“There would be no Salesforce without Larry Ellison,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. “I am absolutely indebted to him. I am very grateful to him. We’re very close friends. Larry has a huge vision for the world. He is an incredible executive. You should never sell Larry Ellison short. Everyone in the world knows that.”

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, says that without Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison there would be no Salesforce:

There Would Be No Salesforce Without Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison is my mentor. He was my first investor at Salesforce. He was my first Board member. There would be no Salesforce without Larry Ellison. I am absolutely indebted to him. I am very grateful to him. We’re very close friends. Larry has a huge vision for the world. He is an incredible executive. You should never sell Larry Ellison short. Everyone in the world knows that. I don’t understand everything that’s going on. But wow, I’m so impressed by seeing them and everyone else make these aggressive moves.

I’m mostly worried about the companies that aren’t making aggressive moves. I’m calling CEOs who are friends of mine, who are in paralysis and who aren’t making moves. I’m saying look you’ve got to get into participation. You’ve got to get out of paralysis and into participation. You have to become relevant. Larry Ellison is the master of relevance. This is a move to make him relevant. This is so important. He’s giving you a master class in relevance.

Participation, Relevance, and Enablement

You have to enable your organization in new ways. We’re having weekly all-hands calls with tens of thousands of employees every single week. We haven’t done that since we were a startup because we have to enable people in new ways. These ideas, participation, relevance, and enablement. This is what we have to be focused on if we’re going to accelerate and go forward. Then we have to deliver the tactical plays and success stories to make it happen.

Some companies are making that happen and some companies are just sitting back and being too passive. You’ve got to look at both of these organizations.