Tag: Keith Block

Bret Taylor Stepping Down as Salesforce Co-CEO

For the second time in three years, a co-CEO is leaving Salesforce as Bret Taylor announces his departure from the role and the company.

Bret Taylor joined Marc Benioff as co-CEO in late 2021, replacing Keith Block who resigned from the role in early 2020. Taylor was well-respected within the company and widely viewed as Marc Benioff’s heir-apparent. Despite holding the job for just one year, Taylor is stepping down and leaving the company, effective January 31, 2023.

“I am grateful for six fantastic years at Salesforce,” said Taylor. “Marc was my mentor well before I joined Salesforce and the opportunity to partner with him to lead the most important software company in the world is career-defining. After a lot of reflection, I’ve decided to return to my entrepreneurial roots. Salesforce has never been more relevant to customers, and with its best-in-class management team and the company executing on all cylinders, now is the right time for me to step away.”

“It’s bittersweet that Bret has decided to step down as my Co-CEO,” said Benioff. “He made his mark on Salesforce as an incredible technologist, leader and friend to us all. Bret founded two incredible companies so it’s understandable why he wants to return to his entrepreneurial roots. I’m excited to see his next chapter unfold, as I’ll always be his biggest champion and he’ll always be part of the Salesforce ‘Ohana.”

According to CNBC, Taylor is stepping away to found a new company.

“We have to let him be free, let him go, and I understand, but I don’t like it. And Bret, you know that you’re always going to be our brother. We love you deeply, you have a home here, we’re gonna try to get you back somehow. Don’t think you’re gonna somehow get out of this alive because you’re not,” Benioff told analysts.

In the meantime, Benioff has made clear he has no intention of ever leaving the company.

December 1, 2022
Despite a New Co-CEO, Marc Benioff Say’s He’s ‘Never Leaving Salesforce’

Salesforce once again has co-CEOs, but that doesn’t mean longtime CEO Marc Benioff plans to retire anytime soon…or ever.

Salesforce is one of the few big tech companies to rely on co-CEOs, rather than a single person at the top spot. While Benioff has held the top position for years, the last co-CEO was Keith Block, who resigned in February 2020.

Bret Taylor was recently appointed to join Benioff as co-CEO, even being seen as Benioff’s heir-apparent. Despite the perception, Benioff has set the record straight that he has no intention of leaving the company he founded.

“I love Salesforce. You see me with our customers and how much fun I have with all of our stakeholders. I’m never leaving Salesforce. This is my life’s pursuit,” Benioff told Mad Money’s Jim Cramer.

“But I couldn’t be more thrilled to have a great partner here with Bret Taylor, and he’s just amazing,” Benioff continued. “This is my dream, that Bret would come in the company and we could work it and run it together and lead it together in a trusted partnership, and that’s happening.”

December 15, 2021
Miguel Milano Leaves Salesforce For AI Startup Celonis

AI startup Celonis has announced that President of Salesforce International, Miguel Milano, is joining the company as co-owner and Chief Revenue Officer.

Milano “led Salesforce’s international businesses across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.” His departure comes during a difficult week for Salesforce. Co-CEO Keith Block abruptly resigned from his role. The move caught the industry off guard, leading CEO Marc Benioff to take measures to reassure investors that it was business-as-usual for the company.

Now Salesforce is losing another top executive, one who has an outstanding reputation in the industry. Milano joins a company that touts itself as “the market leader in AI-enhanced Process Mining and Process Excellence software,” with Siemens, 3M, Airbus and Vodafone among its list of clients.

“Miguel is an outstanding leader with a phenomenal track record of building winning teams that deliver value for customers,” said Alexander Rinke, Co-Founder and Co-CEO. “We are honored that he chose Celonis as his next endeavor and that he is investing in the company as an owner. He shares our values and ambition to delight our customers and make a positive impact on our stakeholders. We are thrilled to have him on board.”

Milano struck an optimistic tone about his move to Celonis, saying: “I look forward to driving exponential growth at Celonis, focused on supporting customers become more efficient and sustainable in its operations and supply chains, and more customer-centric in its front-end processes. Process Mining is the foundation for a new, frictionless way of working which delivers significant business value to organizations in all industries. Salesforce is a once-in-a-generation company and I am convinced Celonis is well on its way to becoming one too. It’s incredibly exciting to join a hyper-growth company that is so innovative and groundbreaking and at the same time remains humble, customer-oriented and focused on making the world more sustainable.”

