On July 25 The Voice of San Francisco visited the Salesforce Tower on 415 Mission Street to check out the action. On this warm Thursday afternoon, everything was in full swing (and shout, as a Service Employee International Union strike wrapped around the building). The atmosphere echoed the early naughts, with a crush of enthusiastic workers making the most of everything from the well-stocked game room to the bucolic park that branches out from the fifth floor.
CEO Marc Benioff explains why he made the recent back-to-office decree, successes, and issues with legislation that he supported, and how increased public safety will be essential to getting all of San Francisco back in business.
As soon as the news that employees will be coming in three-to-five days a week broke, a collective excitement spread throughout the city. How is all the love feeling?
As a fourth-generation San Franciscan, I can feel a new wave of momentum in the city. This is where Salesforce planted its roots a quarter-century ago, and still no city matches it in innovation.
San Francisco is leading an AI revolution, creating a true AI boom loop that is going to create incredible innovations and economic value. It’s the largest AI investment city in the world and at Salesforce, we’ve created a $500 million investment fund as part of our continuing commitment to bolster the AI startup ecosystem and spark responsible and ethical development of AI.
For a while, especially during the Covid years, there was a belief that tech companies couldn’t attract top talent without a fully remote option. This idea seems to be shifting, doesn’t it?
We’ve always taken a hybrid approach to work. It helps us bring in incredible, diverse talent from all around the world.
Covid was definitely a moment to reexamine how and where we work best to serve our customers and other stakeholders. We’ve learned what’s possible remotely and also that when people come together in-person to collaborate, learn from one another and do the best work of their lives, amazing things can happen. And we already have thousands of people coming to the office for that reason.
This is really building on a pattern we’ve seen over the past two years.
You’re a native son with deep ties to the city. How do you think repopulating Salesforce Tower will help to give San Francisco the positive reputation jolt it needs?
I love the city, and I’m so proud that Salesforce is its largest private employer and philanthropist. San Francisco has always been a hub of remarkable innovation, and Salesforce Tower stands as a testament to that.
Today we have 72,000 people around the world. Looking out from the top of Salesforce Tower, you can see a 360-degree panorama of our beautiful city. When I view our city from that viewpoint, I reflect on our values — trust, customer success, innovation, equality, and sustainability — and what we’ve been able to accomplish in the Bay Area for all our stakeholders. That includes our customers, employees, partners, our local schools, hospitals, and also doing what we can to help those who are homeless. Our employees volunteer in public schools, homeless shelters and hospitals, doing their part to make life better for their fellow citizens.
That is not to say that the city doesn’t need to do more. Like many great cities, San Francisco has a problem with crime. Some retail businesses don’t feel safe, and the same goes for residential areas. We also need to focus on BART and transportation safety. I’ve shared my suggestions to address these issues with the city’s leaders. We need to refund, not defund the SFPD and hire more police officers to reverse the significant drop in policing levels that we have seen in recent years. We need the laws to be enforced and for the D.A.’s office to prosecute offenders to the fullest level of the law. Police officers need to be enabled to protect assigned districts and be rewarded and measured for their effectiveness with clearly defined metrics.
We also need to continue expanding housing, with homeless children and homeless pregnant women prioritized for stable housing. Although the [Proposition] C tax to fund homelessness services has some aspects that can be reshaped after nearly six years, it has had many positives for addressing the homelessness crisis in our community. Over a period of three years, 22,624 households have been saved from homelessness; 3,928 people were sheltered; 15,881 were served with behavioral health support; and 2,955 permanent housing units were added. More than 5,000 people are now housed, including 1,700 children.
We need everyone coming together to make San Francisco and the entire Bay Area a safer and better place for all. Our employees working, supporting, and spending time in our local community is one way we are doing our part.
Do you believe this decision may motivate other companies to follow suit?
Since Covid, we’ve been learning and adapting. This was my first pandemic. We haven’t been down this path before, so we keep a beginner’s mind and continue to focus on evolving our workplaces and culture in ways that create the optimal environment for our employees to do their best work in this post-Covid world and deliver customer success.
Other companies are thinking the same way — the vacancy rate in San Francisco is declining with amazing new companies taking space across the city.
With increased foot traffic around Salesforce Tower, how do you think the surrounding micro-economy will benefit? Is this important to you?
I’ve always believed business is the greatest platform for change. Through our 1-1-1 model, we donate one percent of our equity, employees’ time, and product back to our communities. Today that has translated to nearly $700 million in grants, 9 million volunteer hours and 70,000 nonprofit and higher education customers using Salesforce for free or at a discount.
Our local San Francisco community is a key stakeholder. We intentionally don’t have cafeterias in our offices to encourage employees to support the restaurants and businesses nearby. We use our product, Slack, to communicate with employees about new restaurants opening in the neighborhood, partnerships we have with local businesses, and other community activities.
We want our employees to know that downtown San Francisco has much to offer.
Young adults in particular are attracted to the hustle and bustle of a thriving city. Are you hearing from this demographic of Salesforce employees an eagerness to be part of it?
All companies have a tremendous impact on the future of our cities. They contribute to economic growth, provide employment opportunities, drive innovation, and influence the overall development and sustainability of urban areas. Salesforce thrives in places around the world where we can get together, embrace all that downtown areas have to offer, and be active members of our communities.