Marc R. Benioff is the chairman and CEO of [...] (NYSE: CRM), which he cofounded in 1999. Under Benioff's direction, [...] has grown from a groundbreaking idea into a publicly traded company that is the market and technology leader in enterprise cloud computing. [...] has received a Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award, been lauded as one of BusinessWeek's Top 100 Most Innovative Companies, been named No. 7 on the Wired 40, was selected for the past two years as a Top Ten Disrupter by Forbes, and been voted one of the world's most ethical companies by Business Ethics Magazine. Benioff is the recipient of many awards for pioneering innovation, including the 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2000, Benioff launched the [...] Foundation-now a multimillion-dollar global organization. He lives in San Francisco.

Carlye Adler is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in BusinessWeek, Departures, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, Portfolio, Wired, and Time. She cowrote, with Marc Benioff, The Business of Changing the World. She lives in New York City.

Foreword by Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell xi
Introduction xvii

Part 1 The Start-Up Playbook: How to Turn a Simple Idea into a High-Growth Company 1
Play #1: Allow Yourself Time to Recharge 1
Play #2: Have a Big Dream 3
Play #3:Believe in Yourself 5
Play #4: Trust a Select Few with Your Idea and Listen to Their Advice 7
Play #5: Pursue Top Talent as If Your Success Depended on It 8
Play #6: Sell Your Idea to Skeptics and Respond Calmly to Critics 9
Play #7: Define Your Values and Culture Up Front 11
Play #8: Work Only on What Is Important 12
Play #9: Listen to Your Prospective Customers 13
Play #10: Defy Convention 14
Play #11: Have-and Listen to-a Trusted Mentor 14
Play #12: Hire the Best Players You Know 15
Play #13: Be Willing to Take a Risk-No Hedging 18
Play #14: Think Bigger 20

Part 2 The Marketing Playbook: How to Cut Through the Noise and Pitch the Bigger Picture 23
Play #15: Position Yourself 23
Play #16: Party with a Purpose 25
Play #17: Create a Persona 27
Play #18: Differentiate, Differentiate, Differentiate 28
Play #19: Make Every Employee a Key Player on the Marketing Team, and Ensure Everyone Is On Message 33
Play #20: Always, Always Go After Goliath 34
Play #21: Tactics Dictate Strategy 37
Play #22: Engage the Market Leader 39
Play #23: Reporters Are Writers; Tell Them a Story 40
Play #24: Cultivate Relationships with Select Journalists 41
Play #25: Make Your Own Metaphors 44
Play #26: No Sacred Cows 44

Part 3 The Events Playbook: How to Use Events to Build Buzz and Drive Business 47
Play #27: Feed the Word-of-Mouth Phenomenon 47
Play #28: Build Street Teams and Leverage Testimony 49
Play #29: Sell to the End User 52
Play #30: The Event Is the Message 54
Play #31: Reduce Costs and Increase Impact 57
Play #32: Always Stay in the Forefront 60
Play #33: The Truth About Competition (It Is Good for Everyone) 60
Play #34: Be Prepared for Every Scenario ... and Have Fun 61
Play #35: Seize Unlikely Opportunities to Stay Relevant 63 Play #36: Stay Scrappy ... but Not Too Scrappy 65

Part 4 The Sales Playbook: How to Energize Your Customers into a Million-Member Sales Team 67
Play #37: Give It Away 67
Play #38: Win First Customers by Treating Them Like Partners 69
Play #39: Let Your Web Site Be a Sales Rep 72
Play #40: Make Every Customer a Member of Your Sales Team 73
Play #41: Telesales Works (Even Though Everyone Thinks It Doesn't) 76
Play #42: Don't Dis Your First Product with a Discount 78
Play #43: Sales Is a Numbers Game 79
Play #44: Segment the Markets 80
Play #45: Leverage Times of Change 82
Play #46: Your Seeds Are Sown, so Grow, Grow, Grow 86
Play #47: Land and Expand 95
Play #48: Abandon Strategies That No Longer Serve You 96
Play #49: Old Customers Need Love 97
Play #50: Add It On and Add It Up 98
Play #51: Success Is the Number One Selling Feature 100

