Faced with the observation of burnout, bore-out, and brown-out phenomena, Salesforce aims to help its employees find meaning in their work. To achieve this, an initial task of defining objectives is implemented to enable each individual to navigate and assess the usefulness of their work on a daily basis within the company's framework. But how can the objectives of thousands of employees be regularly and concretely aligned with the company's vision?
It all began in 1999. Marc Benioff wanted to learn from the mistakes he had observed before founding Salesforce. He sought ways to focus and synthesize his vision. After discussing it with advisors from varied backgrounds (ranging from management to spiritual and personal development), he finally took the back of an envelope and outlined what he had in mind in 5 points:
Vision:
Rapidly create an international company/website to automate sales forces.
Values:
- International organization
- Time to market
- Functionality
- Impeccable quality (Like Amazon)
- Value-added partnerships
Methods:
- Engage the team
- Finalize technical specs and architecture
- Rapidly develop a Beta version
- Conclude partnerships with e-commerce sites
- Build a launch plan
- Develop an exit plan: IPO/acquisition
Obstacles:
- Developers
- Product manager / Business developers
Measures:
- High-quality functional system
- Partnerships are online and integrated
- Salesforce.com is seen as a leader and visionary
- We are all rich
A few years later, in 2004, Salesforce succeeded in its IPO, and Marc framed his envelope, convinced that he had found what he was looking for: a simple tool to define something complex. Since then, every year, he works on the V2MOM at the company level.
So, the V2MOM is broken down annually as follows:
- VISION: What do you want to accomplish?
- VALUES: What are the principles and convictions that strengthen your vision?
- METHOD: How do you plan to do the work, what actions, what milestones?
- OBSTACLES: What challenges, problems could arise?
- MEASURES: How will you know if you have accomplished your work or not, how will you measure it?
After the launch meeting where the CEO presents this V1, he takes into account the comments and remarks of the employees to draft a V2 which he shares with the entire company.
Every person at Salesforce is invited to create their own V2MOM and review it with their manager to see if it aligns well with the person's role. This includes newcomers: every new employee has 90 days to get oriented, draft, and publish their V2MOM. At the same time, each team writes one, and each employee ensures that their own V2MOM aligns with that of the team, which must in turn align with that of the Business Unit, and then that of the company. This forces numerous exchanges allowing for the reformulation of objectives and preparing the ground (already) for future collaborations. All V2MOMs are published on the intranet, with complete transparency.
And since Salesforce likes acronyms and mnemonics, they found another one to help everyone in writing their V2MOM. To be effective, a V2MOM must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely. That is: specific, measurable through quantitative indicators, achievable, relevant and aligned with the V2MOMs of managers and the company, and accompanied by a reasonable timeframe.
This way of regularly assessing and under a specific format allows each individual to check how their work fits into the company's vision and realize how the accomplishment of their work contributes to achieving the company's strategic objectives.
Sharing the V2MOM with the manager, the team, the Business Unit... also allows for finding people and teams with the same objectives as those you have set for yourself, to be able to exchange ideas, even if they are not necessarily in the same department as yours.
