Friday June 19th - SuccessConnect NYC!

Thursday June 18th - SuccessConnect NYC!

Thursday June 18th - Opening the NASDAQ!

This morning we had the opportunity to open the NASDAQ, so we took some of our wonderful customers along to share the experience! Take a look at the video of the opening along with a few pics.

Tuesday June 16th - SuccessConnect Chicago!

Tanzy Lawhorn from Briggs & Stratton won the People Performance Radio Podcast drawing for a iPod Nano loaded with a whole archive of Talent Management Thought Leader podcasts!

More great sessions!

Monday June 15th - SuccessConnect Chicago!

June 8-9th - SuccessConnect San Francisco!

By Hilary Salazar, Associate Product Marketing Manager/Community Manager

Man am I glad you’re here. I think we’re all relieved to have the fresh start, clean-slate feeling that a new year like yourself brings. He was a tough one, that 2008, but I think we came out on top and proved just how resilient we can be. 2008 brought us financial turmoil, tighter budgets, apprehension about what was ahead for the markets, doing more with less, but at the same time instilled us with more razor-sharp focus, renewed creativity to deal with new challenges, and the drive to survive. It’s in the toughest of times that our fight instincts emerge, and this business environment is surely one of those times.

2009 is here and with it change is a-comin’—no matter what your political, economic, or professional views. While it’s nearly mid-February and yes this is the first HappyFactors post of 2009 (I know, I know!), I would like to nonetheless offer up the following insights on how to keep plugging away this year, no matter what changes come our way in the world of work.

Ways to keep you—and your team—motivated (dare I say happy?…) in tough times:

Deflect the negative. In difficult times—nay, at any time—you will always find people around you that focus on the negative and like to share their downbeat messages to anyone willing to listen. Take their messages with a grain of salt, don’t let them cloud the image you have of your company with biased opinion, and stay grounded in your own professional goals. Easier said then done, I know, but at the very least be mindful of the negative nancy’s around you.

Don’t pull back on communication with your team. Even if it’s news of scary things to come or uncertainty for your team, more communication is always better than leaving your team in the dark. Continue to include them on relevant team meetings, brainstorming sessions, quarterly planning, updates after management meetings, impromptu weekly updates, you name it. You’ll earn (and keep) their trust, and help to prevent your top talent from a frenzied job search out of fear that their position may not exist come next quarter.

Manage expectations appropriately. Echoing the point above, manage the expectations of your team in the best ways that you can. When performance review time comes around this year, be sure that you’re rewarding them for the work their doing amidst difficult circumstances, and make sure that they know that they have a career path within the company (if this is the case) and are highly valued. If someone’s professional goals aren’t matching up with the opportunities available in your organization, communicate this appropriately and help them to map out the best path for them to excel professionally.

This is a chance to excel professionally in brave new ways. If you can prove your worth in tough times, your value is recognized ten-fold within your organization. This is your chance to truly make an impact at your company (and in your career), to prove that you can do more with less, to exhibit innovative ways to bring in more revenue, to shake up the status quo and do things differently to dramatically rewarding results. Don’t use these uncertain times to safely stand on the sidelines and continue doing things they way they’ve always been done.

Take ownership of your professional roadmap. Who ultimately determines your level of motivation (and happiness)? YOU. Own it. Tap into what gets you excited at work, what gets you up in the morning, what brought you to your organization originally, what drives you to perform, and align that with the work you’re doing each day. If what motivates you and the day-to-day of what you do at work are completely unaligned, I can guarantee that 2009 will be an even tougher year.

Have more suggestions for staying motivated? Share them here on HappyFactors! We’d love to hear from you.

By Brendan Delumpa, User Interface Engineering Manager

A look at the lay of the land may cause most to pause. It certainly causes me to. The economy is clearly in a recession. The mortgage industry is busted. Global markets are experiencing some of the worst downturns we’ve seen in our lifetimes. But you know what? Despite how dreary things may be, I’m still incredibly motivated. Why talk about this anyway? Simply because getting motivated during times of adversity is oftentimes an incredibly difficult thing. Our instinct tells us to flee or withdraw. That’s the “flight” side of the fight or flight instinct that is part of our very nature.

What about the “fight” side of the equation? This is where our reason and, for lack of a better term, moral sense come into play. These are the personal traits that make us stand up to adversity, stare it in the face, and say, “Bring it on!” What I’m going to share with you here are not ways to get yourself motivated, but a couple of reminders, if you will, that form the basis for getting yourself motivated.