Part 5 The Technology Playbook: How to Develop Products Users Love 103
Play #52: Have the Courage to Pursue Your Innovation-Before It Is Obvious to the Market 103
Play #53: Invest in the Long Term with a Prototype That Sets a Strong Foundation 106
Play #54: Follow the Lead of Companies That Are Loved by Their Customers 107
Play #55: Don't Do It All Yourself; Reuse, Don't Rebuild 109
Play #56: Embrace Transparency and Build Trust 110
Play #57: Let Your Customers Drive Innovation 115
Play #58: Make It Easy for Customers to Adopt 119
Play #59: Transcend Technical Paradigms 120
Play #60: Provide a Marketplace for Solutions 125
Play #61: Harness Customers' Ideas 127
Play #62: Develop Communities of Collaboration (aka Love Everybody) 131
Play #63: Evolve by Intelligent Reaction 132

Part 6 The Corporate Philanthropy Playbook: How to Make Your Company About More Than Just the Bottom Line 135
Play #64: The Business of Business Is More Than Business 135
Play #65: Integrate Philanthropy from the Beginning 139
Play #66: Make Your Foundation Part of Your Business Model 140
Play #67: Choose a Cause That Makes Sense and Get Experts on Board 144
Play #68: Share the Model 146
Play #69: Build a Great Program by Listening to the Constituents 148
Play #70: Create a Self-Sustaining Model 153
Play #71: Share Your Most Valuable Resources - Your Product and Your People 156
Play #72: Involve Your Partners, Your Vendors, Your Network 159
Play #73: Let Employees Inspire the Foundation 161
Play #74: Have Your Foundation Mimic Your Business 166

Part7 The Global Playbook" How to Launch Your Product and Introduce Your Model to New Markets 169
Play #75: Build Global Capabilities into Your Product 169
Play #76: Inject Local Leaders with Your Corporate DNA 170
Play #77: Choose Your Headquarters and Territories Wisely 172
Play #78: Box Above Your Weight 175
Play #79: Scale Without Overspending 176
Play #80: Understand Sequential Growth 177
Play #81: Uphold a One-Company Attitude Across Borders 178
Play #82: Follow Strategy, Not Opportunity 179
Play #83: Going Far? Take a Partner. Going Fast? Go Alone 180
Play #84: Fine-Tune Your International Strategy 182
Play #85: Send Missionaries to Build New Markets 186
Play #86: Handle Global Disputes with Diplomacy (aka Light and Love) 188
Play #87: Edit an Overarching Outlook 192
Play #88: Bring Old Tricks to New Regions 196
Play #89: Don't Use a "Seagull Approach;" the Secret to Global Success Is Commitment 198

Part8 The Finance Playbook: How to Raise Capital, Create a Return, and Never Sell Your Soul 201
Play #90: Don't Underestimate Your Financial Needs 201
Play #91: Consider Fundraising Strategies Other Than Venture Capital 203
Play #92: Use Internet Models to Reduce Start-Up Costs 206
Play #93: Set Yourself Up Properly from the Beginning, Then Allow Your Financial Model to Evolve 207
Play #94: Measure a Fast-Growing Company on Revenue, Not Profitability 208
Play #95: Build a First-Class Financial Team 209
Play #96: Be Innovative and Edgy in Everything You Do-Except When It Comes to Your Finances 210
Play #97: When It Comes to Compliance, Always Play by the Rules 215
Play #98: Focus on the Future 218
Play #99: Allow for Change as Your Company Grows 220

Part9 The Leadership Playbook: How to Create Alignment-the Key to Organizational Success 225
Play #100: Use V2MOM to Focus Your Goals and Align Your Organization 225
Play #101: Use a Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach 230
Play #102: Build a Recruiting Culture 233
Play #103: Recruiting Is Sales 236
Play #104: Keep Your Standards High as You Grow 239
Play #105: How to Retain Top Talent 242
Play #106: The Importance of Mahalo 244
Play #107: Foster Loyalty by Doing the Right Thing 246
Play #108: Challenge Your Best People with New Opportunities 247
Play #109: Solicit Employee Feedback-and Act On It 249
Play #110: Leverage Everything 252

The Final Play 255
Play #111: Make Everyone Successful 255

Notes 261
Acknowledgments 265
About the Authors 269
Index 271