In a world-first Salesforce World Tour Sydney Reimagined was live-streamed across the globe last week. And while we got to see some great demos, hear about the latest products and even see life-size Salesforce mascots have a dance-off (yes, really), it is the great pieces of business and leadership advice that make World Tour so special. Here are eight of the best.
1. One Company Can’t Achieve Change Alone.
In her very first World Tour opening keynote as CEO Salesforce ANZ, Pip Marlow reminded us that our planet should be one of our most important stakeholders. “There is no planet B,” she told us. It’s why Salesforce supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and are doubling down on climate action and renewable energy. If you’re running on Salesforce, you’re running on a carbon-neutral cloud.
“We know to solve these problems we have to do it together – and that’s why we’re inviting you to come and join us on this journey,” said Pip.
2. There Is No One-Size-Fits-All When It Comes To Government Customer Service
For government departments and agencies, their customers can be diverse in age, location and cultures. So, when it comes delivering expectational customer service there is no one size fits all.
In the government session, the NSW Department of Education explained how flipping their focus and implementing Salesforce has allowed them to meet the individual needs of students and schools in their context.
“We focused on the needs of the students rather than focusing on what the system says it’s going to do,” said Executive Director – School Services, Jane Simmons. “When there’s strategic interaction you see the improvement in the performance in schools.”
3. Culture is what you do when you’re not thinking
The panel ‘Business as a platform for change’ was filled with a million pieces of advice! With the likes of tennis legend and equality activist Billie Jean King, CEO and Founder of OzHarvest Ronni Kahn AO and former Telstra CEO and now Chair of the CSIRO David Thodey AO on the panel, it’s no surprise.
But it was David Thodey who got us thinking outside the box about authentic leadership and company culture.
“When you’re trying to inspire an organisation to make a difference in some way, it’s impossible as a CEO or anyone to write the rule book on how you behave or what you should do in any situation.
“Culture is what you do when you’re not thinking – it’s what’s innate with something you just do because it’s the way you do it. And that’s why it’s so magic.”
4. Give people the opportunity to prove themselves
In the same panel (we did say it was full of advice), Ronni Kahn talked about trust and how it’s a two-way street.
A few years ago Ronni opened up a free supermarket because she wanted a space where anyone could walk in and take what they need. The first thing people asked her was, “What about the people who cheat the system?.”
“It never occurred to me that people would misuse the system – and they haven’t,” said Ronni. “You need to give people the opportunity to be the best they can be.”
5. Everyone needs to be empowered with the tools to drive digital innovation
In the Mulesoft session, we learnt that companies of all shapes and sizes need integration professionals. Why? Because today’s customers expect truly integrated and personalised experiences.
Alissa Barker, Regional Marketing Manager at Mulesoft explained that everyone from developers and architects to customer service and sales reps, need to be empowered to integrate systems, unify data, and deliver connected experiences without writing a single line of code.
“We’ve seen a whopping 70% increase in productivity from companies using this approach,” said Alissa. “As well as huge gains in speed, agility and scale.”
6. Leaders don’t choose followers; followers choose leaders
In Billie Jean King’s Fireside Chat with Pip Marlow, the two leaders discussed everything from empowering women to accepting power that is bestowed to you.
“Everyone has the chance to lead,” Billie Jean told Pip, revealing that even she was reluctant to be a leader when the tennis community asked her to be their spokesperson.
“Leaders don’t choose followers; followers choose leaders,” said Billie Jean. “People will champion you if you do the right thing.”
Turning the tables, Billie Jean asked Pip how she became a leader. The CEO shared she was lucky she had people who believed in her before she believed in herself.
“I didn’t know how to hold ambition and humility together at the same time,” said Pip. “But then I realised two things can be true at the same time – can have a drive and be competitive and be humble at the same time. You don’t have to choose.”
7. “Please note there is a business at risk alert”
In the Salesforce Einstein session, it was clear Einstein Voice Skills is going to revolutionise the way sales reps do business and manage their priorities.
Straight from the Dreamforce stage, the limited edition Einstein Speaker made a special appearance at World Tour to provide some guidance to his role-playing sales rep Sonya Capuzzi, Principle Solution Advisor at Salesforce.
When Sonya asked, “Hey Einstein, what does my day look like?” Einstein replied:
“You have three meetings. Make sure to complete your timesheet today. Please note there is a business at risk alert. Acme Employees Retirement Fund has a 78% churn risk mostly driven by a recent decrease in activity.”
Immediately the role-playing Sonya knows to spend her day focusing on Acme. Game-changing advice if you ask us.
8. Don’t assume everyone else is doing better than you
Some of the best of advice from World Tour came from the very last session of the day. Founder of PepTalkHer, speaker and journalist Meggie Palmer spoke about overcoming imposter syndrome – a psychological trait that 70% of people have admitted to experiencing.
Meggie’s best piece of advice was to not assume everyone else is doing better than you. “We only know our story and we don’t know what we don’t know.”
She also advised replacing negative thoughts with positive thinking. “Instead of saying ‘I can’t afford this’ change it to ‘How can I afford this’.”
All the World Tour sessions are now available at Salesforce Live.
World Tour might be over for 2020 but we’re continuing the sharing of knowledge and business advice so get in touch with one of our experienced team if you’d like to know more.
