PDF Summary:Trailblazer, by Marc Benioff and Monica Langley

Traditional capitalism is facing increasing scrutiny because of its association with socioeconomic inequality, environmental degradation, and corporate greed. According to Marc Benioff, CEO of the Fortune 500 software company Salesforce and renowned philanthropist, it’s time for a conscious revolution in business. In Trailblazer (2019), Benioff says his company is leading the way forward by practicing a business model that foregrounds ideals over profits and represents the future of capitalism.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the principled business model and how integral it is to Salesforce’s operations. We’ll also explore the reasons principled business matters to Benioff—and why it should matter to you—as well as some of the concrete actions Salesforce takes to put its principles into practice. In our commentary, we’ll provide more context about Salesforce’s history, describe how Salesforce’s business model relates to other business models, and share tips from other experts on corporate governance and leadership.

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In addition to the educational value Salesforce provides via Dreamforce, the company aims to advance global society by providing educational opportunities for a variety of people, including students, professionals, and marginalized communities. For example, its online learning platform Trailforce trains professionals for competency in emerging technologies such as AI, Vetforce provides job training to veterans, and other programs give schoolchildren access to technologies and mentors. Benioff says that by ensuring individuals have access to the resources they need to thrive in the digital age, Salesforce closes the skills gap that contributes to social inequality (and therefore to global conflict) and promotes economic development.

(Shortform note: Digital skills are crucial for job seekers looking to compete in the job market, but which digital skills are needed is changing rapidly. Massive layoffs at the biggest tech companies, including Salesforce, at the beginning of 2024 signal a shift in priorities from broad technological innovation to a narrowed focus on artificial intelligence (AI) development. According to experts at the WEF, the rapidity of technological change requires continual access to learning opportunities outside of the traditional education system. By providing inclusive access to such opportunities, Salesforce helps professionals navigate technological transitions smoothly and equips them with the tools they need to contribute positively to the economy.)

Benioff says Salesforce has also spearheaded several technological advancement initiatives. For example, at Steve Jobs’s behest, Salesforce created AppExchange, a platform where any developer can sell apps for business use. This effectively democratized app creation, leading to a flourishing network of novel solutions to diverse business needs and driving efficiency, agility, and competitiveness across industries.

(Shortform note: Via AppExchange, Salesforce leverages two economic principles—network effects and open innovation—to optimize technological advancement. As Parker, Van Alstyne, and Choudary explain in Platform Revolution, network effects are a feature of platforms that enable a platform's value to increase as its user numbers grow. Open innovation is a business strategy where a company pulls innovative ideas and technologies from outside sources. Combining these two principles in AppExchange facilitates technological advancement: Instead of having to innovate on its own with limited resources, Salesforce leverages the collective creativity and expertise of a diverse community of developers, resulting in a continuous stream of new software solutions.)

Additionally, Benioff says Salesforce has made progress with AI applications, like its line of Einstein technologies designed to enhance and automate organizational decision-making, business administration, and customer service.

(Shortform note: Trailblazer was published before the advent of generative AI, a type of system that can create new content based on its statistical analysis of massive amounts of data and is revolutionizing the global market in unpredictable ways. To meet this challenge, Salesforce has continued to create innovative AI applications while keeping an eye on customers’ privacy concerns.)

How Salesforce Practices Inclusivity

Benioff explains that while he’s always striven for inclusivity, he didn’t explicitly focus on this principle until two key incidents brought Salesforce’s underperformance in this area to his attention. The first issue was an audit that showed that women were being underpaid compared to men across the board. (Shortform note: Research suggests that this issue is par for the course in the tech industry, where women make up a significantly smaller portion of the workforce, tend to be paid less than men doing the same jobs they are, and are less likely to be promoted.)

Second, when Benioff tweeted that the technology industry could help end racial strife amid the protests that ensued after the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in 2016, there was a controversy over the lack of racial diversity among Salesforce employees (only 2% were Black). Benioff says he learned from these experiences and began pouring resources into making Salesforce a more equitable company.

