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1-Page Summary of Behind the Cloud

Overview

The book provides real-world examples of companies that struggled while trying to make the transition from old media to new media.

Every year, millions of companies are started around the world. Most fail within a few years. However, Salesforce.com is an exception to that rule because it’s truly unique in its success and what makes them different from other companies is their idea and courage to go down a path that others didn’t want them to pursue when they were rejected by investors and markets were bad for business at the time.

However, how do you give your idea wings? By being different from others and putting the customer first, you can pave the way to success. You can also change an entire industry by not being afraid to pick on big companies.

In this article, you will learn how Salesforce.com ended the software era and why standing out is important. You’ll also discover how to become big in Japan.

Big Idea #1: If you want to build a big company, focus on your idea and think big.

Ideas are the foundation of successful companies. But, it’s not easy to start a company and make it successful. Marc Benioff started Salesforce.com with a single idea that he wanted to pursue even though there were many obstacles in his way. He didn’t let those obstacles stop him from pursuing his dream of starting up Salesforce.com, which has become one of the most popular enterprise software companies today due to its innovative cloud computing platform for customer relationship management (CRM).

A company called Siebel Systems created a software solution that helped salespeople keep track of leads, accounts and contacts. It was expensive, complicated and required a lot of maintenance.

Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff had a vision for the future of software and creating an online service to deliver it. He talked with Tom Siebel, who was already running his own company, about this idea and decided he would build it on his own since Siebel didn’t think there was enough demand for the product. To attract developers to help him create the new business, he marketed that it would be “the end of software as we know it.” This drew in many skilled programmers interested in working on something new. By March 1999, he had ten employees working out of an apartment and by summer 2000, they were renting office space at 8,000 square feet because their business was growing so quickly.

Big Idea #2: It is important to advertise your product aggressively from the beginning.

Marketing is the number one way to get noticed by people when you’re still a growing company. If you want to be as successful as Salesforce.com, you must show that your product is different than what’s already out there or better in some way.

Salesforce.com was founded by Marc Benioff in early 1999, and six months later the Wall Street Journal wrote a front page story on “the spawning of a new industry” that the company had helped to create. The article spread awareness about how Salesforce.com was different from other companies at the time because it offered software as a service (SaaS). It also did wonders for Salesforce’s reputation and business growth. Benioff knew he needed to clearly communicate with journalists about his vision for the future of SaaS, so he made sure they understood what his company did differently than others in its space.

Then Salesforce.com needed branding, so Benioff hired Bruce Campbell who created the “no software” logo for them. Some team members were skeptical about it, but Benioff felt that their concerns were overruled by the number one marketing rule – stand out from the pack.