With terms like "cloud computing" and "on-demand" having entered everyday conversation, it’s hard to remember how the revolution started. Less than a decade ago, at a time when standard business software was thriving, one company’s unlikely mantra—“No Software”—signaled the coming transformation.

That vision belonged to Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff, and his ability to convince businesses to trade in their clunky desktop software for fast, light, and mobile cloud solutions, turned Salesforce into one of the world’s fastest-growing software industries.

But it took time to change the playbook since SaaS (software as a service), cloud, and on-demand computing services were considered disruptive technologies rather than practical solutions, and the established industry did not appear to welcome a complete overhaul.

As with Google and PayPal before them, the cloud pioneers realized that you couldn’t change an entrenched business system overnight. While Benioff gave Salesforce its mantra and encouraged a corporate culture that accepted the challenge and kept its focus, it took a lot of work on the back end to help the revolution gain momentum.

Today’s $46 billion “no software” software business is poised for even greater growth as more applications migrate to the Web, just as it’s likely to face the challenges that come with assuming the establishment role in an ever-fluid industry.

And in all of this, the next wave is set to be led by ex-Salesforce execs who, like alumni from Google and PayPal, have moved on and applied the lessons learned to the disruptive new companies they've started on their own.

My company, SlideRocket, for example, is taking on Microsoft’s 25-year-old PowerPoint tool with a Web-based presentation software that aims to up the ante with intelligent content management and real-time workflows.

One of my former colleagues, Tien Tzuo, also a Salesforce.com veteran, now leads Zuora, which hopes to transform the business model for content delivery.

And former Salesforce.com exec George John founded Rocketfuel, which intends to use the playbook to redefine online advertising.

The three of us agree that change is everywhere and that the need for better efficiencies remain. But we also think that the lessons we learned while at Salesforce serve us today in our new roles and in our new companies:

• Be religious about alignment. When you are innovating and growing, the biggest challenge you face is keeping the company aligned towards a single vision and destiny.
• Focus 110 percent on customer success. Provide an experience that will make lifelong customers. Build and measure your entire company around this.
• Create a culture of winners. People love to be challenged, people love to give back to their community, and people love to work as a team. Create a supportive and collaborative work environment.

Every company teaches us about management, about product, about people. And with some careful adjustments, the points above can apply to just about any type of business you may be involved in. Keeping in mind that innovation and vision are key to delivering a great product, but that the customer experience is essential—since without a customer a great product is worthless—it follows that a culture of winners emerges. Stay focused in your endeavors, and don't be afraid to try new mantras. Remember how a simple idea like Benioff's shook the industry and transformed it.