(Shortform note: Experts note that the technology industry has served a purpose in the fight for racial justice—for example, the viral spread of videos of police violence, including the killings of Sterling and Castile, helped to inform white Americans about the realities of anti-Black police brutality and sparked nationwide protests and calls for reform. But the public is critical when tech giants and their billionaire leaders, including Benioff, make performative gestures of solidarity: These can be interpreted as self-serving and insincere, especially when those gestures aren’t matched by meaningful action—like donating to pro-Black causes or simply employing more Black people.)

Benioff says that once he became aware of Salesforce’s shortcomings with regard to gender inclusivity, he took decisive action to transform the company into a more gender-egalitarian workplace. This began with the Women’s Surge program, which aimed to increase the number of women working at Salesforce and continued with efforts to standardize pay and promotion tracks for gender parity. In addition to these structural changes, Salesforce invests in education and awareness, offering workshops and training sessions to help managers and employees unlearn unconscious bias—a type of automatic, unintentional prejudice that can lead to inequitable treatment—and foster a more inclusive workplace culture.

(Shortform note: Experts say the Women’s Surge program made a concrete, if small, difference in gender equity at Salesforce, although some experts, like social psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt (author of Biased) are somewhat skeptical of the effectiveness of workplace bias training. Improving gender equity within the company remains on the company’s radar: In 2022, Salesforce announced that it would aim for 40% of its workforce to comprise women and nonbinary people by 2026. The company also said it had expanded its benefits to accommodate the needs of people of all genders, including access to gender-affirmative and reproductive healthcare.)

Benioff explains that Salesforce also pursues racial, religious, and LGBT inclusivity in several ways. For example, after speaking to a Black employee who told him she felt Salesforce didn’t take inclusivity seriously enough, Benioff appointed a Chief Equality Officer to address that. Salesforce also donates resources, including employee time, to causes that train minority students in computer science competencies, and it makes an effort to hire a greater number of underrepresented minority employees through its recruitment programs. Finally, Salesforce encourages minority employees to connect with each other by creating safe, identity-based discussion groups.

(Shortform note: The Chief Equality Officer stated that his priorities would include improving employee diversity and enhancing inclusivity by ensuring that all employees feel respected and valued in the workplace. Salesforce’s identity-based discussion groups, which include groups for those with disabilities, veterans, and environmentalists, function like employee resource groups, which have been found to be effective in fostering more inclusive work environments. However, it’s unclear how much progress Salesforce has made with respect to diversity and inclusion: In 2021, two managers, both Black women, left the company citing a racist work environment, and some shareholders stated in 2022 that the company still underemploys people of color, a trend which persisted through 2023.)

How Salesforce Promotes Confidence

According to Benioff, it’s vital that all stakeholders have confidence in Salesforce, its leaders and employees, and each other. He learned this primarily by witnessing other companies undergo public crises of confidence—for example, Salesforce helped Toyota recover from the controversy that ensued when it knowingly failed to address safety issues with vehicles it manufactured, and Google suffered from mass public disapproval due to executives’ inappropriate handling of sexual harassment issues. Benioff also reasons that this confidence gives Salesforce a competitive edge—the company is more likely to attract and retain customers and employees if it has their confidence.

(Shortform note: In The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey explains why confidence is essential to a company’s health: In business contexts, trust magnifies the results of your efforts, which means you don’t have to work as hard to accomplish your goals. To illustrate, consider the financial impact of Toyota’s failure to address safety issues: In addition to hefty fines and lawsuits, the company had to invest in expensive recalls and repairs to gradually regain some—but not all—of their customers’ trust, all of which amounted to a significant strain on resources exacerbated by damaged sales potential. Similarly, the loss of stakeholders’ trust in Google following its misdeeds may have cost the company upwards of $180 billion.)

The primary way that Salesforce inspires stakeholders’ confidence is via accountability supported by transparent communication. Benioff says this often happens in relatively small ways—for example, executives livestream some of their meetings so that all employees have access to important company information, and the company has a website customers can consult to find out about the current operational status of Salesforce products and services, including any incidents or maintenance activities that may affect their availability.

