Salesforce CEO ANZ Pip Marlow On Innovation And Community

It’s during times of crisis like this, we see the rise of innovation. Take China during the SARS epidemic. That’s when China’s strength in e-commerce really flourished. It’s also thanks to the last financial crisis that Shopify took off. Since its launch in 2006, Shopify has grown into a publicly-traded company with over 4,000 employees and $1 billion in revenue. Currently, we are seeing the rise in streaming due to increased global demand created by the coronavirus pandemic and the need to work from home.

Broadcasting business and even fashion events to a professional audience via web conference are becoming the norm. Giorgio Armani recently streamed his Milan Fashion Week runway show from inside an empty showroom. And similarly we saw Salesforce recently make the switch from a live event in Sydney to an online event out of pure necessity.

Health concerns for the communities caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus resulted in the World Tour Sydney space at the International Convention Centre being transformed from a public event into an online one.

It achieved this through a series of studios that recorded and live streamed over 100+ sessions, including over 60 customer and partner stories, across two online channels. This was then streamed across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Linkedin, reaching a staggering 1.2 million video viewers. 

More than 80,000 viewers tuned into the live-streamed event where it was forecast that ‘4.2m new jobs, $1.2 trillion in new business’ would be created by 2025 through Salesforce, the global leader in CRM.

Renata Bertram, Head of Marketing, Salesforce ANZ, said: “I’m so proud of our team who put our customers and our amazing Trailblazer community first and in just 10 business days reimagined the way we deliver our annual flagship event in Asia Pacific. We have never had so many people tune in to join us for a World Tour event and we are grateful there were 1.2 million online viewers across the day.”

Salesforce CEO ANZ Pip Marlow On The Power of Community

Pip Marlow used her first keynote speech as Salesforce CEO ANZ, to talk about the power of community. “I’ve been in this company now for five months and it is such a vibrant community,” she said in her address.

“We are a leader in innovation and that is fuelled by our belief that we have to keep creating and innovating so that we can help you be ahead of your customers’ expectations.

“We are a leader in philanthropy because we believe it is so important that we make a positive impact in the community that we share. And we are a leader in culture because when we create diverse and inclusive workforce’s we truly can solve the problems of the world.

“We are doing it together because the impact we are making is so much more than one company can do alone. That’s why we are really proud of what we call the Salesforce Economy. Creating jobs and opportunities on every corner of this planet.”

We are really proud of what we call the Salesforce Economy. Creating jobs and opportunities on every corner of this planet.

Pip Marlow, Salesforce CEO ANZ

Proud of the difference Salesforce can make, Pip described the importance of supporting a diverse range of communities including the LGBTQ community.

“I was personally proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with my colleagues, my friends, and my daughter as we represented Salesforce at the Mardi Gras here in Sydney,” she said. “It was just an incredible opportunity to support our LGBTQ community because we know that if we bring these opportunities to life, not just on a piece of paper, but if we live them and breathe them and invest in them that we know our business is truly a platform for change.”

Pip humanised what could have been death by statistics by paying tribute to individual employees such as John Watson, a volunteer for the Rural Fire Service and other trailblazers making a difference to their local community.

“When we were ravished by the recent fires, it’s been incredible to see the way we stepped up as a company,” Pip added. “Between the organisation and our founders Mark Benioff and his wife Lyn, we donated $750,000 to the Red Cross.”

In her keynote, Pip said Salesforce would create more than 1,500 new jobs across Australia and New Zealand during the coming 5 years.

Panel session included “Are sports a representation of how we’re doing as a society”, which featured inspirational global and local sports personalities like Billie Jean King, Craig Foster, Erin Molan, and Turia Pitt, as well as a panel with local business leaders on “Business as a platform for change”

To watch the Salesforce World Tour Reimagined Sydney sessions, click here: https://www.salesforce.com/au/video/