Entrepreneurs: Tien Tzuo on Learning from Marc Benioff
by Miki Saxon
Founders have a new, or should I say, back to the future, attitude regarding the success of their companies.
It can be summed up in one word: revenue.
While there are great examples and plenty of advice on generating revenue, as opposed to just growing users, I think these four lessons that Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora, the eleventh hire at Salesforce.Com and its first CMO, learned from Marc Benioff are worth keeping front and center in your mind (details are at the link.).
- Pitching is Listening.
- Run towards big ideas, not away.
- Never lose sight of your first principles.
- Tear Up the Master Plan.
Based on my experience, founders, especially younger founders, will have the most trouble with the first and the third in the list.
Pitching is Listening: whether driven by passion, nervousness or fear, most founders want to push their vision, their product, their ideas to potential customers.
Marc is always testing his ideas, testing his strategy, testing his vision. Marc is always in a mindset to listen, to observe, to understand, and it’s this discipline that allows him to always be in touch with the marketplace. It’s easy for people in his position to get disconnected and fall prey to myopic thinking.
Never lose sight of your first principles: it takes thought and a solid knowledge of oneself to identify core principles. Unfortunately, taking the time and spending the energy on such an ostensibly esoteric goal seems to happen less and less these days.
Try searching “invest in yourself” and you’ll find that most talk about adding skills, exploring/developing your creativity and maximizing physical and mental health.
That’s all good, but if you truly want to invest in yourself then set aside time to know yourself, i.e., your values and basic principles; the intangibles that make you you.
Image credit: Howard Lake
November 14th, 2016 at 8:26 pm
Very good post – listening is everything, to customers, employees, spouse, etc. Every time I've managed to do this (it's horrendously difficult and I am very challenged…) the results have been tremendous. People, in addition to informing me of things I've been ignorant of, feel heard and as a result become more loyal.
Listening is both an art and a science. Usually I'm too impatient, and too focused on my intentions. My question is, in what ways can I be more of a listener without wasting time?
November 15th, 2016 at 7:38 pm
You can't as long as you see it as wasting time.
The problem seems to be more that you want to know it will be productive <em>before</em> you take time to do it, which is like wanting a guarantee that the stock you buy will go up. Even due diligence won't always work, because it can keep you from listening to those on whom you have little data.
Of course you can't listen extensively to everyone, but you can learn to focus intently. It's surprising how specific people will be when they know you are actually listening. Acknowledge what they say in such a way they know you really heard them. If you are short of time, be honest and say so; if you need more time for the subject arrange a specific time to continue.