Bret Taylor, president and chief product officer at Salesforce, opened the conference highlighting consumer trust and what organisations must do to address it
The world is experiencing a crisis of trust as digital and the fourth industrial revolution disrupt industries and jobs. And it's the way organisations harness technology for customer good that will get us through it.
That's the view of Salesforce president and chief product officer, Bret Taylor, who alluded to the crisis of trust globally as part of his keynote at the Salesforce World Tour in Sydney on 6 March.
“There is unprecedented disruption in industries at the moment, but instead of risk, business leaders are seeing opportunities to redefine the customer experience,” Taylor told attendees.
“Technologies don’t exist for technology’s sake, behind every one is a customer. Technology only exists to make our lives better, and to make your customers’ lives better.
"The promise of the fourth industrial revolution is it has given us new tools that were previously science fiction to create customer experiences that are absolutely mind blowing."
In the face of these transformative changes, Taylor said the number one value at Salesforce is trust. "Twenty years ago, we had to convince people to store their data in the cloud, that took a lot of trust," he said.
"Now, trust is the number one thing CEOs want to talk to us about. With the GDPR, the rapidly shifting expectations of consumers and how companies use their data, plus the impact of social media on society, it is
The comments came as Salesforce announced a $50 million Australian Trailblazer Fund to empower AUstralian startups in the vendor's ecosystem. Funded by Salesforce Ventures, the company's global corporate investment group, the Australia Trailblazer Fund is about deepening commitment to the region by investing in local innovation and inspiring Australian entrepreneurs to create next generation technology that drives customer success across industries.
“Digital transformation is impacting businesses around the world and companies need to innovate faster and smarter to meet customer expectations today,” said John Somorjai, EVP of corporate development and Salesforce Ventures, in a statement. “Salesforce Ventures recognises the incredible opportunity to invest in Australian entrepreneurs to create world-class start-ups that will grow the opportunity within the Salesforce ecosystem and deliver customer success.”
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Simon Birmingham, who attended the launch in Sydney, said initiatives such as the Trailblazer Fund provide the valuable support and investment needed for startups to scale, employ Australians, and see their great ideas become great businesses.
"We're so thrilled make this commitment to Australia. Australia has a healthy disrespect for the rules and conventions to think outside the square and this is what has enabled some of the great innovations of our time," he said.
"To succeed in a country of Australia's size, we have to be outward looking and I encourage everyone to collaborate and take advantage of the opportunities that this and others provide.
"I congratulate Salesforce on its commitment to Australia with the launch of this new fund, and look forward to seeing the home grown start-ups it supports scale and succeed at home and internationally,” Birmingham said.
Salesforce also used the local conference to officially launched myTrailhead, a learning experience platform, in the Australian market. With myTrailhead, organisations can skill up employees at scale with a reinvented approach to learning that is customisable to their brand and personalised for every employee, Taylor said during his presentation.
As previously reported by CMO, Salesforce is positioning the fourth industrial revolution as bringing an incredible wave of new innovations from artificial intelligence to robotics. With technology changing so rapidly, companies need to look beyond traditional, one-size-fits-all education platforms and seek out new approaches to learning.
With myTrailhead, companies can combine the power of Trailhead, Salesforce’s personal learning cloud, with their own brand, the company said. Using the guided set-up, companies can pull in their existing content (including videos or presentations), create custom new content, or use the existing free, public Trailhead content to create their own culture of learning. Employees can learn what they want, when they want, and managers have visibility into their organisation’s existing skill sets and areas for improvement.
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