To start with, I’d like to share a concept with you that I learned several years ago that has its roots in the following saying:

The difference between dreams and reality is a fine line. That line is called Willingness.

That is such a powerful phrase. Nothing we do, nothing we choose, nothing we accomplish gets done without our willingness to execute. And mind you, this has nothing to do with whether or not we like what we’re doing. We are where we are because we’ve made the choices to be where we are, and those choices are the result of our willingness to make those choices.

How does this relate to motivation? In order to get motivated, we simply have to be willing to get motivated. Once you’re willing to do anything, you’ll do the things to make what start out as dreams or concepts and turn them into reality.

Next, there’s a Latin phrase that I’ve told myself over the years in times of adversity: Illegitimi non carborundum. This is an aphorism for “don’t let the bastards grind you down.” For me, it’s a rather humorous phrase I’ve used to remind me of a much more serious topic: Integrity. Forget about your duty to the company. Forget about whether or not you’re living up to whatever image you have of yourself, or whether or not you’re living up to what others may expect of you. When it’s all said and done, all you have is your integrity, which can be summed up with some simple phrases:

Integrity is blatant self-honesty, folks. It’s also a measure, albeit subjective, of how we all show up in a given situation. It’s greater than duty, and it is certainly greater than loyalty. And frankly, integrity is something we should never sacrifice – for anything. If that means you go elsewhere to ensure you maintain your integrity, so be it, and good for you for sticking up for your integrity! I applaud you.

For myself, within the context of my job here at SuccessFactors, I made a personal commitment to not only perform my duties here, but to do my best to excel in those duties – every day. My integrity demands that I live up to that commitment. In times of seeming turmoil like this where it’s so easy to say, “Screw it all!” I can fall back on my personal integrity to help see me through the troubling times.

Finally, despite whatever internally or externally triggered turmoil you’re experiencing or have experienced, put that stuff aside and what are you left with? Basically the same vision and objectives our company has had from day one. Folks, our collective goal of “changing the way the world works” hasn’t changed. From my perspective, I may be a small cog in the wheel, but that very phrase is what attracted me to this company in the first place, and it plays a large part in continuing to push me to contribute to the realization of that vision.

So I urge you all—focus on the vision. Another way I’ve heard this put is: “Focus on the goal, and let the universe take care of the rest.” It’s also a reminder to not fall back on the little irritating details that might drag us down. Let’s face it. Irritations are a fact of life. We can’t avoid them, but we can rise above them by focusing on what’s important.

I’m not saying anything new here and frankly, this was never intended to be a guide to motivate anyone. As you’ve noticed, I haven’t provided any step-by-step procedures to get motivated. Each person has their own methodology. But just remember these three points:

There’s no question about it—times are tough and we’re all making adjustments. Ok…that’s an understatement. So I was curious—what keeps my coworkers motivated and energized in times like these? I asked this question of my SuccessFactors colleagues and got a fantastic variety of answers and insight.

In no particular order…

• Tough times naturally lead to more creativity. Things can’t be done as they’ve always been
done, so take the opportunity to do things in a totally new (dare I say better) way.
• Enjoying time with my family—my nieces and nephew, especially.
• You should have seen it in the 30s! OK, so maybe I don’t go back that far…But I remember lining up to put gas in my parents car in 1974, getting laid off multiple times, being acquired, and seeing my investments (all $11,000) tank in 1987. I have a wonderful family, wonderful friends, wonderful co-workers, and a wonderful cellar full of wine! Tough times, scmuff times…
• What gets me up in the morning is knowing that if I keep putting my best foot forward I’ll
eventually climb to the top, and the view will be magnificent.
• Top employees are rewarded in tough times. Put on you’re A-game and your efforts won’t go unnoticed.
• Gas prices are down!
• Faith and action. The ‘law of averages’ will always catch up with us. We had our good times. Why should tough times be any different? Things can only get better from here so have faith, be positive, and continue working!
• My Children. First, it is great having my girls around and watching them grow. Plus, there is guidance to provide non-stop. Second, they wake up at about 6:30am and usually come into the bedroom and jump on us. That’s motivation.

What motivates YOU? I welcome you to post a reply to this post and share your own insight with readers as well.

Gobble Gobble.

Check out what Bil Harmer, VP of Security at SuccessFactors, had to say to ZDNet about his job here!

