A-top-Salesforce-executive-says-Benioffs-ICE-jokes-were-not.jpeg

A top Salesforce executive says Benioff’s ICE jokes were ‘not OK’

by with No Comment Xpandfy

Salesforce cofounder Parker Harris addressed the controversy over CEO Marc Benioff’s ICE jokes in an internal meeting, saying he was “not OK with it,” Business Insider has learned.

“Marc made a very bad joke,” Harris, who is the company’s chief technical officer, said. “But that’s something that Marc did, and I’m not gonna call him out in public out on the internet.”

A transcript of Harris’ remarks at a meeting of the product and tech team last week was posted by an employee to a Slack channel. Business Insider verified that the transcript was accurate.

Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment. Benioff has not spoken about the jokes or the company’s reaction to them.


Marc Benioff wearing a blue suit and white shirt

Marc Benioff has not addressed the internal uproar over his ICE jokes.

Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images



In his meeting, Harris began by addressing a question about why many company leaders had not addressed Benioff’s comments at Salesforce’s employee-only company kickoff in Las Vegas last Tuesday.

“So I’ll start by saying that somebody already has, and it was immediately leaked,” Harris said, referring to a Business Insider story about another executive who criticized Benioff’s jokes.

“Let’s talk about it with each other and not out to Business Insider and other places because it doesn’t do us any good,” he said, adding, “It’s a violation of the Code of Conduct, and it’s a fireable offense. And if we do catch you, we will fire you.”

At the kickoff, Benioff made “multiple” jokes about ICE, including one about agents surveilling Salesforce employee travel, employees told Business Insider at the time.

Workers reacted with anger on Slack, which is owned by Salesforce. Slack General Manager Rob Seaman posted a comment saying he could not “defend or explain” his boss’ comments.

“They do not align with my personal values and I know this to be the case for many of you as well,” he wrote.

Craig Broscow, a Salesforce VP, acknowledged the “deep disappointment” in his own Slack message after the kickoff remarks.

“It would be a step in the right direction and for Marc to acknowledge as soon as possible — ideally publicly — that his attempted joke was extremely upsetting to large segments of his employee base,” Broscow said.

Speaking to his team, Harris said Seaman got in hot water for his post.

“I’ll tell you personally, and this is what Rob said as well, and I respect Rob for saying that, but he got in big trouble ’cause it went out on the internet,” Harris said. “Personally, I’m not OK with that joke.”

Harris went on to say that “it’s hard right now with what is going on [in] the US” and “what’s going in, like, Minneapolis is not about our software. Our software is not being used there.”

Harris said Salesforce is “not a political organization” and encouraged employees to make their views known at the ballot box.

“I’m going to use my democratic right to vote, and that’s how I’m gonna take action against some of the things that I’m not okay with,” he said.

He closed with saying, “So that’s my statement. It may not make you feel better. So I’m sorry if it doesn’t make you feel better. I think we should keep talking about it. I’m totally fine talking about it more. Please keep it confidential.”

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




Source link

Slacks-new-head-just-denounced-Salesforce-CEO-Marc-Benioffs-ICE.jpeg

Slack’s new head just denounced Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s ICE jokes in internal messages

by with No Comment Xpandfy

Salesforce executives, including Slack’s new general manager, addressed Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s jokes about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to internal messages.

Benioff angered some employees with the comments on Tuesday, including one about ICE surveilling employees’ travel.

“I want to acknowledge the jokes that happened this morning at CKO,” Slack general manager Rob Seaman wrote in an internal Slack message viewed by Business Insider. “I cannot defend or explain them. They do not align with my personal values and I know this to be the case for many of you as well.

Salesforce has yet to respond to repeated requests about Benioff’s comments and did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

“I assume there will be a statement that addresses them,” Seaman wrote. “If there isn’t, I’ll talk about it in the next all Slack call, and then I hope we can highlight what was actually super positive from the morning – real, authentic acknowledgment of the work that you’ve all done and the importance of Slack right now.

Salesforce recently promoted Seaman to executive vice president and general manager of Slack, following Slack CEO Denise Dresser’s departure in December to become OpenAI’s chief revenue officer. The company also promoted Joe Inzerillo, its previous chief digital officer, to president of enterprise and AI technology, overseeing both Slack and Agentforce.

Craig Broscow, a VP, also addressed Benioff’s comments on Slack, calling on Benioff to publicly respond.

“Marc has so much valuable insight to share on the Agentic Transformation,” Broscow wrote in a message viewed by Business Insider. “And the quarter was so strong. Everyone’s excited to be here. Most of us love our work and appreciate the privilege of working here. But for the senior leaders who I’m sure follow this thread to engage employee sentiment: this is overshadowing everything else and for everyone who has the courage to post there are 100+ people in Vegas who share their deep disappointment. It would be a step in the right direction and for Marc to acknowledge as soon as possible – ideally publicly – that his attempted joke was extremely upsetting to large segments of his employee base.”

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




Source link

photo-of-Ana-Altchek

Salesforce exec shares the advice he gives entry-level talent: ‘Hard isn’t necessarily bad.’

by with No Comment Xpandfy

As companies rethink how they train early-career workers in a job market shaped by AI, Salesforce executive Andy White said resilience is top of mind for him — both at work and at home.

White oversees Salesforce’s implementation of Slackbot, an AI personal agent that generates responses based on conversations, files, and workflows inside Slack.

