In this episode, Suzanne DiBianca talks about pioneering the 1-1-1 model of integrated corporate philanthropy and the efforts she’s leading to create a sustainable future at Salesforce, from growing 1 trillion trees to energizing the ecopreneur revolution.
Meet Suzanne DiBianca, the EVP of Corporate Relations and Chief Impact Officer at Salesforce, and the former president of the Salesforce Foundation and Salesforce.org. In this episode, Suzanne talks about pioneering the 1-1-1 model of integrated corporate philanthropy and Salesforce's efforts to create a sustainable future – from growing 1 trillion trees to energizing the ecopreneur revolution.
Quote
“Start small and find out what people are passionate about and lift them up. Don't wait to work on the climate - we need all hands on deck.”
Episode Timestamps:
*(1:29) - Ohana Origins: Meet Suzanne DiBianca
*(8:31) - What Does the Ohana mean to Suzanne?
*(11:36) - What’s Cooking: Suzanne’s Current Role at Salesforce
*(19:12) - Future Forecast: What’s in Store for the Salesforce Foundation?
*(21:23) - Advice for Aspiring Philanthropists
*(21:59) - Lightning Round!
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[00:01:28] Dan: Welcome to Inside the Ohana. I'm Dan Darcy, chief customer officer at Qualified. And today I'm joined by my great friend, Suzanne DiBianca, Suzanne, how are you?
[00:01:38] Suzanne: I'm good. Dan's great to be here.
[00:01:39] Dan: Good, good. Well, I wanna dive right into our first segment. Ohana Origins. How did you discover Salesforce?
[00:01:52] Suzanne: I had breakfast with a friend. I said, I think I really wanna run a foundation. You know, I'm coming from a technology company. We did it at our small little firm.
[00:02:02] It made a huge difference to our culture. It'd be really cool to sort of mash up my technology expertise with this philanthropic work that I'm committed to. And then she had dinner that night with mark Benioff, who said, you don't really wanna start a foundation as I'm starting this new company. And she said, you know, I'd represen somebody and be amazing for you.
[00:02:22] And so the recruiter at the time was a woman named Nancy Cony, who I had. Well, I knew a little bit from college. I'd spent a couple jazz fests with in fact, and so went in for an interview and it was the.com boom. And I fo I followed a lot of sort of blank ends. And this one, you know, mark had a bank balance and a stack of legal documents and said, let's go, wanna create a new kind of a company.
[00:02:46] Dan: What was your initial impression of Salesforce? Overall?
[00:02:49] Suzanne: This whole idea of software as a service was really new. And I thought it was a super bold vision. Someone who had just come out of CSE consulting and done a lot of Oracle implementations in my time and all the things and. I thought it was a great model and it was really innovative.
[00:03:08] And, you know, I thought the CEO had a, had a really incredible vision and was really willing to swim upstream to make it happen.
[00:03:17] Dan: I want you to take a little bit here and brag because you've had an amazing career since 2001 at Salesforce. What's one of the biggest successes that you are really most proud.
[00:03:30] Suzanne: I think, honestly, the biggest successes is companies like qualified companies, like Okta companies, you know, like Twilio that I've had the Zora that I've had the opportunity to know those CEOs. And they really embraced, like, you know, you did in your many years at Salesforce, this whole idea, and then went out and started their own.
[00:03:50] You know, and just this kind of ripple, this stone that we threw has had incredible ripples and, you know, pledge bump percent now has, you know, 10,000 companies that have raised their hand and said, we're gonna give a percent of our equity and our people and our products to improve the state of the world.
[00:04:08] And that's. Super cool. You know, they've given a billion, actually. I was just looking at the numbers closer to 2 billion now in net new philanthropy that was created as a result of starting that effort. So, you know, we just created a playbook and people like you took it. So I'm super grateful for that.
[00:04:27] Dan: I mean, talk a little bit about that. What are some of the challenges that you experienced as you kind of brought that philosophy to Salesforce and really to the tech world?
[00:04:37] Suzanne: Yeah. You know, I think that it all started through the 1, 1, 1 model, which was just me going out and surveying other companies that I liked and respected, like Levi.