By Gabriel Marusic, Account Manager

I joined SuccessFactors in August of 2006 as a Lead Gen rep serving the mid-market (Lead Gen, or Lead Generation, is our team that calls companies and introduces them to SuccessFactors). I interviewed at a number of different companies but really had my heart set on joining SuccessFactors from the get-go. I felt that SuccessFactors’ products enabled companies to better apply top-notch management practices that I learned in college, and I knew that I wanted to be involved with this company. So I was thrilled when asked to join the mid-market Lead Gen team as a starting point in my new career in sales, and was pumped with ambition to learn and grow. Since then it has been a fantastic experience for me both in personal and professional growth. While in Lead Gen I had the opportunity to learn about our products and the needs of our potential customers prior to them coming on board. This really created a very solid base for me and provided an introduction to the workings of sales and marketing which would facilitate my growth here. I also had the honor of attending President’s Club for 2007, which recognizes top performers in sales, and was able to go to Mexico! After a successful two year position in Lead Gen, I was able to take part in a development program that SuccessFactors was offering, which provided training and mentoring to allow me to move up into an account management role here on our small business team—what an opportunity. Now I’m in a new role working with our existing customers and I’m happier than ever. I’ve got a great manager who started in sales and like many others here was able to take his career up a notch and now leads his own team.

In addition to my professional growth, I’ve also enjoyed some great personal moments here at SuccessFactors. I’ve made some lifelong friendships along the way–one of my fellow Lead Gen team members who was promoted with me was also a groomsman at my wedding. I get to play on our company soccer team and join other SF’ers on amazing company events (did I mention Mexico?). Without a doubt, this is a fantastic place to work and I’m looking forward to the road ahead here.

By Hilary Terrell, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Picture this…

You’re a 28 year old HR associate at a prestigious academic institution. You’re young and energetic, and eager to influence the people you work with in a positive way. You send out a friendly email thanking employees for turning in their timecards on time, because you appreciate their efforts and, well, what’s wrong with saying thank you. Your boss, however, does not appreciate your efforts. You get reprimanded for sending out an email that is outside of the standard bureaucratic emails that usually come from this HR department—a department that is very set in its ways and with employees that have been there for years, many for decades. “I can’t say thank you??” you think, “and try to boost people’s moral?” You are left baffled and frustrated by an institution and department that does not seem to embrace gratitude, change, or individuality.

This isn’t a fabricated example, but something that happened recently to a very close friend of mine. When she told me about it I thought it really touched upon two timely topics in the world of work—embracing change, and the clash of generations in the workplace.
The former is something I’ve seen numerous articles on recently, from NPR to BusinessWeek. As a recent BusinessWeek article put it,

“…every generation is different and shaped by the events of their formative years. Yet every generation is alike, as they all bring new energy, new ideas, and new beliefs about work and life in general. Historical and technological forces have always combined to bring the generations together in some ways and to draw them apart in others.”

“Generational” gaps are a natural occurrence in the workplace, but not something to be wary of or to apply an “us vs. them” mentality to. I believe it’s less of a clash between generations—a fuzzy generalization at best—and more of an issue of differing beliefs about work and the way things *should* be done on a day to day basis. In the example above, the older manager felt that the HR associate’s thank you email was not something that they, or the other employees of their experience level, would have sent out. So was the email flat out wrong to send, or did it rub the manager the wrong way because it was atypical?

Right or wrong, younger employees crave independence and creative thinking—and discouraging this at all turns will turn them off from a work environment. And when a younger employee is discouraged at work, they’re also of the mind to believe that other opportunities are within their grasp and won’t put up with a culture that stifles them. Right or wrong, younger employees crave feedback and constructive criticism, and a slap on the hand when you’re displeased with their work won’t do the trick. Perhaps in the story above, the manager could have acknowledged, even praised, the HR associate for doing something outside of the norm by personally thanking other employees. And if this was not protocol for the institution, aside from evaluating why this would be, perhaps the manager could have suggested what would be more appropriate in the future. Instead, she got a firm “don’t-color-outside-the-lines-again” warning and nothing more. Now she walks, and emails, on eggshells each day.

