Corporate Responsibility (part 1)

A couple of weeks ago I attended a dinner honoring several Utah entrepreneurs who are nearing the end of their careers - men who have built companies that provide thousands of jobs to people along the Wasatch Front. The keynote speaker at this event was Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com (which provides the best sales software in the world), a man who is worth billions financially.

In the course of his keynote, Benioff spent part of his time on the importance of corporate responsibility and giving back to the community. Salesforce tries to do it's part using the "1-1-1" rule. This means 1% of the company profits are donated to charity (since Salesforce is so successful, they have actually built and maintain a hospital in San Francisco), 1% of their service is donated to groups trying to improve the world (hundreds of thousands of non-profits use their service for free), and 1% of their employees' time is spent doing community service.

All of the above are laudible acts by themselves. Together, they make Salesforce one of the most socially responsible businesses in the country.

Later in the evening, an individual got up for a 3 minute speech and said, in effect, "Mr. Benioff, you follow your 1-1-1 rule, but I'll do you one better. Since my company makes medical devices, everything we do is to help the community!" I groaned inside, and focused on not flinging a roll at the guy.

First, the logic here is faulty. Saying you are doing more good making millions as you sell overpriced medical devices is ridiculous. If this individual begins to give away their products to hospitals for free, I'll consider them in the same ballpark as Benioff.

Even more importantly, what possessed this individual to bring this up?

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly."

Matthew 6:1-4

Benioff did not seem to be boasting, since he only addressed his 1-1-1 policy when Josh James (who was interviewing him) asked a question about it. The second man's words, on the other hand, were dripping with arrogance.

I managed to not throw that roll.