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Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry Hardcover – October 19, 2009

by Marc Benioff (Author), Carlye Adler (Author)

146 customer reviews

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How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world's fastest growing software company in less than a decade? For the first time, Marc Benioff, the visionary founder, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, tells how he and his team created and used new business, technology, and philanthropic models tailored to this time of extraordinary change. Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dotcom implosion of 2001, but went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a $46-billion dollar industry, Benioff's story will help business leaders and entrepreneurs stand out, innovate better, and grow faster in any economic climate.

In Behind the Cloud, Benioff shares the strategies that have inspired employees, turned customers into evangelists, leveraged an ecosystem of partners, and allowed innovation to flourish.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

How did salesforce.com grow from a start-up in a rented apartment into the world's fastest growing software company in less than a decade?

For the first time, Marc Benioff, the visionary founder, chairman, and CEO of salesforce.com, tells how he and his team created and used new business, technology, and philanthropic models tailored to this time of extraordinary change. Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dot-com implosion of 2001, but also went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a 46 billion-dollar industry, Benioff's story will help business leaders and entrepreneurs stand out, innovate better, and grow faster in any economic climate.

In Behind the Cloud, Benioff shares the strategies that have inspired employees, turned customers into evangelists, leveraged an ecosystem of partners, and allowed innovation to flourish. Benioff shows how salesforce.com pioneered a simple idea (delivering business applications as a service over the Internet) to change the way all businesses use software applications and, ultimately, change the way the software industry works.

With Marc Benioff's candid, unconventional advice and unusual call-out lessons from the Salesforce.com Playbook—including Benioff's proprietary management tool, V2MOM—any business can go against the grain, rapidly change the game, and learn how to achieve lasting success.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Behind the Cloud

"Salesforce.com and Google share a vision for how the cloud will revolutionize computing. Behind the Cloud gives us a rare glimpse at the development of one of the most important trends in business today."—Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google

"In Behind the Cloud, Marc Benioff takes us through the ups and downs of building one of the most extraordinary businesses of our time and reveals the tactics that gave salesforce.com its amazing edge. This book will show you how to focus your vision, think differently, align your organization—and transform your business and your life." —Anthony Robbins, author, Awaken the Giant Within and Unlimited Power

"Reading this book, I laughed out loud many times as Marc told his story, a story of great ideas, thunder-stealing pranks, and a world consciousness that is at the heart of salesforce.com."—Neil Young

"Reading, but also afterwards, practicing the 111 plays described by Marc Benioff opens the door for entrepreneurial success much better than any MBA program."—Klaus Schwab, founder, World Economic Forum, and cofounder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

"Cisco and salesforce.com share a vision of how the network is the platform to transform business. In his book, Benioff outlines how salesforce.com has used cloud computing to disrupt and reshape the enterprise software space. It is clear that we are just beginning to understand the potential of networked business and the future benefits and productivity gains of the next phase of the Internet."—John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco

"Behind the Cloud demonstrates what happens when companies act as good citizens. Everyone—from employees to shareholders to the community—wins. Get ready to be inspired and make a difference."—Charles Moore, executive director, Committee EncouragingCorporate Philanthropy

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Product details

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (October 19, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470521163
ISBN-13: 978-0470521168
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.3 x 8.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 146 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #94 in Books > Business & Money > Biography & History > Company Profiles
- #104 in Books > Business & Money > Processes & Infrastructure > E-Commerce
- #238 in Books > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Marketing

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Nona

For entrepreneurs and information industry professionals

March 19, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

SaaS. Software as a Service. This comes as an disruptive technology when the enterprises were spending megabucks on software to roll out to maximize their efficiency. The initial software licenses and the hardware, in order to host the solution, was compounded by the efforts spent in adapting the software to the specific needs of the buyer. At a time like this, Marc Benioff was bold enough to pursue his vision of "No Software". Technically incorrect, the idea was to host the application and provide access to enterprises to use the hosted application to remove the hardware costs from the equation. If this was not enough, they were going to charge the customer a monthly subscription fees similar to a pay-as-you-go mode.