(Shortform note: Covey says in The Speed of Trust that transparent communication inspires trust when it features authenticity (demonstrated by being open about uncomfortable topics), humility (demonstrated by taking responsibility for one’s mistakes), and accountability (demonstrated by clarifying expectations). Business leaders often employ these tactics in times of crisis, when stakeholders’ confidence is paramount to the company’s continued success. For example, Howard Schultz communicated transparently about his return as Starbucks’ CEO during the 2007-2008 financial crisis, a journey he details in Onward. By employing these tactics proactively and regularly—not just in times of crisis—Salesforce may build a reservoir of confidence from which it can draw later if needed.)

Stakeholders often demand accountability and transparent communication from Benioff about large and contentious issues, too. One major example of this came in the form of a 2018 open letter to Benioff about Salesforce’s deal with US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). Salesforce provided software to CBP for mundane purposes, like human resources management, and employees were concerned that Salesforce software was being used to facilitate the separation of migrant children from their parents, a Trump-era border policy widely deemed inhumane. The open letter called for Salesforce to re-evaluate its relationship with CBP and impose a system that would ensure Salesforce’s software could not be used nefariously in the future.

Benioff explains that this controversy was difficult to handle because stakeholders’ confidence needs seemed conflicted. While employees needed to have confidence in Salesforce’s ethics to stand behind their work, customers needed to have confidence that Salesforce wouldn’t abandon them if their values didn’t align with employees’ values. To resolve the issue, Salesforce issued a statement clarifying that its software was not being used to separate migrant families and promising to donate to organizations helping affected families. Salesforce didn’t drop CBP from its client list, but to meet employees’ demands, it instituted an Office of Ethical and Humane Use to develop a strategy ensuring responsible use of Salesforce products.

Salesforce’s Entanglement With a Humanitarian Crisis

Former President Donald Trump’s policy of separating migrant families at the US-Mexico border involved forcibly removing children from their parents or guardians when they crossed the border illegally or sought asylum. As part of a system meant to deter immigration from Mexico, children were placed in detention centers while their parents faced legal proceedings. Over 5,000 families were separated. In time, officials found that they were poorly prepared to eventually reunite families; in some cases, reunification proved impossible. The policy sparked domestic and international outrage due to the trauma it inflicted on children and families, which many experts deemed a humanitarian crisis.

Benioff alleges that since CBP didn’t use Salesforce software to facilitate the separation of migrant families, he was morally justified in retaining Salesforce’s contract with the agency. But critics of this decision argue that it’s impossible to reconcile Benioff’s supposed opposition of this policy with the ethical implications of providing any form of support to the CBP, regardless of which specific software applications were utilized in the process. Furthermore, some critics say Benioff was uninformed about the issue, while others argue that by continuing to work with CBP, Salesforce and Benioff enabled and profited from migrant family separation, since its contract made CBP run more efficiently, per Salesforce’s announcement.

Benioff elected to keep Salesforce’s contract with CBP, which inspired a protest at Dreamforce and a major nonprofit’s refusal to accept Salesforce’s donation to families affected by the separation policy. Benioff stated that he felt underqualified to make this decision, which led him to hire Paula Goldman to head the Office of Ethical and Humane Use. During her tenure, Goldman has weighed in on decisions like whether to greenlight facial recognition software and how to regulate the use of generative AI. Technology reporter Kara Swisher explains that it’s increasingly common for tech companies to hire ethics experts, but notes that this approach may prove ineffective if, say, their advice isn’t heeded.

How Salesforce Meets Its Stakeholders’ Needs

Recall that principled business is a form of stakeholder capitalism, which means businesses that take this approach must meet all their stakeholders’ diverse needs. Let’s explore how Salesforce satisfies the interests of three major groups of stakeholders: employees, society, and the environment.

Fostering Employee Wellbeing

Benioff explains that Salesforce takes pains to foster employee wellbeing because vibrant employees are more engaged and productive, so they can better support the company’s principled business efforts. In his view, Salesforce employees comprise the company’s “ohana” (the Hawaiian word for family—Benioff says he feels connected to Hawaiian culture because he’s vacationed there his whole life, so he infuses Salesforce with aspects of it). Let’s discuss two measures Salesforce uses to make employees feel like family: paid volunteerism and opportunities for mindfulness.