[00:04:47] Dan: Can you explain the 1, 1, 1 model to everyone out there. And I know a lot of people do know this in the Ohana, but not everyone.
[00:04:51] Suzanne: So, but it was essentially, you know, 1% of our equity. So we put 1% of our pre I P stock into a foundation that then funded our work. For a lot of years, we were able to do that with Google.
[00:05:05] We, I went down there, mark and I joked that this was the best three days of my job, maybe, which was going down and working with their exec team before their IPO. They put a percent of their equity aside and it went from zero to a billion dollars on day one. , which is pretty amazing. So percent of your equity for a percent of employees, time, we give six paid days and then a percent of our products.
[00:05:26] So, you know, at least 1% of our customers will be free customers. And we put together a whole program for nonprofits and how Salesforce could help them. So 1% of equity, 1% of time, 1% people have now, you know, fast forward a million years have changed it. Some. Profit 1% for the planet, which I'm really interested in adding.
[00:05:45] So, you know, it's sort of manifested in different companies in different ways, but the equity is the most important for a startup. The people are second, most important, I think of your product. So depending on what you do. So when I kind of went back on this industry scan, you know, eBay has been the first one to put equity aside.
[00:06:02] And I told mark that, and Cisco did incredible step of product donation, especially like in disaster release areas with their technology. And then Hasbro really did a phenomenal job on volunteerism. So we smashed them all together and said, you know, we wanna take it in an integrated way. And that's where one, one came from now.
[00:06:23] Dan: Thinking back on your career at Salesforce, what would you say is one of your biggest lessons learned.
[00:06:29] Suzanne: I think a couple things. One is it's incredibly. I always say to anyone I'm interviewing that to be successful at Salesforce, you have to be able to toggle two. Totally. The opposite things, two dichotomies at the same time, one is you have to be incredibly focused and really know what you're doing. Have clear metrics around it.
[00:06:49] And alongside of that, you have to be okay with wild ambiguity, and innovation. So like, if you can't hold those two things simultaneously, I've learned like you can't be successful at a company like Salesforce. Who's thinking about innovation and scale at the same time. The second thing is the importance of being the other dichotomy, being like being able to be highly strategic and radically operational, you know, there's no I've been here a long time.
[00:07:20] In some cases I do my own deck. They're not pretty, but , you know, to be able to kind of roll up your sleeves and like do the work and not just be strategic. So you'll fail at Salesforce if you can't hold those two dichotomies simultaneously. And so I kind of think I learned how to be a leader in that environment.
[00:07:39] Dan: Creating a big vision and then getting into the weeds and rolling up your sleeves to actually translate that vision into actionable reality. Yeah. Results. So if you could go back, you know, in time to. Suzanne 2001, just starting out. What advice would you give yourself?
[00:08:00] Suzanne: Ask for more money? Just talk more budget, more budget. Exactly. Yeah. I think, you know, I'm a big fan frankly of women advocating for their self. Particularly as it relate to compensation, it's not a strength of ours generally, you know, but that said it's about the budget at the time was sort of funny cuz we had no people.
[00:08:23] Not much product and no equity, that was worth anything. So we had to figure out how to make impact in that context.
[00:08:31] Dan: I wanna ask you about the meaning of Ohana. And I asked this of all my guests because everyone really describes it a little bit differently. And when I talk to folks, it's hard to describe the Ohana. How would you describe the Ohana and what does it really mean to you?
[00:08:45] Suzanne: Well, for me, you know, Ohana means family. It's the origin of the word, but for me, what it means is that we have each other's. Fundamentally that you're putting the team forward against the individual that you've, you know, you might not be it full agreement, but you're willing to get aligned and to have someone's total back.
[00:09:06] And so for me, Ohana means like, you know, I got you quite honestly. And I'll, and I'll work with you to make, you know, something more than we could make sort of on our own individually, but kind of looking out for the pack if you will.
[00:09:22] Dan: I love it. Now, before we get into our next segment, are there any special stories or Ohana moments that are a little behind the scenes that you'd like to share with.
[00:09:30] Suzanne: Oh, there's like a million. I think one that's just top of mind because we work with a, we've worked with a group called the arc in San Francisco people with different abilities and we just lost our first arc employee who just passed away. Incredible human 20 years with the company, did everything from cleaning the whiteboards to making coffee, to walking.
