MDI GURGAON

Organizational
Alignment of Oracle
Corporation
Submitted to Prof. Madhushree Nanda

SUBMITTED BY:
GROUP 5, SECTION A
DHARA BABARIA [15P019]
LAXMAN SAHOO [15P029]
PALASH ARORA [15P035]
PARUL JAIN [15P037]
ROHIT GUPTA [15P041]
SAKSHAM AGARWAL
[15P044]

Table of Contents
OracleCorporation.................................................................................................. 2
1.

Introduction..................................................................................................... 2

2.

Context............................................................................................................ 3
2.1. Market or business environment.................................................................3
2.1.1. Industry Characteristics.........................................................................3
2.1.2. Market Characteristics...........................................................................3
2.1.3. Raw Material.......................................................................................... 3
2.1.4. Technology............................................................................................ 3
2.1.5. Government Regulation.........................................................................4
2.2. Oracle Strategy........................................................................................... 4

3.

ORACLE Organisational Structure....................................................................5

3.1.

Product Division Structure.........................................................................6

3.2.

Structure Explained................................................................................... 6

4.

Stakeholder Analysis....................................................................................... 7

5.

Integrating Mechanisms at Oracle Corporation:..............................................7

6.Fit of Structure.................................................................................................... 8
7.

STAR model..................................................................................................... 8

8.

Culture............................................................................................................. 9

9.

Major Acquisitions......................................................................................... 11
9.1.

Oracle acquired Sun:............................................................................... 11

9.2.

Oracle acquired PeopleSoft:....................................................................12

10.

Oracle Partners: Suppliers and Distributors................................................13

10.1.

Oracle & SAP........................................................................................ 13

10.2.

Oracle & Infosys................................................................................... 13

10.3.

Oracle & Fujitsu Consulting..................................................................13

10.4.

Oracle & Atlantic Technologies.............................................................13

10.5.

Oracle & Accenture.............................................................................. 14

10.6.

Oracle & Wipro..................................................................................... 14

11.

Recommendations...................................................................................... 14

11.1. Stakeholder Action Planning....................................................................14

References........................................................................................................... 15

OracleCorporation
Hardware and Software, Engineered to Work Together

1. Introduction
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational company with its headquarters in Redwood City,
California, United States. The company provides enterprise solution software, computer hardware
products and services. The company started in 1977 when Larry Ellisonsaw a missed opportunity in
the relational database technology. None of the founders, Ellison, Bob Miner or Ed Oates had
imagined that the company would be able to bring about a change in the world of business computing.
With offices in more than 145 countries around the globe, the employee strength at Oracle is more
than 120, 000. The vision of the organization is to help organizations simplify, standardize and
automate business processes. Oracles mission is to deliver the best information with the highest
quality of service at the lowest cost. Oracle is ranked second after IBM in the list of worlds top
technology companies.The company had a tremendous run in FY2013 with revenues of $37.2 billion.
It caters to 400,000 customers including 100 of the Fortune 100 customers. With products ranging
from database, storage servers, virtualization software, collaboration space in the form of beehive,
operating systems, developer tools, programming languages like Java, the company has ensured it has
a product line that can provide end to end software solutions to business of any size.
Oracle has also integrated its software offerings along with hardware support and services to offer
complete business solutions be it on the cloud platform or over the mobile. These offerings range
from technology solutions for big data, data warehousing, business solutions from financial
management so supply chain solutions, industry solutions from aerospace to lie sciences and a whole
range of customized offerings for its various partners and clients. It thus truly reflects hardware and
software, engineered to work together.
In terms of the competition in databases, Microsoft, IBM and Sybase are the major players. However
the intense rivalry with SAP started because Oracle started offering enterprise wide solutions where
SAP was the market leader. While competition in other industry solutions and programming
languages comes from a number of companies, Oracle has maintained the number one position in
most of the industries where it offers IT solutions be it banking, financial services, education or life
sciences.
The company has a network of 15 million developers- the largest developer community in the world.
Besides it also has 250,000 partners around the world. The once engineering driven company also
employs consultants and is well known now as a hard-driving sales and marketing culture, which is
quite visible in its track record of acquisitions, some of which have been quite aggressive.It is a firm

much known for its bold acquisitions, be it that of Sun Microsystems, PeopleSoft or Siebel Systems.
The focus of the company has always been to become a one stop IT solutions provider.

2. Context
2.1. Market or business environment
2.1.1. Industry Characteristics
Oracles main competitors are SAP, IBM and Microsoft as they have similar
offerings and production capabilities. The industry is highly competitive.

Source: Gartner 2015

2.1.2. Market Characteristics

The customers have high bargaining power as the industry is an oligopoly with anumber of
capable competitors with little collusion. This makes the competing companies offer
customers promotional offers in order to attract and retain them.

2.1.3. Raw Material

Oracle sources its hardware from third-party manufacturers. It uses a third-party logistics
service company to deliver them. The company has reduced the number of third-party
manufacturers to streamline the procurement process.This also improves the quality of

suppliers since inefficient ones are let off.

The acquisition of Sun Microsystems has reduced the dependence on unreliable hardware
suppliers for Oracle. Similarly, Microsoft acquired Nokia which shows a trend of reliable
hardware companies being acquired by large software companies.

