Salesforce.com – “The Monarch Syndrome”

Pros

Proven recurring revenue model, solid and trusted technology, cult following among small and medium sized customers, aggressive sales team, still growing and hiring in recession, HQs in San Francisco. CEO invented the Cloud idea.

Cons

One of the most stressful, high strung and political modern corporate environments outside of wall street...and it all starts from the very top. The CEO suffers from a big blind spot when it comes to running the company: he rules by diktat, asks for zero feedback, micromanages ad nauseum, and is a firm believer in the Art of War as management philosophy: his directs compete aggressively for his attention and approval and never openly disagree with him. He still runs the shop as if the company was a start-up and he had the insight to make calls on day to day minutia.

Salesforce is quickly becoming internally bureaucratic and clunky; innovation, creativity and risk taking are highly discouraged. Long hours, zero respect for family or personal time (emailing and working on weekends and late at night is a widely accepted practice).

Advice to Senior Management

Break-up the CEO and Chairman function, hire and empower a professional (non-superstar) CEO to run the company while Benioff continues his evangelizing of the company and cloud industry as Chair. Bring back innovation and creativity as values in the company, encourage people to really speak their minds, and reward for internal collaboration at the most senior ranks. Stop swooping in to make decisions at the lowest levels but rather focus on building and communicating a clear and constant vision internally and externally. Delegate authority at the lowest possible management ranks, have the foresight and power to change while you're on top of the world!