Book Review: “Trailblazer: The Power Of Business As The Greatest Platform For Change” By Marc Benioff With Monica Langley (2019, 272 Pages)

One of the most fascinating corporate leaders of our era.

Marc Benioff is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce. Founded in 1999, Salesforce is the world leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. It is the 10th most admired company in the world. Benioff created Salesforce to not only develop great products, but also to have a positive impact on the world. To this end, he created the 1-1-1 model of philanthropy that has since then been adopted by more than 9,000 companies. Salesforce gives 1% of its employee time (each employee has 6 paid days of volunteer time every year), 1% of its products (the Company donates free product licenses) and 1% of its equity (Salesforce gives grants to nonprofits). All that makes Salesforce one of the most interesting companies and Benioff one of the most inspiring corporate leaders in the world.

In “Trailblazer,” he presents his vision of what companies can contribute to Society and explains how Salesforce translates this vison into action.

“Trailblazer” isn’t full of lofty statements and abstract theories. It is all about concrete action and the impact of Salesforce’s business and philanthropy on the communities served by the Company.

As Marc Benioff writes, he considers the planet to be Salesforce’s biggest stakeholder. From the start, Salesforce was a mission-driven company, a B Corp before the inception of the B Corp movement.

In this book, Benioff explains his corporate and social journey as an “activist CEO” over the past twenty years and doesn’t shy away from his mistakes and deficiencies along the way.

RATING: A.