Salesforce’s mission is to build bridges between companies and customers. Salesforce does that via a SaaS platform, which is enhanced via professional services offered on top of it.
Breaking down Salesforce’s mission statement
Salesforce was founded in 1999, and over the past two decades, the company has managed to survive the dotcom crash and post 73 straight quarters of revenue growth to become the largest enterprise software firm in the world.
According to its official website, the company’s mission statement reads as follows: “We build bridges between companies and customers. Businesses succeed when they create meaningful connection. Our mission is to deliver it.”
Let’s spend the rest of the article unpacking this statement in the context of some company values that support the Salesforce mission.
Innovation
Innovation allows Salesforce to develop technology that builds stronger relationships and changes the world in the process.
These meaningful connections may occur between employees in remote teams, between companies and their clients, or between governments and their citizens.
Ultimately, such connections allow organizations of various shapes and forms to pursue their dreams and solve tricky problems that make the Earth a better place.
In specific terms, connections are built with Customer 360, a scalable CRM platform that provides sales, commerce, IT, service, and marketing teams with a single view of customer data.
After acquiring Tableau in 2019, Salesforce also provides businesses with the opportunity to unearth meaningful insights and better serve customers with data-driven actions.
Salesforce is fully aware that the nature of meaningful connections will change in the future as technology evolves, pivots, and evolves once more.
However, the company believes that its robust customer relationships and ability to innovate will help it navigate the future irrespective of what may transpire.
Trust
For Salesforce, trust is a foundational element of success that starts with transparency.
Trust is validated by the numerous compliance certifications and standards the company holds.
These include EU Cloud Code of Conduct, Disaster Recovery & BCP, and APEC Certification for Processors and Controllers, among many others.
Customer success
Salesforce understands the direct link between customer success and business success.
The company is proud to note that it delivers more than just technology, with every client provided access to expertise and resources from its product ecosystem.
The company offers three SaaS options – which it calls “Success Plans” – and also a professional services solution where experts can collaborate with forward-thinking enterprises that possess global ambitions.
Ultimately, the latter option was designed to accelerate out-of-the-box implementation and enable businesses to reach their goals faster.
Equality
While Salesforce is certainly not the only company to include equality in its core values, it does believe that a diverse workforce is better able to fulfill its mission.
Indeed, the culture that such a workforce creates empowers Salesforce to “innovate, build deeper connections with our customers, and ultimately become a better company.” The company is also committed to driving equality among its customers, with programs in place to provide support for minority business owners and vendors.
Key takeaways:
Salesforce was founded in 1999 and has grown to become the largest software vendor in the world. The company’s mission is to help businesses create meaningful connections with their customers.
The Salesforce mission statement is primarily supported by core values related to innovation that facilitate stronger relationships between clients and customers in a variety of contexts. In the future, the company believes this ability to forge meaningful connections will hold it in good stead.
Supporting the company mission statement to a lesser extent are trust, transparency, and equality at the company and customer level. In addition to its SaaS product, Salesforce offers a professional services solution where it helps enterprises reach global objectives and accelerate their development.
Marc Benioff, Co-CEO of Salesforce is the main individual shareholder, with 3% of the company’s stock. Other major individual shareholders comprise Parker Harris, Co-Founder, and Chief Technology Officer, and Bret Taylor, who is the company’s CEO. Major institutional shareholders comprise The Vanguard Group, Fidelity, and BlackRock.
Salesforce follows a SaaS business model, offering four main categories of cloud CRM (Customer Relationship Management) services spanning the sales cloud to the marketing cloud. Where subscriptions drive the primary revenue model. However, the company leverages professional assistance to push the adoption of the software and retention of paying subscribers. Indeed, in 2023 Salesforce generated $29 billion from subscriptions and $2.33 billion from professional services.
In 2023 Salesforce generated $29 billion from subscriptions and $2.33 in professional services, compared to $24.66 billion in subscriptions in 2022 and $1.83 in professional services.
Professional services are run at negative gross margins. In short, in 2022, on $2.33 billion in revenue from professional services, Salesforce reported a $208 million gross loss. In short, Salesforce runs professional services at a loss to boost its subscription revenue over time since professional services are used to enhance the use and retention of the software. The subscription revenue cost structure is quite effective. In 2022 on a $29 billion in subscription revenue, the company reported $5.82B in cost of revenue (expenses related to delivering the service and providing support, including the costs of data center capacity), thus generating a $23.2 billion in gross profits, in 2023.
Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) provider, allowing businesses to build meaningful and sustained relationships with their customers. With robust, customizable software that integrates with social media, Gmail, and Microsoft Outlook, the Salesforce CRM platform is rated highly among businesses of all shapes and sizes. Recent data has shown that the company has captured 19.5% of the global CRM market.
Salesforce’s mission is to build bridges between companies and customers. Salesforce does that via a SaaS platform, which is enhanced via professional services offered on top of it.
Salesforce was founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff, Frank Dominguez, Dave Moellenhoff, and Parker Harris. In a relatively short time, the corporate powerhouse of enterprise software has made numerous acquisitions as part of its broader growthstrategy to become a SaaS giant!
Adidas’ mission is “To be the best sports brand in the world.” Adidas AG is a German multinational initially founded in 1924 by Adolf Dassler who developed spiked running shoes out of his mother’s house. Today, the company is the largest sportswear producer in Europe and the second largest globally behind rival Nike.
Tesla’s vision is to “create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles,” while its mission is “to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass-market electric cars to market as soon as possible.” Tesla used a transitional business model as its ecosystem grows.
Amazon’s mission statement is to “serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience.” Amazon’s vision statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.”
Apple’s mission is “to bring the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software, and services.” And in a manifesto dated 2019 Tim Cook set the vision specified as “We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing.”
Netflix’s core mission, strategy, and vision are that of “improving its members’ experience by expanding the streaming content with a focus on a programming mix of content that delights members and attracts new members.”
Coca-Cola’s Purpose is to “refresh the world. make a difference.” Its vision and mission are to “craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, to refresh them in body & spirit. And done in ways that create a more sustainable business and better-shared future that makes a difference in people’s lives, communities, and our planet.”
Starbucks highlights its mission as “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” And its vision is to “treat people like family, and they will be loyal and give their all.”
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. With over $110 billion in revenues in 2018, Office Products and Windows are still the main products. Yet the company also operates in Gaming (Xbox), Search Advertising (Bing), Hardware, LinkedIn, Cloud, and more.
Walmart’smission can be summarized as “helping people around the world save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores and through eCommerce.” While its vision is to “make every day easier for busy families.” Walmart defines “busy families” as the bull’s eye of its business strategy.
Nike vision is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” While its mission statement is to “do everything possible to expand human potential. We do that by creating groundbreaking sport innovations, by making our products more sustainably, by building a creative and diverse global team and by making a positive impact in communities where we live and work.”
Google mission statement is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Its vision statement is to “provide an important service to the world-instantly delivering relevant information on virtually any topic.” In 2019, Sundar Pichai emphasized a renewed mission to allow people “to get things done!”
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
