Technology
Marc Benioff, the billionaire Salesforce co-founder and co-chief executive officer, has a message for the leaders of big tech: You’re thinking too small. Below is Jasmine Boyce’s nbcnews insight about tech mogul’s views on the necessary change in tech.
“I believe that business is the greatest platform for change,” Benioff said. “This is a more important time to have a positive global impact than ever.”Benioff said that big tech’s leaders needed to shift from a money-centric worldview to one that focuses on civic improvement, calling out Facebook in particular as having a negative impact.
“Facebook is the new cigarettes,” Benioff said. “You know it’s addictive. It’s not good for you… Facebook can have very serious effects on society the same way that cigarettes can.”
Benioff is ranked No. 259 on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index with a net worth around $5.8 billion. He helped found Salesforce in 1999, building the company into one of the biggest providers of cloud-based business software. In September, he bought Time magazine for $190 million and pledged to a “steward” of the publication.
During the interview, Benioff reiterated his support of Prop C, the legislative measure adopted by San Franciscans during the 2018 midterms that taxes tech companies in order to provide funding to address the city’s rising homeless population.
Benioff added that he was disappointed by the lack of support from other tech executives at first.
“I had the rabbis and the imams and all that helping me,” Benioff said. “But there were no CEOs on my side. I was the only CEO. Now they’re coming out and it’s really helpful.”
“And that is a message, by the way, not just for every tech company,” Benioff stated. “It’s for every company which is, you know, we’re in a trust revolution.”