[00:09:52] The golden retriever to helping conference rooms. The aha moment for me, there was the way that our employees looked after him. And even actually after they left the company, they would take him fishing on the weekends. You know, they gave him relationship advice and there was like a, they organized the whole.
[00:10:12] Service like from just start to finish, like they had his back, like a thousand percent as a human, and I'll just never forget a time when he was in the hospital. He actually had both of his legs amputated during his time at Salesforce. And he drove around the silk cart and used to deliver candy to people and always with a smile.
[00:10:31] And I went to the hospital to see him and I brought my daughter and I had made some banana bread for him. And it was around the holiday. And first of all, there was a whole schedule that they had, some employees had put together to like sign up to visit Michael. So he wasn't lonely. And I was like, where, you know, I'm here to visit this person, where is his room?
[00:10:53] And the nurses smiled and just looked at each other and said, just go down the hallway, make a right. And you'll see it. So I go down in the hospi, the very white, you know, Like, you know, sterile hospital and I make a right. Yeah. And at the end of the hallway, I see this like pulsating room, like these lights, this flashing, and I get down there and like people there had been like whole group of employees that day who had decorated his room with Christmas lights and a Christmas tree and all these holiday lights and there was flowers and gifts and it was like the brightest.
[00:11:27] In the hospital for sure. And so anyway, that for me, those are it's the employees that really give of themselves. I think that demonstrates Ohana.
[00:11:36] Dan: I get chills because that is exactly a perfect Ohana moment. It reminds me, you know, of the art employee that we were affectionately hanging out with all the time to Maria McGovern and, you know, Craig schul taking her out to McDonald's for lunch every once in a while with Mike Rosenbaum.
[00:11:52] I mean, those are really special moments where. To your point where we've got each other's back and are taking care of each other. So I wanna get into our next segment. What's cooking. You are now the EVP of corporate relations and the chief impact officer at Salesforce. I would love for you to talk about how you got to where you are now and what your journey has been like in this current role.
[00:12:21] Suzanne: You know, it was a role that we sort of invented. Interestingly, there's like now ton of people with the same title and it kind of means different things in different companies.
[00:12:29] And for us, it was, you know, my journey was I ran the foundation for eight years as a strict. Sort of straight nonprofit, charitable giving a lot of focus on volunteerism and grant product in particular, but then I built business units. So then I spent the next kind of eight years running a PNL and I built the.org team up to, you know, about 200 million in revenue with a couple focused on a couple markets.
[00:12:55] And then I kind of needed another challenge. So I, you know, kind of pitched to our CEO. I said, you know, we do, it was after what, with the work we had done with equal pay led. You know, our friends Le Laska and Cindy Robbins and the work that we started to do around equality specific to the Indiana case, where we went to bat, uh, Congress for equality in non discrimination against folks that were homosexual and.
[00:13:23] Looked around the company and said, we could do so much. We are doing so much more. As it relates to a business is a platform for change. And yet the only people who can really talk about that holistically are the CEO is, are marketing me. So I think we need actually a strategy. We need a bigger strategy for the company about what it really means to be a platform for change.
[00:13:41] We need to pull all those pieces together. I wanna do some other things, look around the company and see where else we could be driving impact. So I looked at the ventures fund and I said, could I have the $150 million off the balance sheet so I can invest in entrepreneurs and that's been wildly successful.
[00:13:58] And then climate, I just kind of looked around at the world and said, what's happening. And. You know, we really have a decade to keep to a 1.5 degree temperature rise, and we're now two and a half years into it. So we, you know, it's a problem that has a clock against it. And I sort of thought we really need to be doing a lot more as it relates to helping mitigate climate change.
[00:14:22] Dan: Why don't you talk a little bit more about that? And, you know, I know Salesforce announced, you know, one of their now core values really is around sustainability and really giving back what is obviously the main. Projects that you are working on, you know, for Salesforce in the, the entire ecosystem.
[00:14:39] Suzanne: When we add a value, we really operationalize it, which is what I love about it.
