

Finally the behind the scenes stories and vulnerabilities of a CEO driving one of the highest performance companies of all time. This book is the culmination of 21 years of business excellence. Designed to help you become your own leader.

This is an insightful read for anyone who wants change in their lives. It has a content you want to grab with both hands, yet still dissect for your own needs. The chapters on homelessness especially appealed to myself, as I've volunteered in this area personally. Be it business or personal, I'm going to reopen this book to remind myself why I have it five stars.I felt akin to Marc Benioff when he talked about the great technological change he has witnessed in his lifetime. My first home computer was a Commodore Vic 20 with 2.5 kilobytes of memory. For those of you wondering, yes I did mean kilobytes. I upgraded this to a Sinclair Spectrum 16in and spent additional money on a 32kb expansion pack, making 48on in total. Software came on tapes. You may wonder where I'm going with this, and I'll explain that being able to reflect from personal experience allows one to remain grounded with this blistering pace of change. Marc said historians felt historians may not agree when he said he thought the Fourth Industrial Revolution was coming to an end. I agree with him. My take on what is going to be the central theme of the Fifth Industrial Revolution is mindfullness, to allow us not only to heal from our experience of Covid 19, but to move us all forward the right way and to help prevent this from happening again. We need to remember we have one planet and can be silent and/or ignorant no more.

Having only experienced Salesforce through third-party CRMs, I can't say its a brand I've ever been that excited about. But both Benioff and the business have made a lot of noise so I was curious to hear the story and detail behind the bravado.Trailblazer is not a subtle, detailed guide to building an impact business. It is a loud, chest-thumping approach to growth and trying to change the world and with significant success. Each example, especially when tackling human rights, shows how Benioff has used his business success to try and fight for those less fortunate. But, as energised as I felt during parts of the book, I also found myself regularly wanting for a closer, more open look into the data and details behind the business and and impact work. At its best Trailblazer galvanises, but more often than not, it feels like it could have gone further with 'this is how we did it/this is what the numbers look like' rather than 'this is what we should all be doing.'Benioff often seems surprised at the scale of the problems in the world, despite many of his customers playing a part in them. He's clearly strong at response, I wonder if, in time, he will look even more to the root of problems within his own ecosystem.

A lot of what he has achieved in business, in being mindful of social issues and acting on them within the company is admirable. However this book does tend to feel like nothing more than a vanity project on his part. For this reason I struggled to get to the end. No earth shattering insights to be found I'm sorry to say. And I am genuinely sorry to say that. I'd hoped for a little more.

Most books in this category lack practical examples and it's very theoretical. This is certainly not one of them.It was fascinating to read about Marc's challenges (and sometimes mistakes) and how he overcame them.

Loved it. Extremely motivating. £14 for 231 pages grated on me a bit, but not enough to lose a star.