We need more women, claims Salesforce CEO

Cloud giant Salesforce's CEO wants to attract and recruit more women to the company in a bid to make the firm more well-rounded and successful.

Alongside the unveiling of a new platform and mobile focus, the other major theme dominating the firm's annual user conference, Dreamforce in San Francisco, this week was that of women in IT.

Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, HP's Meg Whitman and Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg were just a few of the females given centre stage during the event. And, in an industry that is still dominated by men - and by so-called 'Booth Babes' - Benioff did his best to massage their egos.

"I want to have more women leaders at Salesforce. I want to have more balance between my men and women leaders. I think there is incredible benefit to having diversity. But it's completely selfish because I know it will create a better company," Benioff told delegates.

His passion for diversity and inclusiveness continued during his many Q&As with high-profile female leaders during the conference.

"Of all the young execs I've met in our industry, of all the people I've had the opportunity to interact with, I've really never met anyone like you. I want to connect with everyone here in this room and online to show them what a phenomenal leader we have in this industry. We have dedicated this conference to the power of women," Benioff told Mayer during an on-stage Q&A between the two.

"I just wrote a book telling women that they should be more self-confident. And telling men and women that they should stop underestimating women," Sandberg said during her Q&A with Benioff.

"I wrote the book because, no matter what progress women have made, we're still really far from getting our share of leadership roles - in any industry, in any country, anywhere. That means when the decisions are made that most impact our world, our voices aren't equally heard."

Sandberg's book 'Lean In' was written to spur women on to "sit at any table and reach for any opportunity," she said. While cultures differ the world over, the one thing that remains the same is our stereotypes of men and woman, she added.