Inflection Point
Last Updated on Friday, 25 December 2009 09:51 Written by Steve Sunday, 22 November 2009 01:21
Dreamforce is a 4 day software user conference. It’s easy to look at it from afar and see only that–money to be made, customers to retain, sales to be won. And it’s absolutely true that Dreamforce is about all of that. Customers want value. Salesforce.com wants to give it to them. Partners want to get the word out about their solutions. All of that is true.
But I left Dreamforce feeling transformed–personally and professionally. I didn’t expect it. And I’m not exactly sure what to do with it.
I realized last week the reason I took my current job. People ask me all the time. It was clearly a good fit for my skills. The people are great. And it’s a lot of fun. But I realized the real reason last week.
I took this job so that I can help create better lives for millions of people.
Not tens, not hundreds, but millions. Even hundreds of millions. That’s why I’m on this earth. That’s what I think I can contribute to our shared existence. And I think I can do that in my job.
What brought about this clarity? I met some amazing people. I met one woman who has an amazingly clarity of her purpose in life, and that purpose is to help Africa transform itself. To break the colonial, top-down models and return to self-organized, systemic change, completely in partnership with Africans. No more $1M schools dropped from the sky. Holistic, collaborative, community-based change. Generational change. She burns with this goal, and nothing will stand in her way.
Her passion lit a fire in me. And caused me to ask questions of myself. How does my bug fixing contribute to the reemergence of Africa? Am I making the kind of difference I need to make? What can I do differently?
I met a man who has a full-time job and volunteers with a group working in the Sudan. They are building a school from compressed soil, hand dug, hand compressed, and it will be hand built. I had talked to him about his Salesforce needs before I realized he was a volunteer. I thought he was an employee. But it turns out his organization only has one employee. He quietly does this work in his spare time, because he can’t possibly not do it. That wouldn’t make sense to him. And his work is infectious. He asked me, “do you want to go to the Sudan?” Hell yes I want to go to the Sudan.
I met a woman who is taking a holistic approach to education in Tanzania. Children found abandoned in garbage heaps find a home with her organization. They learn and grow because of her work. Their lives are forever changed. She does this work which has nothing to do with her professional history. She was called to it. And is phenomenal.
These people showed me their fire, their passion, the absolute unacceptability of doing nothing. The necessity of action today. The absolute need for impatience and patience all at once. It bowled me over. I’m reeling from it still.
It has caused me to look at my work differently. I will continue to do the best work I possibly can with the responsibilities I have. And I feel compelled to start initiatives of my own. The first thoughts I’ve had is to make Salesforce.com the absolute standard for use in Africa. Here’s what I think needs to be done to show that Salesforce.com can excel for nonprofits in Africa:
Nonprofit Starter Pack
I need to make this code base the best it can be. I want no software bugs standing in the way of this work. It’s the easiest place for me to make an impact on Monday, and I will.
Language Support
Salesforce is translatable into many languages. At this writing, that list includes 20 languages. English, French and Spanish are official languages in many African countries, and those languages are supported currently. I want Salesforce.com to be available in the next tier of African languages: Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese (Brazilian Portuguese is currently available, and maybe that’s close enough?), and perhaps Afrikaans. There are over 2000 languages spoken in Africa, so we may never get to support Berber, Hausa, Xhosa, and the countless others.
Are these the right languages? I’m new to this, but Arabic, Swahili, and Portuguese seem like the place to start. Arabic is a right to left language, so Salesforce.com first must be able to be switched to that mode, but once that’s possible, I want Arabic the next day.
- Vote for Arabic support on the Idea Exchange.
- Vote for Swahili support on the Idea Exchange.
And as soon as Salesforce.com supports a language, we’ll start the work to translate the Nonprofit Starter Pack to that language.
Offline Support
As you know, much of Africa lacks reliable Internet access. Much of Africa lacks clean water, electricity, and other services much more basic than that. So to support Africans working to transform their countries, we need rock-solid offline tools. Salesforce.com has had offline support in Internet Explorer for years, and many African nonprofits are currently using that to successfully support their work.
Salesforce.com recently released Adobe Flashbuilder for Salesforce a toolkit that includes easy to use offline support. I think we need to build some killer offline apps with this toolkit to show the way in this space. Classroom attendance, health clinic service tracking, micro-finance payment collection. We need to build these and share the source code.
Deep Case Studies
I want to work with a few nonprofits in Africa to go deep in their usage of Salesforce.com. I want to hear the stories of how this helps them achieve their goals, and I want to share those stories with the world. Knowing what’s possible is an important step in the path to impact and excellence. We need to prove it, show it, tell it.
I normally don’t share my goals publicly. I like to under promise and over deliver. That’s worked for me for years. But I can’t seem to contain this new fire I feel. So I’m laying out what I want to see happen and I’ll do what I can to bring it about.
If you feel a stirring when you read this, join me. What will we do? I don’t know. How will we do it? We’ll figure it out. But I need to act today. If you feel that need, drop me a line, and we’ll help Africa together.
Comments
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I want to help in any way I can.
I too was at Dreamforce and feel the momentum. Let’s talk.
Amber
I’ve been talking to my friend Paula from mwangaza.org. She does a lot of temporary medical clinics in villages in Tanzania, and she’s hoping to use salesforce.com (with offline support) to track patient records. Her needs are pretty modest, but it would make a huge difference.
Amber, you’re in.
Rich, we donate to 501-c(3)’s in the US, so mwangaza.org is eligible. Our offline support with Internet Explorer is robust and in use in situations like this one. Let me know if you have any questions about getting Salesforce donated. We have resources here: http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/products/donation
Steve, we have so many talents and skills from the business world that can be brought to bear in the NP world and it is our “give forward’ resposibility to do it. You let me know whow to best team with you and others and I am totally on board for mutually learning and growth with others who share the same passions.
That sounds like a deal! I’ll be in touch.
Hey Steve!
It was awesome to meet you last week at Dreamforce. Your contributions to the nonprofit world have already been invaluable and I can’t wait to see where this new initiative takes us.
I am so inspired by your commitment to changing the world, not in small ways, but for millions of people.
You know I’m in, let’s talk about how we can all harness this momentum to collaborate and achieve big results.
Take care,
Nick
Absolutely Nick! Great meeting you too!
Great to see you again at Dreamforce this year. I too was transformed by Dreamforce 2009, both personally and professionally. I have sweat equity to throw towards what you’re trying to accomplish and would love to help any way I can.
Thanks Colin! great to see you too. Thanks for the offer to help–you’re sweat equity is worth it’s weight in gold!
[...] me to do my work. It was a good and welcome change, one of renewed energy and focus. I wrote about how Africa has leapt back to the forefront of my mind, back to a position of prominence it held long ago. I have much to learn and catch up on as try to [...]