Interview with DIA expert Daniel Stange on the Salesforce MVP award

Dear Daniel,

First of all, congratulations on your award as Salesforce MVP.

What exactly does that mean: Salesforce MVP?

The title "MVP" actually comes from US sports, where it stands for "Most Valuable Player". It is typically said that these are not only outstanding athletes, but also players who make the team around them better. Salesforce has applied this to its own field: MVPs are people who have made a special contribution to the community. Their drive in doing so is to make others better. It's not about professional achievement, but about volunteering for the Salesforce community. And not just on technical topics, but in very different and diverse areas.

How did you become MVP?

Actually, I just did the things for the community that I've been doing for years and that I enjoy (laughs).
You become a Salesforce MVP by nominating people - obviously a lot of people did that for me. Salesforce already asks a lot of questions in the nomination process, that really takes time for the nominators and I think that's a real tribute and unusual. Then from the nominations, first the existing MVPs and employees vote, and finally a committee at Salesforce decides. It's a real honor for me.
So it's already the case that I've obviously left a footprint in the community with the topics I'm involved in. However, this has also been really exhausting, especially in the past year, in addition to my responsibilities at DIA.

What does it feel like to be one of the most significant people in terms of Salesforce knowledge?

Well, I don't quite share the idea behind "significant." I learned quite early that knowledge in the community is deliberately not something that is salient, but for many people the essential driver is sharing knowledge. Salesforce calls this "ohana," from the Hawaiian word for "family." MVPs are therefore not "better" or "more significant" than others, but simply particularly committed to nurturing this culture. I don't see myself as "significant" there, but simply up front in sharing. You become more by sharing - better things are created together.

So what are you going to do with the award?

In the end, such an award is decoration (laughs). It makes me stand out and shows others who are looking for guidance or help, perhaps even more than before, that I am a good contact person. For others, the MVP status makes it clear: This is a person you can turn to. And of course, for me it's also recognition that what I've done over the past few years is good and has helped others.

You joined the DIA team five years ago. What were your plans and goals when you chose this path? Was there a pre-conception?

It wasn't easy at the time - for me, the end of my scientific career was clearly in sight. My temporary contract in science was coming to an end, and the legal regulations set narrow limits on how long you can be employed on a fixed-term basis. So there was no further perspective and I would generally say that the framework conditions showed me quite clearly: You have no future here.
I got into conversation with Hendrik (CEO of DIA) and he gave me a promise for the future and a promise of trust. That made and still makes the decisive difference for me: knowing clearly that we want to go down a longer-term path together.

As we all know, you're a sporty guy with a great sense of community. What personal/human values count for you, besides professional aptitude?

Somehow everything I've done has to do with learning. An inquisitiveness, simply the drive and ambition to open up new things for myself, it all contributes to what is called lifelong learning. And I've always had this motive - perhaps also that you can overcome any limit, any hurdle. These are themes that then particularly came together in Paralympic sport and where I also learned a lot as a coach. To seek and promote equal opportunities, to create spaces in which people can develop and flourish.

What excites you personally about Salesforce's products? What makes Salesforce different from other providers in the market?

The core technology of Salesforce is, in my eyes, simply a gigantic feat of engineering. The core platform is one of the very few cloud services that, in 21 years now, has had no significant security vulnerabilities and none of the dreaded "breaches" that have allowed massive amounts of information to be stolen.
And then Salesforce is more involved than any other company with things that have a social impact. The best-known example is the Pledge 1 initiative, school adoption, children's hospitals, LGBTQ engagement. Salesforce is committed to social values and doesn't shy away from confrontation about them: that can be directed at U.S. politics, but also at its own structures, such as in 2015, when Salesforce rigorously pushed through a radical initiative to eliminate pay disparities between men and women. This is a genuine social mission, not patronage, where billionaires give a few dollars to charity.

Your personal tip: What skills do you need today to be successful in the digitalization environment?

Even if it sounds terribly banal, I think it's the so-called "soft skills". I think openness is enormously important. What I know today and what I learned yesterday are all subjective and not permanent. So it's enormously valuable to listen first and take in new things. As a consultant, you're expected to have something to say on a wide variety of topics, and of course you want to have an impact, to be heard. This inevitably involves being able to listen and to at least think carefully about what you hear.
This is the basis for a very important skill, namely the attitude towards change. It's easy to say, "Embrace change!", "Change is good!", but in the end, the desire for stability is already paramount. To approach new, different and unexpected things not with fear, but with curiosity and confidence, to be willing to experiment with what you have in your "toolbox" and to learn what works - that is both a great gift and an attitude that you can learn and develop.

Daniel, thank you for the interview.