Alone Atop the Salesforce Castle

Leadership turnover and slowing growth plague the software giant

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Bret Taylor was supposed to be the future of Salesforce Inc. In his rapid ascent to co-chief executive officer, he led major acquisitions and product rollouts, and managed relationships with Salesforce’s most important clients. He did all this while sparring with Elon Musk in his side gig as board chairman of Twitter Inc.

Most of the C-suite already reported to Taylor, 42. If founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff ever stepped aside, Taylor was the obvious choice to replace him. But that changed when Taylor announced he would resign at the end of January to “return to his entrepreneurial roots.”

Language such as that usually means an executive was ousted because of poor performance or a power squabble. But Benioff bemoaned Taylor’s exit on a Nov. 30 earnings call, saying he was still trying to persuade him to stay. He was less emotional in 2020 when announcing the resignation of Keith Block, his previous co-CEO, whose biography vanished from Salesforce’s website by the end of that day.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, who was seen as another possible successor, expressed sadness and surprise at Taylor’s departure before touting Slack’s bright future within Salesforce. Five days later, Butterfield resigned along with two other division leaders. He said it was unrelated to Taylor’s leaving, calling the timing “weird.”

As Benioff’s CEO tenure stretches beyond two decades, he’s facing an exodus of top talent that threatens his bench of deputies while the company forecasts its slowest growth ever. At least a dozen executives have announced they’re leaving the San Francisco-based company since October.