This leads to the second issue the story brings up—the unwillingness to embrace change. HR departments (the only department with word ‘human’ in it!) have the opportunity to be some of the pioneers of embracing change in a company, as they have their pulse on the kinds of employees the company is hiring and nurturing, the direction the company is generally headed in, and a direct hand in shaping a company’s culture. A company that fails to adapt to change at the HR level seems doomed to hire the same kinds of people over and over again until they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel, and doomed to do things the exact same way they’ve always done until someone at the C-level trickles down the necessary changes (or worse). HR departments have the ability to influence the corporate culture, the morale of current employees, the interest of potential employees, and much more, in a very powerful way. And doing things the way they’ve always been done just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. The HR associate in the example wasn’t asking her manager to change the corporate communications policy—she was trying to connect with the employees she communicates with in a more human way than she had seen up until that point in her department. Change in that direction could be quite good.

I’m happy to say that this is something that would never happen here at SuccessFactors—quite the opposite. We are all lucky to work in a place that embraces individuality and doing something against the status quo, especially if it achieves great results. We aren’t the small startup we were 6+ years ago, as we now have hundreds of employees around the globe and sound business processes in place. But we’re still a company where doing something in a new way—whether it’s through email communication, marketing strategies, the design of the product, or the ways that we interact with our prospects and customers—is encouraged and rewarded. We’re coloring outside the lines and proud of it!

We are also a company where I have yet to see any clashing of generations in the workplace, and I believe this is in large part due to our open, collaborative culture. We have employees that range from fresh and green out of college to seasoned professionals, and are fortunate that everyone is able to learn from the range of people they work with each day, and that we can truly find the place where we fit best in this company—no trying to fit square pegs into round holes here. No matter you’re position, you’re going to work closely with employees with varied backgrounds and from across the organization, whether they sit right next to you or on the opposite coast. And with close connections fostered each day between employees—be it through our Employee Directory, or a cross-departmental project—we are all the more prepared to deal with change as it comes our way and ready to face the future as a cohesive SuccessFactors team. Q4, here we come!

Reply to this post—tell us how your organization is prepared for change and/or embracing generational gaps in the workplace!

By Hilary Terrell, Associate Product Marketing Manager

This particular post was sparked by a recent BusinessWeek issue devoted to common challenges that all employees face in the workplace. One of the topics of the issue was the struggle of achieving a healthy work/life balance in today’s get-it-all-done-NOW business landscape, and BusinessWeek readers had some fantastic insight to offer. SuccessFactors is not immune to the challenges employees at any company face, so I turned to my fellow employees for insights of their own—they didn’t let me down. I posted the question on the Employee Directory, on our internal online directory bulletin board (a feature of Employee Profile that gets fantastic use here at SF) and was thrilled at the wide range of answers that were posted, from an equally wide range of employees in departments across the company. Thanks to all who shared their thoughts!

It is harder and harder to achieve balance in this 24/7 world we live in. I started my career when people wore suits in offices, there were ashtrays in those offices, and the PC had not been invented. It was easy to unplug and separate from work. My advice is to make plans (and keep them), set boundaries (and keep them), be VERY productive when you are working, be very relaxed when you are not working (don’t over schedule), and check in with yourself and your loved ones/friends frequently to stay balanced. Easier said than done, but nobody is going to do this for you! Good luck, enjoy life, work hard, all the best.
–Rob Adams, Director of Talent Enablement

Take advantage of your benefits and breathe! I’m not one to let my PTO [paid time off] time accumulate. Rather than saving up for long vacations, I tend to take mini-breaks throughout the year. This enables me to create space for myself to unwind regularly. I also mediate regularly. Meditation is an amazing way to let go of stress and negative energy. It helps me stay grounded and enables me to let go more easily when I do have down time.
–Tracy Gonzales, Training Consultant

I am fortunate that my current position enables me (for the most part) to leave work at work. That alone allows me to retain my own personal time outside of the office.
A hard run in the streets absorbing the sights and smells of the world as it passes by; a pleasant conversation with good company; and more importantly, plenty of laughter! For me it is simplicity, to stop and reflect on the simple things in life that is my “balance.” To embellish my life as I see fit is what keeps the day to day work load on a leash.
–Daniel Ash, Office Coordinator

Balance? its obsolete and that’s fine! The key is to really know your limits, accept it and be fully in the moment in whatever you do. Between work and life, one is constantly trying to edge the other one out, whichever comes ahead (it changes everyday) accept it and do full justice to it! Make a conscious choice and be happy with it!
–Anu Srikantan, Proposal Manager

A paradigm shift is required. The conflict of attention is where the action is required. At face value, your job will never forgive you, and your family will always forgive you, but this has a limitation and the results are pretty typical: resentment at home and lack of satisfaction with your job because of the ways it impacts your life. We all suffer from the same ill here. We’re either doing well at home or doing well at work, but seldom well at both.

