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Environment, Innovation, and Sustainability
Wisdom Learning From Others
> A KEEN EYE SPOTS LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES
Cloud computing now handles lots of our personal music, videos, and files. But who would have predicted ten years ago that it would change the way software firms sell to customers? Marc Benioff did. He started Salesforce.com to sell customer relationship management software not as a product but as a service fed from the cloud.
The whole notion is to free users from costly software ownership. Instead, they basically “rent” services delivered from remote servers. Benioff's genius in anticipating this market scored a bull's-eye.
Forward looking and confident in taking risk, Benioff recognized how a changing technological environment created opportunity. Benioff's breakthrough idea started with his admiration for the online businesses pioneered by Amazon and eBay. He realized enterprise software could be sold the same way. The result was a new business model. Customers buy only what they want and drop the service if they become dissatisfied.
Salesforce.com even has a website called IdeaExchange where customers provide suggestions and comments to spur continued improvements. And when the firm ran into difficulty handling computer crashes at one point, Benioff communicated with full disclosure and transparency so that customers always knew what was happening.
In respect to ...
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