Reader, drama is growing. Diamond Naga Siu is my name. I am fascinated by the Salesforce spectacle.
Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO, recently oversaw two of the most prominent candidates for the throne. The succession crisis has also caught the attention of angry activist shareholders.
Multiple activist investors increased their stakes in Salesforce within a matter of months. Benioff now has to oversee the company's cost-cutting process, something he has never done before.
Leaked documents reveal that his new mantra is "lean and mean", which seems to have replaced his focus on his "Ohana," a Hawaiian term for "family". This outlook was emphasized by Benioff during Wednesday's earnings conference.
This is quite a turn considering that he was still emphasizing Ohana even after laying off 10% in January.
Phew. This is a lot of work for a short time. Let's get to the tech of today before the drama llama goes on.
Sign up if this was sent to you. Get Insider's App here.
[TAG0][TAG3]
1. Salesforce is pushing for profitability. On Wednesday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff declared that the company was starting a new day. Benioff's favorite words are efficiency and profitability, which have replaced the company's family-centric mantra.
- Multiple investors are likely to have been involved in the sudden pivot. Salesforce is already moving in the right direction. In its last fiscal year, Salesforce had a 22.5% operating profit and now aims to reach 27%. Salesforce stock also rose 15% within hours of the earnings report.
- Benioff stated that he is following Oracle's profit strategy. However, one of the most powerful investors in Oracle is still unhappy. He shared an icy warning saying that "much work remains."
- Salesforce CEO Benioff is also keeping an eye on Elon Musk's dramatic cuts to Twitter. Insider spoke to Benioff, who said that CEOs need to ask themselves if they can unleash their inner Elon.
Get a glimpse into Salesforce's future.
In other news:
[TAG1][TAG4]
2. Ford wants cars to be able to repossess by themselves. American carmaker Ford applied for a patent to allow cars to repossess themselves if they fail to pay their payments. The vehicle would be able to lock out drivers and take them to a scrapyard. You can read more about the punitive patent.
3. Top Twitter alternatives. Platforms like Mastodon and Discord have been working to get rid of unhappy users since Elon Musk's takeover. Here are the top three frontrunners, including their user volume, staff headcount and funding. You can find them all here.
4. This is the one-pager that secured this UCLA student 40+ brand deal. Stacy Kim has only 3,400 Instagram followers. She has secured paid partnerships with major brands such as Samsung, Fabletics and Sephora. Here's the one-page document that she used to make those deals.
5. Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular and companies are looking to hire prompt engineers to help them test their chatbots. They need to be able identify AI flaws and find incorrect answers. This is the latest job opportunity.
6. Facebook is removing managers from their teams. Insider was told by an employee that managers are being trained to do work they have not done in years. They could also be competing with their direct reports. You can read more about the team changes here.
7. Shopify is "flattening" its organizational structure. Shopify is looking to encourage certain workers to become "crafters" to grow its business. Managers would be able to focus on strategy and building projects while crafters would concentrate on that. All details about the upcoming reorganization are available here.
8. There are four great reasons to switch to electric vehicles. Tim Levin, an Insider's car expert, has driven 19 electric vehicles. He says that EVs offer unique features and storage options. These features are all available here. Bonus: Meet the average driver of an EV. These are typically wealthy young people who have traded in their luxurious gas-powered cars for EVs.
Odds and ends:
[TAG2][TAG5]
9. Okay Boomer, a greedy generation which destroyed the economy. They hampered the growth of workers and homes. Alex Yablon, Insider's writer for Millennials and Gen Z writes that they are now facing the consequences. Here's a look at the boomer blockage.
10. Scientists didn't know that the US military's nuclear blast would be so powerful. Castle Bravo was 1000 times more powerful than Hiroshima's atomic bomb. The radioactive fallout from the explosion was far more severe than anyone expected. Here are the details.
What we're watching today:
- SpaceX Crew-6 will launch today to the International Space Station. You can see it here.
- Quarterly earnings for VMWare Enterprise, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Best Buy. Here's how to keep up with earnings.
Curated by Diamond Naga Siu on an airplane. (Feedback or tips? Email
dsiu@insider.com
or tweet
@diamondnagasiu
) Edited by Matt Weinberger (tweet
@gamoid
) in San Francisco and Hallam Bullock (tweet
@hallam_bullock
) in London.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
By: dsiu@insider.com (Diamond Naga Siu)
Title: Salesforce: A New Dawn. CEO Marc Benioff is pivoting the cloud company from family to profitability.
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/facebook-electric-ford-ucla-salesforce-shopify-scientists-2023-3
Published Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2023 11:20:00 +0000
Related posts:
Tesla bull Gary Black, who rebuts recession claims, says investors don’t pay attention to Elon Musk on economics.
Tesla buyer claims that he was ‘bullied into’ taking delivery of his Tesla. This means that he missed a price drop of almost $10,000
Mark Zuckerberg is taking a page from Elon Musk and buying Meta stock. Bank of America says
Elon Musk brags about how much he is loved on Twitter by using Tesla earnings calls
Leave a Reply