A Customer Connection

Continued

PROFIT: What are some of the changes that you have noticed in the culture of the company itself?

SIM: It still feels like a small company to me. We are not afraid to try something a little different, and we provide the leeway so that employees can do that. I think in many respects that part of the culture has not changed. I think what has changed is that we have become a little more mature. We have more experience. We know what works. There is respect for people who can take that experience and use it when creating new programs. We have a lot of respect for people who have a long tenure at Oracle. I think that's a differentiator in our business. In a lot of the companies around us, there is plenty of change. Most people probably aren't aware that at Oracle there are a lot of people who have been here for more than 10 years.

PROFIT: Can you tell us how the innovative culture that has always been part of Oracle has infused into marketing and affected the marketing strategy?

SIM: I think the best value I can use to describe Oracle is one of innovation. I have noticed that since the first day I started working at this company. You could decide what your job was going to be at Oracle. When you were hired, you weren't limited to doing just what was on your job description. You were encouraged to try to take on as much as you could and be innovative. Oracle would tell you that these are the objectives and goals that we have for the business, and it's your job to innovate to accomplish those things. The company takes an innovative approach to how employees can work at the company.

There is an innovative approach to how we go to market as well. We don't follow any books in terms of how we do marketing, how we work with customers. We can create it as we go. In fact, we're writing the book on how to market enterprise software now. We're innovative with the message as well. Our messages are unique to exactly what Oracle can provide. We make sure that any message we put out there is something that our competition cannot say as well. Innovation is what drives the company. It is absolutely why I come to work every day.

PROFIT: Tell us about the first Oracle event.

SIM: I think the first event at Oracle was a user group event—the very first annual user group meeting. As I recall, it was held in one of our founders' backyards—a casual backyard barbecue. It started with customers driving the events that we were running, and that is still a message that we have today.

Today, instead of having one event a year, we now run more than 6,000 events for our customers, with our customers, and with our partners.