Steve Gillmor is joining Salesforce.com. Apparently he is a direct CEO appointment (cool or what?) Is that a big deal? Yes it is. Steve is a lightning rod for many things. He’s been 100% relentless in his promotion of Twitter while at the same time bemoaning the company’s failure to get ‘track’ working.
Steve is a deep thinker and not to everyone’s taste. So what? Revolutionary people are rarely acknowledged for their thinking, foresight or anything else for that matter. Deep thinking requires attention and in the current world of permanent ADD that’s not necessarily a trait people wish to endure.
I’m sitting on the Salesforce.com sidelines most of the time. I like what they’re attempting to do but I am not sure it will be acceptable to the majority of companies looking to achieve breakthrough value. At least not yet.
On the video, Steve says he’s going to help SFdC understand media. Bleh…it’s a much bigger play than that. I called Steve up but as usual he was both coy and enigmatic about his new role.
Some of my ZDNet colleagues have been derisory about this appointment. That’s beyond foolish - that’s retarded thinking. Steve brings a breath of revolutionary freshness to SFdC it badly needs. After all, even if you see Salesforce as delivering value, that would miss the point they are working on 10+ year old technology. If Steve manages to get them thinking about that topic alone then he will have delivered. If Steve manages to get them to truly understand the process related value that Chatter delivers then he deserves all the kudos he will get.
Salesforce.com: good catch
Steve: keep pushing the revolutionary boundaries