February 27, 2020
Keith Block Resigns As Salesforce Co-CEO

In a move that has surprised many, Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block has resigned.

Many insiders viewed Block as a potential successor to company co-founder Marc Benioff, who will continue as Chair and CEO. Despite resigning, Block will remain with the company in the role of Advisor to the CEO

“It’s been my greatest honor to lead the team with Marc that has more than quadrupled Salesforce from $4 billion of revenue when I joined in 2013 to over $17 billion last year,” said Block. “We are now a global enterprise company, focused on industries, and have an ecosystem that is the envy of the industry, and I’m so grateful to our employees, customers, and partners. After a fantastic run I am ready for my next chapter and will stay close to the company as an advisor. Being side-by-side with Marc has been amazing and I’m forever grateful for our friendship and proud of the trajectory the company is on.”

According to The Street, Benioff used the company’s fourth-quarter report to reassure investors it was business-as-usual.

“When you look at our total management team that Keith and I have built …I think it is the finest management team in the software industry and maybe any industry,” said Benioff.

Image Credit: Salesforce

February 26, 2020
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: ‘The U.S. Needs a Data Protection Agency’

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is introducing new legislation to create a Data Protection Agency.

Senator Gillibrand makes the case that people have untold amounts of data about them scattered across the internet. Even worse, much of that data was collected without consent or, at the very least, without users knowingly agreeing to it being collected. In the digital age, that data represents a gold mine for countless companies who profit from it.

“I believe that this needs to be fixed, and that you deserve to be in control of your own data,” writes Gillibrand. “You have the right to know if companies are using your information for profit. You need a way to protect yourself, and you deserve a place that will look out for you.”

Specifically, the legislation Gillibrand is introducing, The Data Protection Act, would “establish an independent federal agency, the Data Protection Agency, that would serve as a ‘referee’ to define, arbitrate, and enforce rules to defend the protection of our personal data.”

The agency would focus on returning control of their data to Americans, support innovation while ensuring fair competition and help advise Congress of digital threats as they emerge, making sure the government is educated and prepared to meet those threats.

Gillibrand’s announcement comes amid a growing focus on privacy. Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block recently said the U.S. needed a national privacy law; the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) became law January 1; and Clearview AI has gained infamy as the company “that can end privacy.”

It remains to be seen if Gillibrand will have the necessary support to pass The Data Protection Act, but it definitely will be welcomed in many circles as a step in the right direction.

February 14, 2020
The Company That Can End Privacy Just Ran Afoul of Twitter

Clearview AI, the company that made headlines last week for potentially ending privacy as we know it, has incurred the wrath of Twitter, according to The Seattle Times.

New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill first reported on Clearview AI, a small, little-known startup that allows you to upload a photo and then compare it against a database of more than three billion photos the company has amassed. Clearview’s system will then show you “public photos of that person, along with links to where those photos appeared.”

Clearview has built its database by scraping Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other websites for photos of people, something that is blatantly against most companies’ terms of service. The database is so far beyond anything the government has that some 600 law enforcement agencies have begun using Clearview—without any public scrutiny or a legislative stance on the legality of what Clearview does.

To make matters even worse, once a person’s photos or social media profile has been scraped and added to the database, there is currently no way to have the company remove it. The only recourse available to individuals is to change the privacy settings of their social media profiles to prevent search engines from accessing them. This will stop Clearview from scraping any additional photos from their profile but, again, it does nothing to address any photos they may already have.

At least one company is taking a strong stand against Clearview, namely Twitter. The Seattle Times is reporting that Twitter has sent Clearview a cease-and-desist demanding it stop scraping their site and user profiles for “any reason.” The cease-and-desist further demands that Clearview delete any and all data it has already collected from Twitter.

Clearview is a prime example of what Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was talking about, in an op-ed he published in the Financial Times, when he said tech companies needed to take responsibility for the technology they create, not just charge ahead because they can. Similarly, Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block recently said the U.S. needed a national privacy law similar to the EU’s GDPR. If Clearview doesn’t make a case for such regulation…nothing will.

In the meantime, here’s to hoping every other company and website Clearview has scraped for photos takes as strong a stance as Twitter.

January 23, 2020
Salesforce Co-CEO Says U.S. Needs National Privacy Law

Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block has come out in favor of a national privacy law, according to CNBC.

Privacy is becoming one of the biggest battlegrounds for companies, governments and individuals alike. The U.S., however, does not have a comprehensive privacy law to outline what companies can and cannot do with individual data, or what rights individuals have to protect their privacy.