(Shortform note: Benioff’s attempt to cultivate a familial atmosphere within Salesforce by adopting elements of Hawaiian culture—which include the gifting of leis, the use of Hawaiian prayers, and tropical office decor—has raised concerns about cultural appropriation, which the company’s Chief Equality Officer said he planned to address. Benioff has also been criticized for personally contributing to Hawaii’s housing problem by purchasing large tracts of land there, a trend other billionaires also contribute to that displaces Hawaiian natives. Benioff responded to this accusation by donating land to build affordable housing, but he continues to accumulate land there for personal use, disrupting the local economy by, for example, forcing a bakery to shut down.)

Salesforce offers employees seven paid volunteer days per year. Employees can volunteer for any cause in whatever capacity they want; for example, many employees volunteer in an educational capacity, providing mentorship and skills training to children in underserved schools, because they find such work emotionally rewarding. Benioff says paid volunteerism improves employee engagement, helps employees form meaningful relationships with people they care about, and reinforces employees’ sense of contributing to something large and worthwhile (Salesforce’s extended family). It also benefits the company—offering this benefit helps Salesforce attract and retain talented, compassionate employees.

(Shortform note: Experts say that on the whole, US volunteerism rates have decreased steadily since 2010 (and more rapidly since the Covid-19 pandemic). One possible reason for this is that people became busier with work, and therefore had less time to give, due to economic circumstances like the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the recession that resulted from the pandemic. While overall volunteerism has declined, corporate volunteerism—where employers pay employees to volunteer—has increased. This suggests that by sponsoring employee volunteerism, companies like Salesforce aren’t only benefiting themselves and their employees, but also benefiting society by subsidizing the resource upon which the American social safety net is built.)

Salesforce also makes mindfulness an essential part of the Salesforce work experience. Benioff describes mindfulness as a Buddhist practice he learned from Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh that is centered around the breath, promotes understanding without judgment or projection, and supports mental wellbeing. To demonstrate its genuine care for employees, Salesforce incorporates mindfulness into their lives by offering a space for mindfulness on every floor of each of its offices that employees can use to meditate or pray. Benioff also encourages employees to practice mindfulness before they set their yearly work goals, since beginning with a clear mind can help them set more meaningful, achievable, value-oriented objectives.

(Shortform note: Mindfulness is en vogue in the technology industry due to its association with enhanced peace and productivity, but that association is vexed by concerns about corporate commodification of the practice. Opponents of corporate mindfulness programs argue that the pressure to pursue greater productivity via mindfulness runs counter to the practice’s original Buddhist purpose: to reach enlightenment and end suffering by surrendering your attachments, which include the desire to be productive and build wealth for yourself (or your employer). Many Buddhists are also critical because tech companies contribute to suffering by creating devices that help people dissociate (which is the opposite of mindfulness), a concern Nhat Hanh once voiced.)

Addressing Social and Environmental Needs

As we’ve discussed, Benioff considers society and the global environment two of Salesforce’s chief stakeholders. One way Benioff says Salesforce meets societal needs is through its 1-1-1 program: In addition to promoting employee volunteerism, Salesforce Foundation donates 1% of its money and resources like computers to communities in need. It also encourages other corporations to follow suit via its Pledge 1% campaign. As for the environment, Benioff says Salesforce is improving the sustainability of its operations and donates employee time to environmental causes.

(Shortform note: The executive responsible for Salesforce’s philanthropy model, Suzanne DiBianca, explains that two factors set the model apart from those of other companies: First, instead of donating one type of resource to one cause and another type of resource to another cause, Salesforce combines the three types of donatable resources—money, materials, and volunteers—for each cause it contributes to, which maximizes its impact in that area. Second, it requires less initial investment of resources than most philanthropic models. She says the shoe company TOMS, for example, donates one pair of shoes for each pair sold, which is a large enough investment to deter some companies from adopting the model.)

