Oracle CEO Safra Catz on AI, The Fear of Change, And the Power of Customers
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/oracle-ceo-safra-catz-ai-fear-change-power-customers-bob-evans/
During her 19 years as a top executive at one of the world's most-influential tech companies, CEO Safra Catz has seen lots of surefire next-big-things flare up and fizzle out, lots of "Oracle killers" live out their days as ankle-biters, and lots of turbulent business cycles test the wills and skills of senior executives.
In a recent article in PwC's Strategy
· she helped create and execute the strategy that took Oracle from being a big but narrow provider of databases to an end-to-end enterprise software leader in applications as well;
· and over the past year or two, Catz has been masterminding the overhaul of Oracle's business processes and mindset as the cloud requires big vendors like Oracle to be much more focused on customer success.
Here's a quick snippet of some of her most-intriguing comments, and I urge you to read the whole article if you're interested in a glimpse at how one of the business world's top executives thinks.
AI: Haven't We Heard This Song Before? " Of course, we have heard about AI for decades in the software industry. It was always a promise of the future. The programs were based on running rules with inputs that included far less data, and less processing power."
AI: Why The Time Is Right. "The world has seen explosions of data in the past, and each time, enterprises have tried to manage it in one way or another. But this time, it’s accompanied by much faster and more accessible computing capability. All this data is instantly rendered usable and actionable, and that creates an unprecedented opening for artificial intelligence."
AI Creates Higher-Value Opportunities For People: "And the software technology is far more advanced than it was. The systems can not only augment decisions, but can make them better and faster — freeing up employees and consumers to do more interesting things."
AI Makes Productivity Surge: "Because all those effects — speed, scale, security — release resources and people to do much higher-value things. And that’s what’s happening now. We’re starting to see enormous productivity increases. I’m not sure how economists measure productivity in this country, but no one can deny that our capabilities have increased enormously."
CFO's Role Redefined With Modern Systems. "Finance now rides shotgun; it is the navigator of the car. Yes, the line of business is driving, but finance is looking forward, suggesting routes to try out, and modeling new possibilities. You don’t just extrapolate from the past; you are free to see what else is going on. This is a totally different job, partnered up with the lines of business."
Fear Of Change. "The companies have to make some hard choices; they've got to show some courage. People want to love change, but they hate change. It's terrifying. In any employee base, there's a small group in the front who say 'I'm in. This change is going to be awesome.' There's a small group in the back who think they'll never accept it; it will happen over their cold, dead body. And there is a gigantic group in the middle who will go with whichever side is winning."
The Power of Transparency And Accountability. "Shortly after I joined Oracle in May 1999, Larry said, “We’re going to save a billion dollars by switching our systems.” We had only $9 billion in revenue at the time. When a CEO makes an announcement like that, executives either embrace the change or they start hearing rumors about their replacements. You can no longer duplicate one another’s efforts when you cut that much. You can’t waste money on projects that don’t make you more competitive.
And Most Of All, The Power Of Customers. "Historically, Microsoft and Oracle were archenemies. We still compete. We also compete fiercely with Amazon. But both Microsoft and Amazon are Oracle customers. Why do we work together? Because our customers demand it. Our underlying philosophy is that every customer will have multiple clouds. It’s their choice, and it brings us back to our initial history."