I strongly believe the business of a business is to improve the world.
Interpretation
Businesses should focus on making a positive impact on the world.
Marc Benioff emphasizes the idea that the primary purpose of a business goes beyond profit-making; it should strive to contribute positively to society and the world at large. This perspective encourages companies to take responsibility for their actions and work towards improvements that benefit not just shareholders but also the wider community and environment.
In practice
In a keynote speech about corporate social responsibility.
Once you know what you want and what is important for you to achieve, also define the values associated with it. What is important? That is something a lot of entrepreneurs pass by too quickly. For us, the things that were important were, No. 1, customer success. Nothing is more important to us than making sure every customer is successful in our service.
The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.
I don't look at business as a zero-sum game. I don't. I've never seen it play out that way in our industry, and I think you innovate and you add value, deliver value back to customers, and you get value back from the world.
Although I loved working on technology - I've always been a computer geek at heart - my professors encouraged me to get a real-world job working with customers.
The only constant in the technology industry is change.
The antidote to inequality is equality. The question is how do you achieve equality? I believe that, for business, which is where I can speak, we have to shift from shareholder maximization to stakeholder maximization.
It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business.
Eventually, all companies are replaced.
When an entrant competitor attacks the low end of any market, the rational reaction of the incumbent firms is to abandon rather than defend it - because the low end is the least profitable of their possible investments.
The reality is the Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Lean startups waste less money, because they use a disciplined approach to testing new products and ideas.
I think that business practices would improve immeasurably if they were guided by "feminine" pinciples, qualities like love, care, and intuition.
You can't live if you don't eat, but you don't live to eat. And neither does business exist primarily to make a profit. It exists to fulfill its purpose, whatever that might be.
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