I had a product manager at Salesforce tell me he went around trying to build support for a new reporting product. He was eventually taken aside by some coworker and told they don't build new products at Salesforce, and bought companies instead.
And they did indeed later buy multiple companies, including Tableau, in that space.
Which can make business sense if you take into account both the probability of the project failing to deliver a competitive product (always high no matter how slick the pitch deck is) and the probability that it gets no traction in the marketplace even if it is as good as the competition. Buying an existing successful product and its customer base can be much lower risk even if it is the more expensive route.
And they did indeed later buy multiple companies, including Tableau, in that space.