Name: Insights: Salesforce Ethics VP - Key to Trust is Listening
Uploaded: 2020-01-14
Duration: 2 min 52 s
Description: Paula Goldman is the company's first Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer. (June 2019)

[MUSIC PLAYING] We are at a moment of reckoning-- not just for tech, but for business as a whole. And the crisis of trust in all institutions is basically at an all time high. What gives me immense optimism is that we've been here before as a society. We heard this morning about the movement for free secondary education. I want to remind you of a different moment-- the introduction of automobiles, commercial automobiles. Imagine what it was like to stand on a dusty street corner in New York in the early 1900s after automobiles were first introduced. People were dying in record numbers on the streets. It was-- and I quote this from a historian-- "more dangerous to try to cross the street than to try to cross the Atlantic in a clam shell boat." And so what happened? You had leaders rise up and say, I think we need a brilliant piece of technology called the stop sign, which was introduced about 10 years after automobiles came into commercial circulation. Later, we had movements around automobile safety-- seat belts. It's easy to forget that. But today, safety is a competitive advantage in industry. I think we're at a similar moment with regard to how guardrails for tech get created. And here's what the difference is. Tech is moving much faster than we have time to reckon with. But the key to trust is listening. We need to be listening to the people within society that have ideas about how tech should be governed and what ethical principals get incorporated. You heard, this morning, Marc Benioff mention that we had a moment of crisis last year at Salesforce when employees and others were protesting about our contract with the US Customs and Border Protection Agency. We set up this office of Ethical and Humane Use with a council of both internal and external members. And the key thing that we do when we have difficult issues that we have to grapple with is listen. We bring in civil society leaders. We talk to employees. We talk to customers. And these decisions are not easy, and those conversations don't always have people agreeing. But I want to suggest that the number one thing that we can do as business leaders is set up similar processes, whereby we're involving everyone in these decisions, because these decisions definitely affect everyone. And with that, I will end by saying I'm greatly optimistic, as well, because we're having this conversation today amongst forward-looking business leaders like yourselves. And I can't wait to hear what we come up with together. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Insights: Salesforce Ethics VP - Key to Trust is Listening

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Paula Goldman is the company's first Ethical Use Officer.

Salesforce Ethics VP - Key to Trust is Listening

Paula Goldman is the company's first Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer. (June 2019)

way are at a moment of reckoning, not just for tech but for business. The whole, uh, and the crisis of trusting all institutions is basically at an all time high. We what gives me immense optimism is that we've been here before as a society we heard this morning about the movement for free secondary education. I wanna remind you a different moment. Ah, the introduction of automobiles, commercial automobiles. Imagine what it was like to stand on a dusty street corner in New York in the early 19 hundreds. After automobiles were first introduced, people were dying in record numbers on the street. It was. And I quote this from a historian more dangerous to try to cross the street than to try to cross the Atlantic in a clam in a clam shell boat. Um and so what happened? You had leaders rise up and say, I think we need a brilliant piece of technology called the stop sign, which took into into account with was introduced about 10 years after automobiles came into commercial circulation. Later, we had movements around automobile safety seat belt. Today it was easy to forget that. But today you know, safety is a competitive advantage in industry. I think we're at a similar moment with regard to how guardrails for tech get created. And here's what the difference is. Tech is moving much faster than we have. We have time to reckon with. But the key to trust is listening right. We need to be listening to the people within society that have ideas about how Tex should be governed and what ethical principles get incorporated. You heard this morning, Marc Benioff mentioned. We had a moment of crisis last year, its sales force, when employees and others were protesting about our contract with the U. S. Customs and Border Protection Agency. We set up this Office of ethical, inhumane use with a council of both internal and external members. And the key thing that we do when we have difficult issues that we have to grapple with is listen. We bring in civil society leaders, we talk to employees, we talk to customers and these decisions are not easy. And those conversations don't always have people agreeing. But I want to suggest that the number one thing that we can do it as business leaders set up similar processes whereby we're involving everyone in these decisions because these decisions definitely affect everyone. And with that I will end by saying I'm greatly optimistic as well because we're having this conversation today amongst forward looking business leaders like yourselves, and I can't wait to hear what we come up with together.