Thread regarding Oracle Corp. layoffs

Layoffs in sales are coming... read the news.

Its been out for sometime. The reason Oracle was slow to cloud was because of its sales force. Yes MH is hiring college kids. Yes he is laying off the old farts. Get a clue people and read the trade articles. If you are in sales you are part of the revamp. Make plans, move or get let go. The news has been out for quite sometime. Read below:

https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/TDJNDN_201708171416/oracles-salesstaff-revamp-is-bearing-fruit-wsj.html

Oracle Corp. is starting to see the benefits of revamping its sales force, addressing longstanding questions from Wall Street about the software company's commitment to cloud computing.

Co-Chief Executive MH nearly doubled Oracle's sales staff over the past six years to around 35,000 workers. Many hires were put through a revamped training program, then charged with winning over startups and small businesses that Oracle largely had bypassed.

What do you do with the ones ill equipped to sell cloud?

Just a few years ago, Oracle was ill-equipped to do so. Its highly compensated sales staff targeted chief information officers at corporate giants, looking for big-budget deals that came with fat commissions. The company not only bypassed smaller businesses -- who were among the early adopters of the cloud's web-based, on-demand computing services -- but also the division leaders at big companies who were starting to buy cloud services piecemeal.

While Oracle knew chief information officers, Mr. Hurd said in an interview, "We didn't know the head of HR. We didn't know the chief marketing officer."

So how did he make the change?

So he created a program in 2013 to indoctrinate hires fresh out of college in Oracle's sales methods, rather than solely hiring veteran sales executives from other companies. Called "Class Of" -- playing off the term for a group of graduating students -- the program aims to develop a low-cost sales force that prospects for new markets. Oracle taps its own seasoned salespeople to become mentors to the newbies.

"We can now go from fundamentally startup to enterprise in terms of our ability to sell our capabilities," Mr. Hurd said.

Oracle's rethought sales approach has turned some doubters around.

So how does this work?

As Thierry Zerbib prepared to move Telesoft Corp, a Phoenix maker of expense-management software, to the cloud earlier this year, the chief technology officer got a cold call from an Oracle salesperson. Mr. Zerbib couldn't imagine becoming an Oracle customer, recalling a frustrating experience years earlier when the company was a reseller of Oracle technology.

But the young sales rep persisted, winning over Mr. Zerbib and securing a three-year contract for around $500,000 to deploy the full suite of Oracle's cloud services. "I never felt pressure," he said of the negotiation. "There's a change that's happening at Oracle."

And there you have it. That is what is happening, it been posted here in the layoff.com. But its been touted in the industry. Pack your bags. Look at the Oracle stock. Its up and you "Old farts" are out. Take your medicine get a new job, learn new skills or get caught in a layoff the choice is yours. The decision has been made, and you are nothing more than an overpriced dinosaur. Out ya go... June 1st, Sept 1st, Dec 1st.... until you get the picture.

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Post ID: @OP+OQSIcnH

8 replies (most recent on top)

I'm neither a Boomer nearing retirement nor an NCG Millennial. But one thing's for sure, I continue as I always have, updating my Cloud skills. That having been written, it's a smaller and smaller boat here. So perhaps my ever finer tuned Cloud skills will mostly benefit someplace other than the big O.

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Post ID: @6ckh+OQSIcnH

If us "old farts" are so clueless, then why is Oracle using us as mentors? I mean, if we don't know anything and the information we have is useless, what point is there in talking to us at all?

Get a clue. The "old farts" are more than capable of learning anything we need to sell Cloud. What we aren't willing to do is pitch multi-million dollar, 18-month sales cycle Cloud deals to billion-dollar corporations to get paid peanuts. And, yes, we do know the heads of Marketing and HR. Typically those relationships are led by the Apps folks. As a team, we cover all execs in these accounts. On a GOOD team, we communicate and share information, something LE doesn't want us doing as he would rather us compete against each other.

Do you really think that Oracle is going to sustain all that profitability through $50k - $500k Cloud deals? Really? I closed a $500k Cloud deal and it didn't make a dent in my quota or even warrant a mention on our team's weekly forecast call. Why? Because Oracle doesn't run on $500k deals. It runs on $10M+ deals with a 98% profitability from SW. Do you that no Cloud is that profitable? If you do, think again.

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Post ID: @5kiy+OQSIcnH

Oh, The old farts 35 an app or not getting fired or laid off in our group of their sales numbers are there.

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Post ID: @jsx+OQSIcnH

Well, the truth you're not riding in these articles is what's really going on at Oracle: they're hiring young professional hires now because the college grad program is not working out . Don't believe everything you read in the news . The college hires in our group have turned over four times in the last year .. they all quit or get fired for nonperformance . The old farts are the ones actually doing the selling make no mistake .

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Post ID: @dor+OQSIcnH

OMG this is such total BS

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Post ID: @bul+OQSIcnH

This cycle happens. Today's millennials are tomorrows "old farts". The stocks are not an indicator as it has grown only few notches where other competitors have doubled or grown multiple times. There is a whole new generation out there who do not know about this company and will continue to grow. Look at the gross revenue growth year over year. It is not growing. It will not, for several years. You do the math. Hey millennials, you are in a steam ship..... It takes a couple of years for you to realize. The statistics shows only a tiny bunch remains even to know that. Do you need any proof?

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Post ID: @roy+OQSIcnH

Millennials might be good and oracle sales may need revamping. But that doesn't mean you have to believe word for word everything MH says about his "revolutionary sales revamping program".

Grow up, guys!

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Post ID: @ixm+OQSIcnH

I work with some of these said college kids. I have to say I am quite impressed. Times are changing and you either need to be on the train or get off. If everyone is so unhappy, then leave. Yes it will take time. But guess what... in five to seven years these college kids you refer to will be the majority. In some cases will be the boss. The millennial movement is real and Oracle and others are trying to stay in front of it. If they don't adapt, adjust and adopt, then they will be behind. I get it, change is hard. Folks want to stay at job and retire. It's scary. It's like the saying goes, you are either in or you are out. Instead of spending time complaining and being upset, find the peace to move on and find your next adventure.

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Post ID: @rre+OQSIcnH

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