Benioff also explains that as the impactful leader of a large, successful corporation with a wealth of resources at his disposal, he feels compelled to proactively address stakeholders’ problems in his personal life. This compulsion has led him to take personal responsibility for addressing social and environmental problems—he hopes that by demonstrating the power CEOs have to steward society and the environment, he’ll set an example for other business leaders and inspire them to get involved. He’s involved in traditional philanthropy—for example, he founded the Benioff Ocean Initiative to fund marine conservation research—which is common for CEOs, but he takes his responsibility a step further by campaigning for political change.

Benioff describes two times when he campaigned for political change. First, in 2015, Indiana passed a law that could allow businesses to legally turn away LGBT customers on the basis of religious freedom. After employees expressed fear about how the law would impact their lives, Benioff announced on Twitter that Salesforce would reduce its heavy involvement in Indiana, diverting funds from the state’s economy. Benioff says that his outspokenness emboldened other CEOs to take a similar stance and eventually, the economic pressure these companies exerted convinced the state to revise the law, clarifying that it couldn’t be used to justify anti-LGBT discrimination.

(Shortform note: In an interview with Kara Swisher, Benioff revealed that he was emboldened to tweet about Salesforce’s protest against Indiana’s anti-LGBT legislation by a few alcoholic beverages. Although he wasn’t confident in his decision to tweet the next morning, Benioff followed through on this impulsive decision to defend LGBT rights despite considerable pushback. He reused the strategy a year later in Georgia, pressuring the state to repeal similar legislation. As a result, conservatives challenged him to remove Salesforce from countries like Singapore, which also have anti-LGBT laws. As of 2024, Salesforce maintains offices in those areas.)

Benioff campaigned for political change again by advocating for San Francisco’s Proposition C, a 2018 effort to impose a tax on the city’s largest corporations to fund services for the homeless, which many business leaders lobbied against. Benioff explains that the technology sector, including Salesforce, was partially to blame for the city’s growing homelessness problem—by locating there to take advantage of tax cuts, they drove up housing costs, which exacerbated homelessness, a problem that creates mass suffering, social strife, and unsafe, unsanitary street conditions. Benioff says he generated publicity for the cause by getting into a public disagreement with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey about it, which helped the proposition pass.

(Shortform note: Tech companies and their leaders have been criticized not only for helping to create San Francisco’s homelessness problem but also for treating the homeless inhumanely—for example, business owner Justin Keller came under fire for expressing that wealthy people are entitled to live in the area without having to witness the pain associated with homelessness and for using dehumanizing language to refer to homeless people. In addition to challenging Dorsey to support Proposition C and other measures to help homeless people, Benioff argued publicly with Mark Pincus of video game company Zynga. Although Proposition C passed in 2018, it was paused due to legal challenges until the California Supreme Court allowed it to resume in 2020.)

The Myth of the Apolitical Corporation

Some shareholders—including a company then led by conservative presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy—have criticized Benioff for leveraging his position as Salesforce’s CEO to advocate for political causes. Ramaswamy’s company argued that such actions misallocate company funds and shortchange shareholders, which was a serious critique because it arose during a period of financial difficulty and increased pressure from shareholders on Salesforce. However, Salesforce has since rebounded, and it’s worth noting that Ramaswamy’s company also made contributions to highly politicized causes, like the oil and gas industry.

In today’s highly polarized political landscape, corporations and their executives risk facing significant backlash when they use business as an avenue to address social and environmental issues. But the demand for businesses to stay out of politics may be founded on a myth: Some argue that it’s impossible to be apolitical, since every business decision, from hiring practices to product offerings, inherently reflects values and beliefs that intersect with political and social issues. Thus, businesses often cannot avoid taking a stance on various issues, whether implicitly or explicitly. Furthermore, American corporations have the same legal right to free speech that individuals have, which bolsters their political influence.

Benioff directly contests the myth of the apolitical corporation by actively engaging in political advocacy and challenging other business leaders to get involved in pressing social and environmental issues. And as we discussed earlier, Benioff believes that when the Fifth Industrial Revolution rolls around, the public will demand political engagement from businesses, and the decisions of many CEOs to follow Benioff’s lead suggests this is accurate. However, some experts suggest that billionaire businessmen may not make ideal changemakers, since their immense wealth and privilege increase the likelihood that they’ll be out of touch with the average person’s needs.