We all know how the vision turned out. I am talking about the company founded by Marc Benioff. salesforce.com. But do we know what were driving factors and deciding events behind the success story of salesforce.com. This is what the author and founder of salesforce.com, Marc Benioff, tells in this book. With a dream to change the world and limited resources, salesforce.com innovated to become a market pioneer and also leader. Humble beginning with respect to resources(both manpower and capital), they set out for a David-versus-Goliath battle against Siebel. Instead of building ground up, they capitulated on the successful and time-proven technologies available. When it comes to attract attention to their product, they came out with out-of-box ideas. All these are interesting and also inspiring to read.

Starting from basics and turning successful was just one of the hurdles. But when salesforce.com became successful, the company as a whole has to adapt without changing their core values. Sometimes after defeating Goliath, David turns into Goliath. Instead of transforming into the undesirable giant, salesforce.com assimilates some of the good characteristics of Goliath as part of the adaptation process. When salesforce.com files for IPO, there are other challenges they face. They create a new market which did not exist before. Being the first means there are no written set of rules. This is the most interesting part of the book and makes it a must read for any budding entrepreneur. Disruptive technologies also has lot of challenges in addition to creating and capturing the market.

This books is recommended for two types of people. The first type are entrepreneurs(even if you are already one or you hope to be one in the future) and the second type are people associated with information industry. For the first type, there are a lot of lessons to be learnt from Marc Benioff's experience while for the second type, it is a history lesson.

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Benioff's private cloud is about his experience not the technology.

January 16, 2010

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Marc Benioff's Behind the Cloud is a quick, interesting and informative reading about Benioff's experience, personal philosophy and a personal memoir about the formative years of [...]. This book is not a book about cloud computing, how it works, what is important to get right, how to move your company into the cloud. So you are warned.

The book is a cross between a business success story, personal basking in success and a playbook for creating new companies. The book is a piece of corporate self promotion, but it goes beyond boosterism for the company and its offering to provide some real advice and insight. It is an example of the `different way' sales and marketing that [...] has become known for.

Benioff covers all of the major areas associated with setting up and leading a company. This gives the book a comprehensive nature normally not found in a piece of corporate marketing. This difference makes the book recommended, not as a book about Cloud Computing, but as a look into the mind of a business leader and innovator.

The book is organized around 111 `plays' representing concepts and ideas behind starting a business in general and [...] in particular. These `plays' are organized into parts covering strategy, marketing, events, sales, technology, philanthropy, globalization, finance and leadership.

So recommended reading for people who want to know more about Benioff and [...] and recognize the hyperbole that is in the book. Not recommended if you want to understand how the cloud works.

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Hannah Konitshek

July 4, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Highly recommended! An entrepreneur's journey from idea inception, to leaving their full-time job, to launching their own company is often not adequately written about. Everyone loves to write about the success of unicorns, but not the pains along the way. What I love about this book is that Benioff goes into detail on his successes an failures, broken up into different groups within the company (i.e., marketing, sales, etc). This book offers extremely valuable insight on both the birth of an industry and the growth of a company. I really wish more people would read this!

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Most recent customer reviews

Sara

Great

Book came as described! Great condition

Published 3 days ago

Kevin Phillips

Great read

Simple, informative and necessary. Not only for cloud companies but for any entrepreneur, seasoned business person and employees.

Excellent book

Published 1 month ago

Jessica

Interesting read on how Salesforce was built, with practical business advice woven in

Marc writes very well and tells the story of how he and his team built Salesforce, while weaving in practical business advice. Great read for anyone in tech.

Published 2 months ago

nathan cenovski

... Benioff smelling his own farts and telling you how great they are

If you want to read 300 pages of Marc Benioff smelling his own farts and telling you how great they are, this is the book for you!!!Read more

Published 3 months ago

Paloma Lara

Five Stars

Great book

Published 4 months ago

Amazon Customer

Awesome

Loved hearing the story behind Salesforce’s success. Some great nuggets of wisdom in here for the aspiring entrepreneur. Definitely a book I’ll re read.

Published 6 months ago

LFJ Essentials

Five Stars

Amazing

Published 6 months ago

Ryan

Valuable book with good insight

A good read on how this massive company was built from an idea that most people thought was impossible at the time.Read more

Published 7 months ago

Einar Andreas Negaard

Great book! A lot of good pointers for any entrepreneur

Great book! A lot of good pointers for any entrepreneur. I especially like the focus on people and HR topics.

Published 7 months ago

Emily

Great example of authentic leadership

Honest, authentic view in the development of Salesforce and Marc as CEO. Many good lessons for any aspiring entrepreneur and executive.

Published 7 months ago

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