Jan 22, 2019 By Jeff Elder

Day One: Salesforce Highlights from Davos

in Events, News

Marc Benioff Discusses Crisis of Trust

“We are navigating through a crisis of trust," Salesforce Chairman and co-CEO Marc Benioff said in a CNBC interview at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. He called on CEOs to be more accountable, ranging from handling abuse of their data to confronting social issues such as homelessness. "If they are abusing their product or abusing the data that they are collecting, those CEOs need to wake and realize they can’t do that anymore--this is a new day,” he said.

CEOs need to be more vigilant about avoiding doing damage with technology, Benioff added.“You’re going to see more of that as AI gets further unleashed. The ‘techlash’ could get amplified, if CEOs don’t make change now.” Read more on The Salesforce Newsroom.

Cindy Robbins Talks About Addressing the Gender Pay Gap

Cindy Robbins, Salesforce President and Chief People, spoke with the BBC about addressing the gender gap in tech. Salesforce has now done its gender pay audit three times, last year also looking at race and ethnicity. "We're trying to get better at it every year. Unless you can say your processes are perfect, it will never be completely solved," the BBC quoted Robbins as saying. As well as the annual pay audit, the firm now collects figures on the gender split of promotions and new hires. Read more on the BBC.

Two great thinkers on keeping tech humane. Amy Weaver Amy Weaver, Salesforce’s President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, and Tony Prophet, the Chief Equality Officer at Salesforce listen to participants in the roundtable they hosted Tuesday on the ethical and humane use of technology.

Amy Weaver: Trust is the Top Issue

Amy Weaver, Salesforce’s President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, told EY News that “Trust is the No. 1 issue on everyone’s mind” at Davos this year. Europe’s General Data Privacy Regulations changed everything related to trust and data, she said. Salesforce saw the legal changes as an opportunity to put the customer in the center of how their data is handled. “Establishing trust can be very difficult,” she said. “It can also be very easy.” Doing what you say you will do as a company is the key. Watch the interview.

Tony Prophet on Ethics in Tech

“Technology is not inherently good or bad – it's what we do with it that matters," writes Salesforce Chief Equality Officer Tony Prophet in a post of WEF’s blog about Salesforce's multi-stakeholder approach to ethics and technology. “We convened multi-stakeholder dialogues with business leaders, academics, and society leaders to discuss how we could work together to chart a path forward.” Read more on the WEF blog. What's Coming Tomorrow? • Making Digital Globalization Inclusive, panel with Keith Block  • Taking Action for the Ocean, panel with Marc Benioff • Trust in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, panel with Keith Block.

Did you know CFOs take selfies? For the fourth year at Davos, Salesforce CFO Mark Hawkins (doing the selfie honors) hosted a closed door conversation with a group of influential CFOs — last year, the 30 CFOs who participated were collectively responsible for more than $1.5 trillion dollars in market cap.