Patrick Shaw’s Weblog

(You can read Dreamforce Part One on my blog, too)

The other big news at Dreamforce this year resonates with my work in the nonprofit sector. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, has always been vocal about his philanthropic efforts, and coined a term for how to implement  -it’s the 1-1-1 model  - each 1 represents a percentage of what Salesforce is giving away:

• Time
• Equity
• Product

So  -it was pretty terrific to be in a room with 9,000 other folks, and to have the two keynotes (Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org, and Malcolm Gladwell, author of "Blink", "The Tipping Point" and a write for the New Yorker magazine) focus on the importance of corporate philanthropy and thinking in a new way.

Larry Brilliant was first up, and ended his presentation "today is a good day to save the world".  Along the way, he talked about how Google.org has adopted a similar model as Salesforce.com (1-1-1) and highlighted some of the ways that Google is making a difference. Key to their success is leveraging what they know about technology - so it’s no surprise that some of their mapping tools have been put to use to spot early outbreaks of disease.

He was articulate, passionate, and- best of all - optimistic about the future. And, in an echo of some of the remarks made by Marc Benioff - he stated that ideas, flexibility, and entrepreneurship are as important as giving money.

He received a standing ovation when he was done speaking, which I found delightful - I’d have expected that at a nonprofit event - but at an event evangelizing tools to help you better connect with customers?

Malcolm Gladwell followed. In a quirk of coincidence, I had coffee with him about an hour before his presentation, and he cheerfully provided a quick overview. It’s connected to his newest book, which hits the shelves in two weeks.

In any case, he was equally eloquent, and outlined three areas where as a community we miss the mark on maximizing human potential, or as he calls it in his book, capitalization. (I’m paraphrasing here - I was listening and not taking notes, and the book isn’t out yet!)

• Economics matter
• Stupidity does too
• Hard work matters most of all

In the first instance, sometimes it is simple economics that prevent people from reaching their potential, or what Gladwell describes as their human capitalization. He highlights a community he visited where no boys went to high school. Turns out they had to cross a gang line to get there - so they just didn’t go. It IS economics.

And in the second case, he highlighted how many of our rules (when you are eligible for playing on a soccer team for instance) and how that date factor appears to be the biggest contributor to success on soccer - not talent.

And in the final example, he told us about the hard work of Kenyan distance runners - and how maximizing effort (in this case a million kids running 10-12 miles a day) has produced most of the greatest distance runners of all time.

Gladwell also received a standing ovation, and well deserved. He closed by exhorting us to examine how economics, paying attention to rule making (and the assumptions we have about such items) and  most of all to hard work  -could make the world a better place by maximizing potential for more people.

All told, it was a pretty terrific 90 minutes.