Book SummaryTrailblazer, by Marc Benioff and Monica Langley

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Trailblazer

The capitalism that powered the 20th century is under increasing scrutiny because spiraling inequality, environmental destruction, and rampant corporate greed have shattered public trust. In Trailblazer (2019), Marc Benioff argues that the time has come for a conscious revolution in business—and that his company, Salesforce, is leading the way forward. By practicing principled business, a business model that prioritizes key ideals over profits, Salesforce has committed itself to making the world a better place, and Benioff believes that this way of doing business represents the future of capitalism.

Benioff is a renowned businessman and philanthropist. In addition to co-founding and serving as CEO of...

Trailblazer Summary Salesforce Is a Principled Business

Benioff says that Salesforce became a Fortune 500 company by practicing principled business. In this section, we’ll describe the philosophy behind the principled business model that Benioff says launched Salesforce to success.

(Shortform note: Benioff is listed as Trailblazer’s co-author alongside Monica Langley, a former journalist at the Wall Street Journal who joined Salesforce in 2017. But because the book is written from Benioff’s first-person perspective, we’ll refer to him alone as the author throughout the guide.)

What Is a Principled Business?

According to Benioff, the best approach to business is to place moral principles at the forefront of organizational decision-making. We’ll call this model principled business. In this model, profit isn’t the sole driving force; instead, it’s balanced with a commitment to social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and internal fairness and equity. Principled business is a form of stakeholder capitalism (an economic perspective that says your company has an ethical duty to uplift everyone...

Trailblazer Summary Why Benioff Believes in Principled Business

Now that you understand what a principled business is, let’s discuss the reasons Benioff advocates for the business model. In this section, we’ll explain how principled business leads to business success and solves modern global challenges.

How Principled Business Benefits Everybody

Benioff credits Salesforce’s immense financial success to its practice of principled business. To support this belief, he cites a variety of statistical evidence: For example, one survey shows that customers are more likely to approve of (and therefore buy from) companies that demonstrate social and environmental responsibility.

(Shortform note: This trend has held fast since Trailblazer’s 2019 publication: In 2023, experts shared that consumers are more likely to buy products whose labels claim their makers exercised social and environmental responsibility, especially when more than one such claim is made. But consumers’ preference for principled products is mediated by their budgetary limitations: As post-pandemic inflation shrinks consumers’ spending power, they’re more likely to seek out affordable products, and data suggests [they may not be willing or able to pay a premium for more...

Trailblazer Summary How Salesforce Practices Principled Business

According to Benioff, to achieve the benefits we just discussed, it’s not enough for a company to simply have principles—it must also practice those principles consistently and benefit all its stakeholders. In this section, we’ll explain how Salesforce practices principled business in two ways: by prioritizing its principles ahead of all else when it comes to organizational decisions and by meeting the needs of three oft-forgotten stakeholders: employees, society, and the environment.

How Salesforce Foregrounds Its Principles

As we mentioned earlier, Salesforce prioritizes four key moral principles: service, advancement, inclusivity, and confidence. Let’s discuss how the company has translated each of these principles into action over its history.

How Salesforce Provides Service

One of Benioff’s primary motivations to start Salesforce was to serve customers’ needs. He explains that as a child, he watched his father work tirelessly to manage the clothing business he owned—so as an adult, he endeavored to make business management easier, less time-consuming, and less expensive by providing software that could do much of the legwork. He was also inspired to...

Shortform Exercise: Encourage More Principled Business Practices

Benioff explains that Salesforce practices what we’ve called principled business: a form of stakeholder capitalism that places moral principles at the forefront of organizational decision-making. In this exercise, you’ll think of ways to encourage more principled business practices.

Think about a company you’re connected to as a leader, employee, or customer. What moral principles does it prioritize acting on?