What must be done is that you must demand that your employer forgive your choice of your family and your family must come first on many things. In the end, the employer must respect your choices and you must respect the results, but you cannot expect your family to forgive you indefinitely. Nothing will come without a sacrifice.

The devil is in the details there, but like any peace treaty, it will likely need to be revisited on an ongoing basis with some modifications as you have opportunity or need.
–Kevin Simpson, Project Manager

I think it’s great that our company has an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) where we can talk to counselors if we need someone to talk to about how to achieve better balance in our lives. I think people should definitely take advantage of that. Also, there’s a great article in the current issue of Fortune en titled “Get a life!” by Paul Keegan that’s a good read.
–Scott Yu, Principal Designer

Any my own approach? It’s new, actually. I recently adopted a fantastic dog, so I need to leave work at a reasonable hour each day to get home and take her for a walk. That helps me to have a stopping point at the end of the day and leave the office on time, and the ability to continue my work at home if needed, with a loving pup by my side. Who could ask for more!

How do YOU achieve work/life balance? Share a comment here on HappyFactors!

By Elaine Wu, Product Marketing Intern, Summer 2008

Hello everyone! I’m Elaine Wu, a product marketing intern finishing up my last week here at SuccessFactors. Over the past two months, I have gotten to experience life as a SuccessFactors employee, and let me tell you–I’ve had an absolutely amazing time. This has been my first office job and I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have worked with such fun and hard-working people. I really hope that all SuccessFactors employees realize how great it is to be working here full-time! For my HappyFactors post, I wanted to highlight some of the many things I learned about this unique company during my time here…

It’s Not Easy being Green, but SuccessFactors is proving how easy it is!

Every UC Berkeley student knows about the lovely group of tree-sitters living atop our oak trees. Rain or shine, you can always find the squatters up in the trees. They have truly made the trees their home, setting up boards for beds and a system of pulleys to bring up food. Although I am not quite willing to forego my comfortable bed for the branch of a tree, I have been touched by the passion of the tree sitters. I believe that every little step someone can take to help the environment is something worth doing.

Kermit the Frog may not have thought that it was easy being green, but SuccessFactors has proven that it is. Our SaaS software does so much more than save our customers money on software maintenance and operation. The computerized performance reviews eliminate thousands of paper-based reviews each year. With every new customer we attain, we are doing our part to save trees.

SuccessFactors does even more for the environment–by supporting employees who wish to work from home, we are preventing unnecessary pollution too! It is great to know that our company supports our efforts to save gas and commute time when we just need a day at home to get work done. And of course working from home would not be possible without our company’s open communication and collaboration with other employees in the office or living overseas. This brings me to my next point:

SuccessFactors meets The Beatles: Come Together, With a Little Help from my Friends, We can Work it Out

SuccessFactors thrives on synergy. Working together with our fellow employees is essential to deliver the best products to our customers. Our open office, cubicle-free environment makes it ideal for team members to work with each other on a project or just get a fresh perspective on an idea. I have also found that it is much easier to stay motivated and concentrate on my work when I notice how hard everyone around me is working. Not only has this open environment kept me more motivated throughout the day, it also gave me a small break when I needed one. Sitting in a high-traffic area of the office has been entertaining! Sometimes I would just listen to all the conversations going on around me. It’s actually quite fascinating to hear how an engineer solved an issue or how a sales representative completed a sale. The random anecdotes and accomplishments I have heard every day keeps me excited about this company. Someone is always doing something worthwhile.

Kaizen-ian Rhapsody

Kaizen (“constant improvement”) is not just something that I heard about on my first day during orientation. It is something that is achieved every single day here. To continuously improve, everyone must question their work. How can I work more efficiently? How can I make our product useful? How can I satisfy our customers? How can I increase worldwide productivity?

I am proud to say that I’ve also experienced the power of Kaizen. I’ve been working on the Customer Community this summer, and it is the one place where both SuccessFactors employees and SuccessFactors customers can learn and grow together. Every Community member wants to make the Community beneficial. Our employees Kaizen the Community to keep our customers updated on all changes in the product as well as address any of the customers’ feedback and concerns. We also encourage our customers to continuously Kaizen by giving them many opportunities to learn and contribute to our product. Customers listen to OneVoice calls hosted by Product Managers, share product ideas in the IdeaFactory, get questions answered in the Discussion Forums, learn from the many training materials online and connect with other SuccessFactors customers through the Community Directory.