[00:14:44] I don't think we'll add another one for a long time. So, um, what we're really focused on. So I'm super excited because what that means is that everyone in the company. or at least I asked and I hope that everyone in the company is doing something now to help on that value, whether it's personal, whether it's professional, et cetera.
[00:15:02] So the three things the company is working on is net zero now. Getting all of our customers to net zero, I built a little product cuz I needed it to manage and measure sales versus carbon footprint. And there was nothing good in the market. So we've packaged up. We've built it really surged investment.
[00:15:22] I've moved it into the product organization and really focus on helping get all of our customers to net zero. A lot of people have made targets, but don't actually know where to start or how to measure it. So I'm really excited to take our technology and drive net zero home Salesforce today is net zero.
[00:15:38] We're powered by a hundred percent renewable energy. All of our customers, all of our, like, you know, everyone using Salesforce, it's a green product. We offset, you know, whatever. The energy it takes to run software. So net zero down, number one, number 2 trillion trees. Because just like we have to reduce emissions, we've gotta get all the carbon that's in the air out.
[00:16:00] And so really focused on nature based solutions as a way to do that. Also love trees because it really is aligned to like our equality value, cuz it, you can be on whatever side of the political aisle, whatever age, whatever country. It's a really inclusive program. And so it's cool. So focused on trillion trees.
[00:16:19] And then lastly is eco entrepreneurs. So I talked a little bit about the venture fund that I run is one way we're looking for eco printers, but just all over the place. How can we be finding all these entrepreneurs working clean energy? And carbon reduction technologies. And how can we really put wind in their sales, through our technology, through our people, through our resources.
[00:16:37] Dan: Those are all incredible. And so I'm curious what challenges with those things that you are, those initiatives of the net zero, the trillion tree and the entrepreneurs of those initiatives. What challenges are you seeing with that and how are you applying what you learned at Salesforce to those challenges?
[00:16:56] Suzanne: Yeah, I think, you know, one thing is when you're standing up a new product, you really have to listen to customer feedback.
[00:17:02] And in this area, the customers need so many different things. So if you're a manufacturer or say you're a, a C CPG company, like a Pepsi or a Coke, you're thinking a lot about water and how that really plays into your environmental footprint, especially in places with extreme drought, et cetera. But if you're a Volkswagen, you're thinking about circular economy and supply.
[00:17:23] So I think a challenge is really this product is incredible that we're building. And we also know we need to do industry specific solutions. And so that focus that those calls on prioritization are task. . And so, you know, one of the ways that we're thinking about it is like, how do we bring partners and the ecosystem in to build industry specific apps or to build, you know, connectors.
[00:17:48] Some of these customers really want ESG data, not just environment, but they want all of it. So, you know, I think there is places that the ecosystem can really build out solutions and we can stay really focused on, you know, carbon water waste or sort of the three things we're focused on in particular. So that's just kind of one example.
[00:18:06] Dan: So Suze, what is next for you and how are you shaping the future?
[00:18:09] Suzanne: I'm thinking a lot about acceleration. I thinking a lot about scale. Like this is a problem that hits every human it's gonna hit our kids in particular. So I gotta really look at what works and help get to scale. I'm not thinking in an incremental way.
[00:18:23] I'm always looking for new innovation, but I'm really looking for. How, you know, it's like when I took this job, one of the first things I did is said like a 20, 40 target, a 20, 30 target for net zero is way too far. Like we gotta do it now. We gotta do like do it now, like this year. So I'm, you know, I'm just thinking a lot about how do we accelerate our customers on this journey?
[00:18:47] How can we invest and accelerate with them and our partners. We've just got when we were at Davos world economic forum and this trillion tree. That we helped to found and is not really being run as a consortium out of we, they just got China to pledge 60 billion trees against the trillion tree goal. So like where can we take really big swings in really tough places that is gonna drive impact?
[00:19:12] Dan: Let's get into our final segment, the future forecast. So, what do you envision as the future of the Salesforce ecosystem?
[00:19:28] Suzanne: I think it's along these lines of industry enablement. I think that's really powerful, really solving problems from our customers that, you know, our Salesforce is not gonna solve. I think, you know, also I'm gonna call out the ecosystem that has been incredible in our ability to multiply.
