With all the doom and gloom around the global economy, it’s tempting for new companies and innovative ideas to get dismissed; the knee-jerk reaction for CEOs is to reel in all investments and hunker down until better times. But the worst thing for a company to do during austere times is to blindly cut initiatives that prevent breakout growth during the next boom cycle – especially initiatives related to innovation, new products and game-changing strategies. Apple worked on iTunes, iPods and redesigned their retail stores during the last recession and were well-positioned to win market share when the economy recovered. CEOs involved with next-generation technologies like SaaS should think like Apple in order to transform the current economic crisis into opportunity.

Force.com entrepreneurs are definitely proving it’s possible to build a cash-efficient SaaS business, despite macroeconomic conditions. Companies like Apttus, Riskonnect and JobScience are all thriving as salesforce.com partners and have used the Force.com platform to accelerate their path to market and profitability.

The latest example of this groundswell in successful Force.com companies is Maxplore, a startup focused on field service management applications, who have over a dozen customers in less than a year. They also recently won the Force.com Million Dollar Challenge and will receive a $2 million investment from Emergence Capital Partners.

Here at salesforce.com, we’re investing in not only our customers but also our partner and developer ecosystem – let us know how we can help you innovate!