In contrast, the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in 2018 and provides comprehensive privacy protections and gives consumers rights over their own data. Similarly, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect January 1, and provides similar protections. Although companies, such as Microsoft and Mozilla, have expanded GDPR and CCPA protections to all of their customers, there are far more companies that have not, and have no intention of doing so.

At a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Keith Block said the U.S. needs its own version of the GDPR.

“You have to applaud, for example, the European Union for coming up with GDPR and hopefully there will be a GDPR 2.0,” said Block.

“There is no question there needs to be some sort of regulation in the United States. It would be terrific if we had a national data privacy law; instead we have privacy by zipcode, which is not a good outcome,” he said.

As the issue continues to impact individuals and organizations, it will be interesting to see if the U.S. follow’s the EU’s lead.

January 21, 2020
Huge Wave Of Digital Transformation, Says Salesforce CEO

“There’s a huge wave of digital transformation,” says Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block. “A lot of these different technologies are coming together. I have the opportunity and Mark has the opportunity to go around the world and talk to a lot of other CEOs. There’s just this huge imperative around digital transformation. Everybody needs to get closer to the customer. Everybody’s trying to improve that customer experience. That’s where Salesforce really brings value to the table.”

Keith Block, co-CEO of Salesforce, discusses the company’s blowout earnings announcement and how their growth is powered by a huge wave of digital transformation happening worldwide. Block was interviewed by Jim Cramer on CNBC:

There’s A Huge Wave Of Digital Transformation

We are so very excited. We’ve had great execution and lots of customer success. A lot of this is really powered by this wave of digital transformation that we’re seeing all over the world. There’s a huge wave of digital transformation. A lot of these different technologies are coming together. I have the opportunity and Mark has the opportunity to go around the world and talk to a lot of other CEOs. There’s just this huge imperative around digital transformation. Everybody needs to get closer to the customer. Everybody’s trying to improve that customer experience. That’s where Salesforce really brings value to the table.

There’s a huge TAM for CRM. We’re creating that TAM and we’re executing incredibly well and that’s really driven by customer success. There is this thing referred to as the 360-degree view of the customer. That is all about the walls of sales and service and marketing coming down. That is what our 360-degree platform is all about and our customers are looking for that. They’re looking for growth strategies. That’s why you see these great results.

It’s About Bringing Companies Closer To Their Customers

We have been recognized widely as one of the most innovative companies in the world. That takes two forms. One is obviously organic innovation and there’s been plenty of that in our history. That’s why we’ve been so successful and our customers keep coming back. But we also have acquisitions. We’ve got a fantastic history of execution. Whether it is the ExactTarget acquisition, or most recently, a year ago, the MuleSoft acquisition, those have all been wildly successful for our customers.

I had the opportunity to go to Milan to meet with the CEO of Unicredit (in Italy). We’re glad to welcome them to the Salesforce family. They’re going through a transformation that every financial services institution is really going through. It’s all about improving the customer experience. It’s all about reinventing the business model. It’s all about transformation in the retail bank. Unicredit gets it and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the family. They’re doing some of the things that you see being done at Barclays Bank or Citibank or many of the other great financial services institutions. It’s about digital transformation. It’s about bringing companies closer to their customers and that’s what Salesforce is doing.

Companies Are Investing In Their Growth

FedEx is a storied brand. It’s a 50-year-old company, they revolutionized the package industry. Fred Smith is an iconic visionary CEO and now they’re taking it to the next level through customer experience. They’re leveraging Einstein to have predictions and make a better customer experience around knowledge. For example, if you had a challenge in some particular way, and FedEx is high quality, but if there were a challenge an agent can help you by bringing relevant information recommended by Einstein to drive a better experience. There were a million use cases of Einstein just like that in many many industries.

What we’re seeing all over the world is this wave of digital transformation. That digital transformation begins and ends with a customer. We’re seeing CEOs invest. They’re investing in their future. They’re investing in their growth. They’re investing in customer experience across all industries, all geographies, and all segments. It has never been more important. That’s why you’re seeing this growth and you’re seeing these results (with Salesforce). We’re just co-innovating and co-creating with these customers, these companies. That’s why we’re having so much success on their behalf.

There Is A Huge Wave Of Digital Transformation, Says Salesforce CEO Keith Block

September 6, 2019
Salesforce CEO: Every B2B and B2C Company Is Becoming a B2B2C Company

Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff says that every company is becoming a B2B2C company. “Every B2B company and B2C company is becoming a B2B2C company,” says Benioff. “What company does not have to directly connect with the consumer? You could be a traditional industrial company who’s selling to B2B resellers and you have to be ready in this connected digital revolution to be able to connect directly to your consumer as well.”

