Technology company owns You reported first quarter revenue $8.25 billion — up 11% year-over-year — boosting the company’s full-year revenue promise by $34.7 billion, up nearly 10% year-over-year.
It was a tough struggle, however, after Salesforce was eliminated 8,000 employees after that The share price fell by about 50% in 2022.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the company’s culture has changed as a result.
In addition to CEO Marc Benioff being criticized by his staff for his “quibbling” over the layoff issue, employees fondly referred to as “ohana” — or family — now find themselves immersed in a high-performance culture.
He also discussed Salesforce’s latest financial results on Call the investors this weekBenioff said that Salesforce has “resurrected a culture of performance by focusing on productivity, operational excellence, and profitability.”
The company is “just beginning” its transformation, Benioff said, adding, “We continue to scrutinize every dollar invested, every resource, every spend.”
The CEO was echoed by Chief Operating Officer Brian Milham, who similarly emphasized that the change in culture has been a key driver of the company’s success thus far.
“Our focus on performance, culture and operational excellence contributed to our strong first quarter results,” he explained.
“We’ve clearly defined our revenue in remote office guidance for employees, and it’s been great to get more together in our offices and with our customers around the world. I’ve had the opportunity to visit several of our offices this quarter, and the energy has been amazing.”
Some employees are not a fan of the hard-line approach, insider sources saidas employees wonder if the performance-related terminations will constitute any of the broader layoffs across the company’s 10% headcount.
However, former managers told the outlet that the move was necessary, because in the past “terrible” employees did not lose their roles because of the difficulty in firing employees.
Where did the change come from?
Benioff has been pushing his high-performance and efficiency agenda since the end of the pandemic.
In an internal memo he sees luck In February, the CEO wrote: “A culture of wellness has trumped a culture of high performance during a pandemic. Fear of escalating people-related issues (burnout, psychological well-being, equity, etc.) can make managers reticent about the performance of managing their teams.”
However, the company’s co-founder may have been spurred on by upcoming activist investors including Elliott Management and Starboard Value, who threw a challenge to the company to cut costs and increase profit margins.
The pressure also shows no sign of letting up, with Benioff noting that Salesforce clients continue to analyze every detail of their services, as well as pausing long-term projects in favor of “quick wins and quick time to value.”
And although CFO Amy Weaver said the company has “largely completed a restructuring” that was announced in January, the “organizational structure” remains one of the three pillars of the next “execution phase” of the business.
Weaver explained, “As we move into the execution phase, we execute according to three key pillars: optimizing resources and organization structure, prioritizing product investment, and operational rigor.”