Salesforce.com Inc. (NASDAQ:CRM) has been creating an executive talent pool following the acquisition of Quip in 2016 for $750 million. The customer relations management company gained the leadership of Bret Taylor, the co-founder of Quip who has risen to be the COO of the company second to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
Acquired startups’ executives vital to Salesforce
Benioff has run Salesforces for the past 20 years and has not shown signs of ever stopping soon. But in the event, he steps down there is a rich talent pool of executives that the company has built over the years such as Taylor that can fit his shoes. Several executives of startups the company acquired over the years have joined the executive team and Taylor’s experiences are proof that founders of startups can be vital to the companies that acquire.
In 2016 Benioff and his wife Lynne signed The Giving Pledge which is a Bill and Melinda gates Foundation. It could be possible that he is considering spending more time in charitable endeavors just as Gates who left Microsoft after 25 years to run his charitable foundation full time. However, this remains speculative for now but even if it were to happen there is a great executive talent pool with industry experience that could take over.
Reintroducing Co-CEO role
One of the ways Salesforce is preparing for that eventuality is by reintroducing the co-CEOP role which will see Benioff share responsibility. This is something the company has tried before from 2018 through 2019 with Keith Block being a co-CEO until his departure. The arrangement worked exceptionally well and Block was responsible for handling large customers and helped the company hit its revenue target of $20 billion.
Block used to be COO, President, and Co-chairman before he was appointed co-CEO. This is the same position that Taylor holds currently which is a sign that Salesforce could be prepping him for that role. If the company chooses to adopt the shared responsibility role then Taylor or any of the executives the company has amassed could be ideal.