Facebook Inc (FB), Salesforce.com, Inc. (CRM), Oracle Corporation (ORCL): America’s 10th Best CEO Will Give You an Investing Edge

Playing against the big boys
It was just that type of brashness and foresight that helped Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) get the crucial first-mover position in the cloud. Competing against much larger rivals such as International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), the only way that Salesforce could ever survive was by jumping out front.

Back in the beginning, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison gave Beinoff — who used to work at Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) — $2 million in seed money to start Salesforce. Apparently, Ellison didn’t realize that Salesforce was going to replace the type of complex enterprise software Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) was famous for.

Since then, both of these heavyweights — and many more like them — have joined in the cloud business. IBM right now is more of an outside threat, as it hasn’t focused nearly as much on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which is Salesforce’s bread and butter.

But even when larger companies make big moves, like Oracle’s recent purchase of Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ:APKT), that doesn’t necessarily mean Salesforce is in trouble.

Indeed, Oracle recently came out with disappointing earnings and blamed it (partially) on “lack of urgency” on the part of its sales force, especially those who were newly hired.

You won’t find Salesforce making those kinds of excuses: Revenues have increased by 84% in just the last two years. And on top of being named one of the top CEOs of 2013, Benioff’s employees have also rated Salesforce as the 22nd best company to work for in America.

Surely, at today’s prices, investors might want to take weighty expectations into consideration. But one thing they don’t have to worry about is a CEO who isn’t focused or an employee base that isn’t motivated.

Be ahead of the curve

On of the reasons that shares of Salesforce have grown by 1,000% since going public is that Benioff was ahead of the curve in seeing an opportunity that others didn’t.  That’s much the same way that Warren Buffett build his vast empire.

The article America’s 10th Best CEO Will Give You an Investing Edge originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Brian Stoffel has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Acme Packet, Facebook, and Salesforce.com. It owns shares of Facebook, IBM, and Oracle.

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