[00:19:44] Impact. So, you know, hire veterans take a percent of your equity, you know, put it aside for your community before your IPO. There's a way to do it. I'm happy to work with your founders to make it work over time. and, you know, do what you can to be a company that looks after people and, you know, has their back and hires people that need a shot that don't have traditional resumes and give your folks some.
[00:20:10] Space to innovate outside their day job. So anyway, I think that it's just, again, I'm in this kind of acceleration scale mindset, and I think that applies very ecosystem too.
[00:20:20] Dan: Can you give us a prediction of what you think sustainability is gonna look like in the future?
[00:20:26] Suzanne: I'm like a hopeful person. So I just think we're gonna see more climate related and disasters, but I do think that people are gonna, I think solar is going to is already taking off the electrification of the grid is happening.
[00:20:39] The tion of cars has happened in California. You won't be, they won't be able to sell a non-electric car in 2030, like it's good. We're gonna be, we're gonna be living off the grid. And I. The pandemic, at least for me really helped me remember the importance of nature and biodiversity and species sauce and food ecosystem.
[00:21:00] So I think we're gonna return to more of a balance for sure. We have to.
[00:21:03] Dan: What does the future of Salesforce look like?
[00:21:06] Suzanne: Oh, Salesforce is just gonna continue on its journey to be the best digital headquarters. You know, for any customer, the technology transformation that we can provide, particularly as it relates to driving efficiency, getting closer to your customer. I think we're just gonna continue to innovate and do that more at scale.
[00:21:23] Dan: So Suz, do you have any advice for anyone and our listeners out there who have aspirations to start a foundation or. You know, they wanna make a difference in the world. What advice would you have for them?
[00:21:34] Suzanne: Well, I would say, first of all, probably don't start a foundation quite honestly, there's a whole bunch of better ways you could do a–at the tides foundation, a whole bunch of other stuff that takes the legal and all the headache out of it. If the message would be, do something and start small and, you know, find out like me, find out what people are passionate about and lift them up, you know, don't wait. And work on climate. Yeah. It's like we need all hands on deck.
[00:21:59] Dan: That’s sage advice. So before letting you go, let's have fun with a quick lightning round. Are you ready for this?
[00:22:11] Suzanne: I'm ready for it.
[00:22:12] Dan: Okay. Favorite product? Not Salesforce.
[00:22:17] Suzanne: Spotify.
[00:22:19] Dan: Good. Classic or lightning?
[00:22:21] Suzanne: Lightning, of course. Lightning.
Dan: Favorite Salesforce, character?
Suzanne: Cody, the bear.
Dan: Favorite brand of anything also besides Salesforce?
[00:22:28] Suzanne: Should I say Yeti? Yeah. Is the best, it's not mine. It's uh, favorite brand would be.. God I'm so not a brand person. Uh, Amazon, I use a lot of Amazon
[00:22:44] Dan: Secret skill that is not on the resume.
[00:22:47] Suzanne: I could whistle super loud.
[00:22:48] Dan: You just run front row seats to tickets of your dream event. What is that event?
[00:22:54] Suzanne: It's one of two, there's two rock icons that are still alive, that I really wanna see that I haven't seen yet. And they are so either tickets to see the rolling stones or Paul McCartney.
[00:23:05] Dan: Love it. Suzanne, this has been so much fun, but before I let you go, I let the listeners know where they can find you. And is there anything else you would like to share or plug?
[00:23:12] Suzanne: You can find on LinkedIn and I don't think so. I think we talked about a lot again. I think it's just, I guess maybe the last thing I'll share is one of the, one of the upsides of the pandemic for me is that like mental health is not a dirty word.
[00:23:30] And everybody went through something or knew someone who went through something and people are still struggling and it's still weird times, but what I found over. The course of the journey here is like the best antidepressant ever is not like a pill or a program it's being of service to and doing something beyond yourself.
[00:23:47] So I don't know if you're a, if you're in a place or know someone's in a place like, you know, getting them to volunteer is a way to just get happy and healthy again. So it's not really a Salesforce message plug, but it's just something that I learned and I think is still true in the world. And I just encourage people to get out there.
[00:24:05] Dan: I, I love it. Thank you Suzanne so much for your time today.