Marc Benioff, co-CEO of Salesforce, discusses their recent high flying quarterly results and talks about how every company is becoming a B2B2C company in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:

We Just Had a Fantastic Fourth Quarter

We just had a fantastic fourth quarter. We’re taking a look at those numbers right now and it was an amazing quarter. In fact, we beat our revenue estimates quite handily. As part of that, our co-CEO Keith Block closed the largest transaction in our history and the largest transaction ever in Barclays history. It was a deep nine digit transaction to help automate their 50 million customers. It really goes to show how the three major trends that are playing out in computing today, the cloud, broad digital transformation, and a focus on the customer, can really impact our company by creating a huge deal and also being able to support a huge transformation at Barclays.

I feel great about our business. I’ve always felt great about it. We’re coming up on our 20 year anniversary this Friday. It’s been 20 years that have been unbelievable to us here. We are coming up on a year that we’re going to do $16 billion in revenue that far exceeds my expectation. I still have never been more excited about Salesforce than I am right now. When I look at the short term I see $20 billion right around the quarter and I see $30 billion right around the corner. In fact, we initiated a four-year guidance today of $26 to $28 billion.

Every B2B and B2C Company Is Becoming a B2B2C Company

You can look at a great deal that we did this quarter with Amgen, a tremendous biotechnology company. This is a company that’s really expanding with our health cloud. This is our vertical strategy to build products specifically for certain industries. In this case, our health cloud is going to help Amgen connect with their customers in a whole new way. Every B2B company and B2C company is becoming a B2B2C company. What company does not have to directly connect with the consumer?

Not just Amgen, everybody. You could be a traditional industrial company who’s selling to B2B resellers and you have to be ready in this connected digital revolution to be able to connect directly to your consumer as well. That’s a major trend that we’ve benefited from for so many years now and you’re going to see that continue to play out. That’s certainly something driving this relationship with Amgen as well.

Brunello Cucinelli and Lamborghini Using Salesforce to Connect

Brunello Cucinelli is one of the great fashion brands in the world and we’ve completely transformed Brunello Cucinelli. He actually touches the customer in many different forms. He has a direct B2C relationship. He’s online with them. We run his website. You go into his stores. That’s a direct consumer connection. But did you know he’s a B2B company also? That’s because he’s selling to resellers who are reselling his products in some of the big retail stores around the world. He’s a B2B and a B2C company. We have to bring it all together with him and give him a single view of his customer. That’s the transformation he has to go through and has gone through and that’s why he’s had such great growth and we’re so excited for him.

Another great example is Lamborghini. Of course, Lamborghini is actually traditionally a B2B type company. They’re selling to their dealers and they’re making sure their dealers are successful. some of those dealers are not even owned by Lamborghini but now they need to be able to connect with their customer in real time, all the time. They’re also a B2C direct customer. That’s why the new Urus, their new SUV, is built entirely on Salesforce. It’s the connected Lamborghini. That’s a vision for all car companies in the future that they can directly connect with you, not just connect with their dealer. That’s the B2C and B2B transformation that we’re talking about.

April 16, 2019
Salesforce co-CEO: We Are Just at the Dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

“Our customers, they’re betting their business on us,” says Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block. “They’re disrupting their business models. They’re reinventing themselves leveraging our technology. They want to know that we have a trust-based relationship. At the end of the day, it is all about trust.”

Block says that we are just at the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and that companies love to work with Salesforce because they represent the future.

Keith Block, co-CEO of Salesforce, discussed how companies are going through massive business model and digital transformations in this Fourth Industrial Revolution that is just getting started. He was interviewed by the legendary Jim Cramer on CNBC: (video below)

We Are Just at the Dawn of this Era

We’re playing for the long game here. We’re going to be celebrating our 20th anniversary coming up in just a month. When we think about what’s happened over the last 20 years, we’ve seen revolutionary changes in technology and we’re in this Fourth Industrial Revolution. In that Fourth Industrial Revolution, we have companies going through business model changes and digital transformations and the role of the CEO is different than it used to be.

This is where companies love to work with Salesforce because we represent the future. We’re all about the future. We’re about creating and innovating and co-creating around customer engagement. This is a long game this Fourth Industrial Revolution and we’re just at the dawn of this era. So this will be happening for a long time.

