Slack, the popular communication platform, has experienced a series of executive turnovers and revenue challenges in recent times. However, the company is now under the leadership of its new CEO, Denise Dresser. Dresser, who previously worked at Salesforce for 12 years in various executive roles, acknowledges the difficulties of stepping into the role under such circumstances but is confident in her ability to lead the company.
Replacing a founder-CEO is no easy task, as Dresser’s predecessor, Lidiane Jones, discovered. Jones had taken over from co-founder Stewart Butterfield but left after just 10 months to become the CEO of Bumble. Despite the challenges, Arjun Bhatia, an analyst at William Blair, believes that some executive turnover is expected following an acquisition like Salesforce’s purchase of Slack. He emphasizes the importance of having a stable leadership team and believes that Dresser is well-equipped to navigate the company through this transition.
Dresser herself acknowledges the foundation laid by her predecessors and aims to build upon it while bringing her own unique perspective to the role. As an accountant at heart, she values organization and asks a lot of questions. She believes that Slack is already an incredibly well-run organization and aims to continue its success.
However, Slack’s revenue growth has slowed since its acquisition by Salesforce. While exact revenue numbers are not available, the growth rate has decreased significantly from 46% year over year in Q3 2023 to just 16% in Q4 2024. Dresser’s main challenge is to reverse this trend and find new business opportunities while keeping existing customers satisfied. Brent Leary, principal analyst at CRM Essentials, believes that Dresser must strike a balance between attracting non-Salesforce customers and ensuring seamless integration for Salesforce users.
One significant change Dresser faces is the development of generative AI in software, both within Slack and across the Salesforce family of products. She sees AI as a natural fit for Slack, given its vast amount of unstructured data from conversations. By integrating structured and unstructured data, Dresser believes that Slack can become a powerful platform for the future. However, the success of AI implementation depends on execution and the quality of the generated summaries.
Another challenge for Dresser is competing with Microsoft, which offers Teams combined with Office 365, Dynamics 365, and AI capabilities. J. P. Gownder, an analyst at Forrester Research, suggests that Slack should integrate more closely with Salesforce to expand its user base without alienating existing customers. While Microsoft has distribution advantages, Slack’s interoperability and ease of use give it an edge.
Furthermore, Dresser must navigate the departure of Slack’s co-founder and CTO, Cal Henderson, who was replaced by Salesforce co-founder and CTO Parker Harris. This change poses an additional degree of difficulty as Slack loses someone with deep technical knowledge of the platform.
Despite these challenges, Dresser remains focused on making human connections and believes that her passion for improving the world, serving users, and supporting employees will guide her through the obstacles ahead. With her experience and determination, Dresser aims to lead Slack to continued growth and success within the Salesforce ecosystem.