The leadership culture of Silicon Valley tech gurus has been slammed at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
Speaking at a CNBC-moderated Davos panel titled “In Technology We Trust?,” Marc Benioff claimed that tech leaders need to modify their autocratic style.
“We basically got to a point where the whole super majority vote structure thing in Silicon Valley where I’m the entrepreneur and I am in charge no matter what happens, kind of gets blown up,” he said.
“The idea (is) that this is somehow acceptable, and it’s not,” Benioff said.
The Salesforce boss cited the example of Uber as a company that he claimed, under previous CEO Travis Kalanick, had forgotten to value trust among its customers.
“What is the most important to you. Is it trust or is it growth? Because if anything trumps trust, then you are in trouble,” he said.
“And the previous Uber CEO (Travis Kalanick), he had a different value at the peak of his hierarchy than I’m sure Dara has today,” he added.
Dara Khosrowshahi who is the current CEO of Uber was also on the panel but remained quiet on the leadership style of his predecessor.
Benioff further claimed that trust has to be the highest value in any company and if it is not “something bad is going to you.”
