- Benioff has just shaken up Salesforce’s leadership and brought back several former executives to the company.
- This change shifts more responsibility to President and COO Brian Milham.
- Benioff and Milham spoke with Insider Editor-in-Chief Nick Carlson.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff just announced a restructuring that will relocate his Boomerang executive.
The change shifts more responsibility to President and COO Brian Milham and somehow addresses investor concerns about his successor should Benioff decide to take over the reins of CEO in the future. will be dealt with.
Salesforce has had a difficult 18 months. Activist investors are circled. The company has cut thousands of jobs. Some executives quit. Performance has improved recently, and quarterly earnings are moving toward Salesforce’s 30% margin target.
Benioff and Milham met with Insider editor-in-chief Nick Carlson to discuss the change. Below is a transcript of the conversation. Edited for length and clarity.
Marc Benioff: Brian, who has been with Salesforce for 24 years, is in an amazing situation. He’s employee number 13. He’s lucky number 13. Brian was appointed Chief Operating Officer last August. And he’s been doing amazing things at his Salesforce, which is not just part of his traditional job in sales and service, but an incredibly new opportunity for him. Although he already manages more than 50% of our workforce, he is now responsible for Mark, Employee Success, Human Resources, and the Business, which is his CIO and Transformational Function at the Company. I am in charge. So it’s a broad extension of his abilities. What percentage of all employees will work for your company in the future?
Brian Milham: close to 70%.
Nick Carlson: The obvious question: why not name him co-CEO now?
Benioff: Well, you have to walk before you can run here. Brian is an amazing person, President and Chief Operating Officer, my most loyal partner in running the business for 25 years, and I couldn’t be more excited to give him this new capability.
Nick Carlson: Why are you excited to take on this role?
Milham: I am very happy to play this role. Not only are we very excited to take advantage of the amazing opportunities in front of us from a product perspective, the innovation coming from our team on the product development side is truly incredible. Our customers will love what we offer.
But I’m also very excited about our ohana, our culture of being more involved in the day-to-day operations of our HR organization—employee-focused employee success. We have a great culture here. Marc said in his latest earnings call that this is a superpower at Salesforce.
We also have great leadership on the IT side of our organization, which we call business technology, and we do great things with our own technology to drive efficiency, scale, and organization. And certainly, we’re thrilled to have a marketing organization under our umbrella.
Carlson: Brian, given the layoffs of the last few months, do you think some remedial work is needed? What does it mean to engage more with people?
Milham: I think we need to focus on our culture. We have clearly gone through difficult times, but I also believe that our culture is seeing a rebirth in many ways. So people are very excited about the numbers we achieved in Q4 and Q1. The results are there.
Many ex-employees want to come back to Salesforce, and it’s been an incredible boomerang back into the company. Ariel Kelman will be announced as CMO, Miguel Milano will return as Chief Revenue Officer, and Kendall Collins will return as Chief of Staff. That is why many people want to return to this business and are inspired by our work.
Benioff: The point is, these executives have always felt like they belonged at Salesforce and now have what we at Salesforce call (laughter) “external training.” They never left Ohana. And now they’re back. The great thing is that when people come back, they can start working right away. It’s really a metaphor for Salesforce’s comeback in this new way and new structure.
carlson: So you’ve had two other co-CEOs in the past, but both of them have left. What’s different this time?
Benioff: Well, I think Brian and my marriage is pretty much attested. Over the last 25 years, I don’t think I’ve had a more successful business partnership with her than Brian and I.
Carlson: Brian, are you going to do something different than everyone else so far?
Milham: I’ve been with Marc for 24 years now, and I’ve been involved with this culture and this company, so I know how the company operates. I know what the expectations are for that role. I’ve been living like that every day for 24 years. So I joined with wide eyes to do this job and feel I know enough about work and business to be confident that this marriage will work. So I am very comfortable about our future and very excited to embark on it.