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

The Final Play

Play #111: Make Everyone Successful

A little over a decade ago, Clayton Christensen wrote a book called The Innovator's Dilemma. It illustrated how a start-up company—by employing innovation that disrupts existing business models—will always beat the established big companies. He cited examples like Intel's success with the microprocessor and the steel mill Nucor's hit with its revolutionary way to reuse scrap. The book was loathed by the old-line folks and lauded by the new guys like me. It validated us for what we knew was right: the future wasn't about simply improving on what was already done; it was about being bold enough to make big, sweeping, dramatic changes.

With those ideas in mind, I started salesforce.com with a ...