Who Says CEOs Can't Find Inner Peace?

On June 3, Marc Benioff, the affable CEO of Net startup Salesforce.com Inc., was playing host to 400 customers, business partners, and journalists at the Grand Havana Room, a tony cigar bar on the top floor of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper. The occasion: a press conference introducing the company's newest technology. Dressed in a dark suit with his ever-present "End of Software" button on his left lapel, Benioff was schmoozing guests when he got a call on his cell phone from a representative of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Would he buy a few tickets to a charity screening on June 27 of the actor's new movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines?

Click-click-click went Benioff's brain. He was planning on introducing an update of Salesforce.com's Web-based customer-management software at about that time anyway. Why not become the primary sponsor of the event, invite hundreds of business associates to the screening, and grab attention for his new product -- all in one swoop? This plan came together in a matter of seconds. In the end, he hosted 600 guests at San Francisco's Galaxy Theater and then whisked away 20 customers and prospects -- plus Schwarzenegger -- to a private dinner nearby.