As White raises his son and daughter during a period of rapid technological change, he said he preaches to his kids the importance of powering through moments that don’t go as planned. He said resilience is pivotal and that it’s important for people to focus on doing the hard things and being OK when things don’t go as expected.

The senior vice president of business technology said he recently spoke with his daughter about the importance of dealing with situations rather than merely labeling them as “good” or “bad.”

“Hard is hard,” White told Business Insider. “Hard isn’t necessarily bad.”

Expectations, he said, are the “destroyer of hope and joy,” and that when things don’t go as planned, it often turns out to be a good thing down the line, even if it doesn’t seem that way in the moment.

“It’s when we look back, and it’s like, ‘Oh man, I’m glad that didn’t go the way I expected,'” White said. “But when you’re in it, it’s really hard.”

The importance of persistence

The resilience lesson is one White also thinks is relevant for entry-level workers. While junior hires often arrive ready to use new tools and deliver a “pretty high output,” he said, persistence is an area where some still need to grow.

He described today’s entry-level talent pool as “incredibly capable, very bright, and very driven,” with a stronger grasp of how to use AI tools to solve problems.

“They’re much more fluent at being able to leverage AI tooling in the flow of their work,” White said.

However, he said the group sometimes struggles when it comes to working through challenges.

“There’s more willingness to give up sooner,” he said, adding that this trait doesn’t apply across the board.

Finding confidence

White said he’s seen AI tools, such as the company’s recently upgraded Slackbot, help boost entry-level workers’ confidence. He said they could help reduce feelings of imposter syndrome by helping early-career workers navigate challenging situations that arise at work.

With that said, White added that workers need to stay balanced and not let tools make them “overly confident.” He said workers need to bring skepticism to “any kind of information” they get, and be diligent about reviewing sources and citations when using AI.

“If you don’t believe something, read the citation, and if it doesn’t have a citation, you have to assume it’s a hallucination,” White said, adding that he tells his kids the same thing.




Source link

Salesforce-made-a-new-round-of-job-cuts-These-teams.jpeg

Salesforce made a new round of job cuts. These teams were affected.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

  • Salesforce cut part of its workforce earlier this month.
  • Staff in teams across marketing, product, and data were let go.
  • The cut involved fewer than 1,000 roles, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Salesforce made cuts to its workforce at the beginning of this month.

The cut involved fewer than 1,000 roles, according to a person familiar with the matter.

At least nine employees posted on LinkedIn that their roles had been eliminated. Affected roles included marketing, product management, data analytics, and Salesforce’s Agentforce AI product, according to LinkedIn posts and profiles, as well as two employees who spoke to Business Insider.

The layoffs also come amid an executive shake-up at Salesforce, in which the company appointed six new leaders to replace five high-profile leaders who have announced departures since December.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in August that the company used AI agents to reduce its support staff from 9,000 to 5,000.

Have a tip? Contact Ashley Stewart via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Contact Charles Rollet via email at crollet@businessinsider.com or on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




Source link

Ashley Stewart Business Insider

Salesforce is replacing 5 high-profile leaders who have left since December with 6 new execs

by with No Comment Xpandfy

  • Salesforce has appointed new leaders in an executive shake-up.
  • Six new hires and promoted executives will lead businesses like Agentforce and Slack.
  • The executives replace five high-profile leaders who have announced departures since December.

Salesforce has hired or promoted six new leaders, replacing five high-profile leaders who have announced departures from the company since December, according to a person familiar with the changes.

  • Iain Mulholland is the company’s new chief security officer, joining from Google. Mulholland most recently worked as the deputy chief information security officer for Google Cloud and Technical Infrastructure. He replaces Brad Arkin, who left Salesforce at the end of January after serving for just over two years.
  • Patrick Stokes, a longtime Salesforce executive, is the company’s new chief marketing officer. Stokes replaces Ariel Kelman, who left on Monday to join chipmaker AMD.
  • Dave Ward is Salesforce’s new chief architect. He joined from Lumen Technologies, where he was chief technology officer.
  • Joe Inzerillo, the company’s chief digital officer, is now president of enterprise and AI technology, overseeing both Slack and Agentforce. Agentforce has become one of Salesforce’s most important new AI services. CEO Marc Benioff has even suggested he might rename the company after Agentforce.
  • Salesforce promoted executives Rob Seaman, now executive vice president and general manager for Slack, and Madhav Thattai, executive vice president and general manager for Agentforce.

“Salesforce has always been a talent engine,” a Salesforce spokesperson said in a statement. “Our deep bench and proactive succession planning ensure that our strategy is institutionalized, not individualized. We’re confident in the leaders stepping into these roles and are excited for what’s ahead in FY27.”

Salesforce’s new fiscal year started on February 1. Some of the changes are yet to be announced widely internally.

Besides Arkin and Kelman, other high-profile executives have left Salesforce recently. The previous head of Agentforce, Adam Evans, announced his departure on Sunday.

“I’ve decided it’s time to start my next chapter outside Salesforce – returning to what I love most: building startups,” Evans wrote in a LinkedIn post. Evans spoke to Business Insider late last year for a story on Agentforce’s challenges.

Ryan Aytay, CEO of Salesforce’s Tableau business, announced his departure last week, and Slack CEO Denise Dresser departed in December to become OpenAI’s chief revenue officer.

Salesforce stock has been taking a beating among other software companies as investors fear competition from AI companies.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




Source link