Salesforce is the No. 1 provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software in the world.  Its flagship Customer 360 platform is designed to help businesses identify prospects, close deals, service customers and drive future growth.

The firm was founded in 1999 in a small San Francisco apartment when four founders got together to launch a CRM system with a groundbreaking twist—it would be hosted on the internet and sold by subscription. This model, dubbed “software as a service,” quickly spread across the industry.

This firm’s innovation strategy revolves strictly around feature demands from its worldwide customer base. New features include, for example, enabling all-digital, work-from-anywhere features in response to the pandemic, the full integration of Slack, acquired in 2021, to create virtual “headquarters,” and smart AI tools for predicting customer behavior. While Salesforce relies on the usual trademarks, patents and trade secrets protections, at times it will make select intellectual property broadly available at no or low cost to achieve strategic objectives, such as promoting industry standards or advancing open-source development. Using Salesforce’s Trailblazer learning community, nearly four million people have transformed their careers to gain skills for the predicted 9.3 million jobs that the Salesforce economy is expected to create by 2026.

Last year, by using renewable energy and purchasing equivalents, Salesforce achieved net zero emissions. The firm employs more than 73,000 people.

As of 6/30/22, Salesforce was not held in the Knowledge Leaders Strategy.