Being able to collaborate with our customers to create a product that we are all proud of has been the most satisfying experience. Work really becomes easy and fun when you know that your customers are helping you help them.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Happy workers can bring insurmountable success to any company. Everyone at SuccessFactors lets their creativity inspire the work that they are doing. The Product Marketing workspace area has recently been decorated with an inspiration wall. What inspires you, SuccessFactors?

It’s been so fun to cover the walls with items and pictures that can fire up our imaginations or just make us happy and motivated to work. I brought all the fortunes from fortune cookies that I’ve collected for the past 15 years. I hope that you can find one which inspires you to work harder and achieve any goal. It’s these little things that can make working in this office fun. (Another recent example—check out the photo from a recent team-building outing to race go-karts!)

SuccessFactors succeeds because it realizes that its workers are its most important asset— without happy workers, the company cannot succeed. Well, SuccessFactors has won me over. I have really been inspired by the company’s values as well as all the people I’ve met here. It’s been a great summer! I really hope that every SuccessFactors employee can appreciate the wonderful place where they work as much as I have. How sweet it is (to be loved by my company and to have worked at SuccessFactors!)

By R.T. Barcik, Mid Market Sales Manager, EMEA region

Like many Gen Xers, I thought we were going to instantaneously change the world with this whole global internet economy thing. As a result, I bounced around from one apathetic company/job to the next right out of college. 4 jobs in 6 years to be exact, none of which I thought made a real impact on anything meaningful. 6 years ago I was at the tail end of job number 4 when I found a little start up…

My good friend was an independent recruiter that said why don’t you interview with this company tomorrow, just to see one end of the spectrum. ‘’Yeah sure,” I said, “I’ve always been a big fan of options and why not start the job hunt out with having a plan B in the bag.’’ I went through a full day of phone interviews where I individually talked to one third of the company, just so I could make it to the final meeting with the CEO the next day. Right from the start it was a completely unexpected challenge, where everything moved a mile a minute, you could tell the people knew their stuff but weren’t hung up on it, and the big guy was one you just had to meet. I didn’t know what to expect around the next corner but I was intrigued. Around the next corner happened to be an interview with the CEO of this tiny little company at a Potrero Hill (San Francisco) coffee shop. ‘’What was I thinking, this little pinger of a company probably wouldn’t last another 6 months… ‘’ I thought as I asked for more and more coffee while I waited for my interview to start. 14 cups of coffee later and ready to run a marathon, I only had half the energy the dynamic Danish CEO had naturally. ‘’I think I’m gonna like this company…”

Six years later, I am ironically starting my 4th role with the company and am changing people’s worlds with that same global internet thingy. Just yesterday I watched the ‘’light come on’’ as I helped a customer who had historically been in a support role in HR see how they could have real measurable financial impact on their business and in doing so become a driver of revenue. She realized that our software is going to change her professional world completely, just like it has for the 1,950 plus companies we’ve brought on before her. But this time it was different. This time it was in London, my new home thanks to SuccessFactors. This is just ridiculously cool.

Along the way it’s important to note that every ‘’significant-to-me’’ professional milestone has happened while at SuccessFactors (see photo of ringing the Nasdaq bell). More importantly, I’ve worked with more people that have something unique that I can learn from. Just about every day my light comes on because someone I work with changes my world with a new idea I haven’t thought of. I am in a perpetual state of appreciation for the collaboration that happens naturally here. I am humbled by and motivated to keep up with the quality people I work with. This collective knowledge and focus on the same goal is infectious. Wait a minute, that’s what we sell… but that’s what we live as well!

I tell ya, I originally got into software sales just to earn enough money to open my own restaurant. I am now enjoying myself too much living the SuccessFactors life to downgrade to my old dream. That Kaizen value we proclaim isn’t BS and it applies to everyone at our company—well done, SuccessFactors. It’s also fun to admit many that things within our company are getting even cooler despite becoming a ‘’real’’ company with 700+ employees. It’s been a wild ride. No offense to bull riders who measure their success by 8 second increments, but it’s been 189 million seconds of a wild ride for me…bring on the next 189 million!