Beginner’s Mind: The AppExchange App That’s Ready to Change the World
Like so many, Seth Goddard found himself out of work while COVID-19 swept across the globe. But through his experience with Zen masters, community organizing, and business development, Seth learned to approach even the most challenging situation with a beginner’s mind and an eye toward the infinite possibilities that lay ahead.
In the face of unemployment and against a backdrop of societal awakenings and a global pandemic, Seth launched a company, Metrics.Earth, and its AppExchange app. OAKs (Objectives, Alignments and Key results) is a Salesforce native application for business and civic leaders who need to measure and move multiple bottom lines to achieve sustainability.
We caught up with the insightful entrepreneur to learn more.
Metrics.Earth is a unique company. How did it come to be?
Seth Goddard: Metrics.Earth was founded with my unemployment checks, family support, and a few “ah-ha” moments. As COVID started taking off, I found myself looking for work in a really inhospitable environment. But there was opportunity to be found in that situation. I took some time to reflect on what provides purpose, happiness, and success in both the public and private sectors. With social justice movements on the rise and a pandemic sweeping the world, my inspiration came from within and was supported by the world around me. But how to apply this passion to business and sustainability was a bit tricky until I started circling that old bit of Capitalist wisdom: Follow the money.
I decided to put my thoughts into action. I have a marketing automation background as a Salesforce ISV partner in the past and quickly learned to love the new Second-Generation Managed Packages (2GP) methodology. I created the OAKs application in an effort to embed measurable sustainability goals into quarterly revenue reports.
Can you help us understand the functionality of OAKs? What exactly does the app do?
Seth: To understand OAKs, it helps to understand another organization: The Impact Management Project. They developed a simple scoring method for investors to measure a company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact. It’s essentially a social and environmental reliability score. This led me to my own realization. Why don’t we stick that metric into Salesforce, apply it to accounts, and incentivize opportunities?
OAKs uses the measurable indicators within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the United Nations, which range from reducing ocean pollution and carbon emissions to addressing discrimination. Step 1 is foundational. Set internal objectives that can be tackled and measured by HR and operations departments, like: do we have fewer employees that are feeling discriminated against compared to last year because we met our key result to complete a new staff training? What are the wage gap percentages throughout the company? What percent of our buildings and fleet are fossil-fueled and what is the progress we’re making to reduce that number?
Step 2 is transformational. Share your objectives and learn whether your accounts are acting in a way that is causing harm to society or contributing to a solution, their score will reflect their value (scores range from +3 to -3) to your company’s sustainability objectives. Once you have a number, you can run formulas on it in Salesforce and use the power of the platform to incentivize and close opportunities with sustainability as part of the equation.
How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect your decision to build this business?
Seth: I think what COVID helped me, and a lot of other people, understand, is that ‘business as usual’ as Greta Thunberg would tell us, is not okay. It’s simply not acceptable. And I believe her. I’ve experienced it firsthand in city street protests and the diminishing snowpack of the Rockies. It’s almost like we, as a society, have only been using half of our intelligence. The OAKs app is my attempt to bring a bit of soul, the heart’s wisdom, and our whole selves, into the business of business.
I have a 10-year-old son who was born into a world that has seen some rapid developments right out of the gate as far as climate concerns and social movements go. I want him to enter a business world where these issues are not siloed into corporate foundations or social responsibility departments but are a part of everyday metrics just like time and money. People talk a lot about change and they donate to some good causes, but it hasn’t been embedded into business yet. I feel like we’re ready and we have the right tools for the job.
What do you hope the future holds for Metrics.Earth and what role do you think your relationship with Salesforce will play?
Seth: I want to see some clients with courage. I want to see some businesses value sustainability to incentivize success. I want to see businesses actually utilizing a metric that they include in their quarterly sales that give their leadership teams an understanding of the sustainability of their revenue. That’s what I’d like to see first and foremost.
I have been working with some of the Salesforce Sustainability, Emerging Technologies, and Impact team members throughout this process. Everyone has been super helpful and I feel like there’s genuine support for changing the business of business and I’m thrilled to have my app available on AppExchange.
My wife and I were married at the San Francisco Zen Center’s Green Gulch Farm, so I really appreciate the beginner’s mind philosophy that Marc Benioff picked up from Zen Center founder Suzuki Roshi, as well as the mindfulness and compassion teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh he has imparted onto Salesforce and even into Trailhead modules. As a San Francisco native myself, I think Benioff and Salesforce represent the lineage of “whole self” or “heartmind” ideas that the City has always represented for me. I really am thrilled to be on this journey with Salesforce.
Conclusion
Seth shares his urgency and passion for an improved society with millions of people around the world. His AppExchange app is an effort to harness that passion and use it to make a tangible impact in the way we do business.
“I don’t think I’m telling people what they don’t know. But I am trying to get people to accept that a change is in order, and to actually act upon that change is going to take courage.
Don’t talk about it, be about it.”
Become one of the first to install the OAKs app from AppExchange.