Disrupt or Be Disrupted

It’s all linked together. We live in a world with these technologies where it is disrupt or be disrupted. If the CEO of a company is not the Chief Transformation Officer they need to come up with a strategy, they need to make a move, they need to embrace these technologies. No industry is really immune from this level of disruption.

At the end of the day, everything begins and ends with the customer. It’s all about the 360-degree view of the customer. That has been the Holy Grail since I’ve been in the industry. Providing the insights, providing the level of engagement, the technology, around how customers can have a greater experience.

Our customers, they’re betting their business on us. They’re disrupting their business models. They’re reinventing themselves leveraging our technology. They want to know that we have a trust-based relationship. At the end of the day, it is all about trust.

Everything Rotates Around Trust.

We are a values-based company. Since the day the company was established we were a values-based company. We have four values and our number one value is trust. Then we have customer success and innovation and equality. Those are very very important to our stakeholders. The modern company is a stakeholder theory company.

It’s not just about Wall Street and earnings, which is obviously very important. We take our shareholders very seriously. It’s also about our customers. It’s about our partners. It’s about the community that we live in. Everything rotates around trust. We have a trust deficit. Some people call it a trust crisis in the world right.

If you have an employee, an employee wants to know that they have a leadership team that’s listening to them, that they have a voice, and that they trust the decisions the leadership is making. They want to trust that they’re responsible decisions that are consistent with the values of the company. With governments, we trust in our leaders. We want to trust in our leaders that they’re making great decisions for our citizens.

January 29, 2019
Salesforce CEO: Incredible Wave, Global Phenomenon of Digital Transformation

Cloud adoption is just in the very early days says Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block. He says that over the last few years we’ve been in a perfect storm of cloud and mobile and data science and artificial intelligence coming together that have given companies the opportunity to reinvent themselves and reinvent their business models. Block says that this has been an incredible wave and a global phenomenon of digital transformation.

Keith Block, Salesforce co-CEO, discussed the global phenomenon of digital transformation in an interview on CNBC:

Cloud Adoption is Still in the Very Early Days

I believe we’re in early days. Salesforce will be celebrating its 20th anniversary very quickly and we’ve had a meteoric rise. We’ve been the fastest enterprise software company and in the top five software companies in terms of growth to $10 billion. We just gave our guidance to $13 billion and we’ll do $16 billion for next year. But cloud adoption is just in the very early days.

Incredible Wave, Global Phenomenon of Digital Transformation

What we’re really seeing right now is this incredible wave, this global phenomenon of digital transformation. Over the last few years, when you think about this conversion, this perfect storm of cloud and mobile and data science and artificial intelligence, these amazing technologies that have come together, it’s given companies the opportunity to reinvent themselves and reinvent their business models. I think classically of a company that is a B2B company that now wants to become a B2C company and that’s where Salesforce really plays beautifully in terms of getting closer to that customer.

MuleSoft Completes the Wave of Digital Transformation for our Customers

Specifically on MuleSoft. A great example is really having the holy grail of the 360-degree view of the customer, where you have information about the customer, where you can personalize the experience for the customer, where the customer feels like they are personally engaged with the companies that they do business with. MuleSoft is an amazing integration technology and we’re very lucky to have it. It really completes the wave of digital transformation for our customers in the sense that it’s allowing you to unlock data from any source.

Cloud Brings the Ability to be Agile, Nimble and Flexible

Think about decades of legacy data that have been built up and built up and built up and CEOs want to know how do we access that legacy data in a very agile and in a very quick fashion so we can serve it up to our systems of engagement? That’s why the marriage of Salesforce and MuleSoft has really become very compelling for CEOs all over the world. At the end of the day what the cloud brings you and what we bring at Salesforce is the ability to be agile, to be nimble, to be flexible, and actually bring something we refer to as a beginner’s mind. Completely taking a step back and saying, how do we reinvent, how do we innovate, how do we go quickly?

You can move, because of the technology that’s available today, far more quickly than you could in the age of the legacy system. It starts with that, bringing a point of view, speaking the language of the industry, understanding that talking to a bank is different than a telecommunications company. These technologies apply in different ways. Those are very fundamental than what you see with some of the legacy technology companies that are still using the same motion.

CEOs Must Commit to Digital Transformation

The second is it’s all about trust and making sure that you have a trust-based relationship with your customers. The third thing that I would tell you and I think is very very important is that we live in a world today where because of that convergence, that perfect storm of technology, we now have this global phenomenon called digital transformation. The most important aspect of that is the commitment from the CEO. The CEO has become and must be become the Chief Transformation Officer.

December 5, 2018