Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company—and Revolutionized an Industry

6.6. Play #69: Build a Great Program by Listening to the Constituents

The first salesforce.com-sponsored technology centers aimed at bridging the digital divide were a great idea in theory, and the centers were welcome additions to communities, but the program was fraught with serious challenges. PowerUP operated as a large-scale national program with a centralized approach. We found that the one-size-fits-all model didn't work at every center, and some centers were duplicating existing resources and services. Furthermore, although the program was effective in its mission of spreading computers across the land, it didn't dictate a coherent curriculum that communicated how to use or maintain the equipment. That, we soon found, was a big problem. ...