2.1.4. Technology

The industry is driven by innovation

Enhanced opportunities in Big Data and Internet of Things
The industry is shifting to cloud computing technologies

2.1.5. Government Regulation

Well-developed laws with respect to Intellectual Property Rights are essential for software

companies.
Western countries have stringent IPR laws but East Asian countries still have a long way to go
in this regard.

In summary, the rapid changes in technology after 2009, has made the environment unstable
for the company. Thus, a structure with high responsiveness was needed.

2.2. Oracle Strategy

3. ORACLE Organisational Structure

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3.1.

Product Division Structure

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3.2.

Structure Explained

Oracle is a large, mature organization with fully elaborated technical and administrative departments,
including, engineers, market researchers, and analysts who scrutinize, routinize and formalize the work.
The technical core is oriented towards mass production and the narrow middle management area reflects
tall hierarchy for control. Thus, there is extensive specialization and formalization aiming towards
highest form of efficiency. While hybrid structure is being followed for the newly formed divisions like
cloud computing, etc.; the older established divisions are following the machine bureaucracy structure.

4. Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder

Interest/Expectations

Importance

Shareholder

Profitability, Returns

Customer

Innovative product, reliable services, one-stop

solution, customization of services

Management

Innovation, Revenue generation

Employees

Skill development, Diversification of work, Career

growth, Rewards

Suppliers

Long- term contracts

5. Integrating Mechanisms at Oracle Corporation:

1. Knowledge transfer sessions-Whenever anything new was done in the
organisation, the leader of the project holds sessions to educate the fellow
employees on the process which he followed to get the work done. This
was done in order to transfer tacit knowledge as well as explicit knowledge
with the employees.
2. New team member induction- Whenever a new member joins a team,
informal knowledge sharing session is held to bring him/her up to speed.
The session is kept informal to promote better coordination.
3. Proper documentation- Any changes made to the product are
documented and shared with all the employees. This helps people track
the progress of the product in successive versions.
4. Internal social networking site- To help people interact with each other
on a personal level and share the achievements of fellow employees, the
company maintains an internal social networking site.
5. Instant messenger- A personalised messenger is provided to all
employees to get in touch with other Oracle employees all over the world.
The app is very similar to publically used apps like Yahoo! Messenger and
Gtalk.
6. Non-Disclosure agreements- All employees are mandated to sign NDA
on induction to the company.

6.Fit of Structure

Stakehold
er

Interest/Expectations

MET or NOT

Sharehold
er

Profitability

Yes

Returns

Yes

Customer

Innovative product

Yes

Reliable services

Yes

One-stop solution

Average

Customization of services

Average

Managem
ent

Innovation

Yes

Revenue generation

Yes

Employee
s

Skill development

Yes

Diversification of work

No

Career growth

Average

Rewards

Average

Long- term contracts

Yes

Suppliers

7. STAR model

7.1.
7.2.

7.3.

Strategy
Innovation and Mergers and Acquisitions
Structure
Product division structure harnesses innovation
Processes

7.4.

7.5.

Internal Social Networking Site and Instant Messenger

Knowledge transfer sessions
People/Culture
Work-life balance encourages on job performance
Open door policy removes bureaucracy
Reward System
Does not encourages innovation as high performers are not
rewarded
Talent Retention becomes an issue

8. Culture
While employees at different levels in the organization have a different view
about the companys culture there are a few common aspects of the Oracle
culture that can be easily seen:

A culture resonating the leaders beliefs and personality. One of the best ways
to summarize the personality of Larry Ellison comes from the 1997 biographyThe difference between God and Larry Ellison is that God does not think Hes
Larry Ellison. Larry wants to be the number one in every business he is
involved in. This cut throat, aggressive, competitive spirit is what the Oracle
culture symbolizes and it all comes from the leaders style of running the
business. In the words of a new employee at Oracle:

The brand Oracle, the red colour that is omnipresent in the office, the global
site office pictures I see all around or the internal communications in my
mailbox, all reflect the aggressive style that Oracle and particularly the top
management of the company stands for.

Work Life balance

While the hard aspects of culture make the employees go beyond and extend
their limits to complete the assigned responsibilities, employees are still happy
about the work-life balance they are able to achieve. The HR policies of flexible
working hours and work from home in consultation with the managers are
appreciated by the employees who join the organization.

Open Door Policy

The cultural elements of seating employees, middle managers and senior

managers in similar workstations and a clearly defined policy that any employee
can walk-in to another employees workstation irrespective of the organization
level clearly reflect the organizations commitment to an open door policy.

High Performance Culture

Appraisals and bonuses in the organization are irrespective of the experience of

the employee, governed clearly by the performance of the employee in the
financial year. The goals and responsibilities are clearly defined and the
attainment of goals as well as innovative and new approaches deployed for
attaining the goal are both important dimensions of the annual appraisal.

Driven by clearly defined corporate policies and practices

The policies for employees at all levels are clearly defined and uploaded on the
internal oracle employee site. All policies and procedures are approved by the
CEOs office and none of these is flexible on any individual managers discretion.

Goal Oriented yet flexible work culture

One of the things past and present employees liked despite the set goals is the
flexibility Oracle allows in the approach towards achieving the goals. Another
dimension of the work culture is the freedom to utilize time to work on internal
projects that could be rolled out on the company level to ease out the process
implementation.
The culture at Oracle represents a bureaucratic culture with emphasis on defined
policies and procedures, with flexibility to perform and innovate in the
boundaries of the goals set for an individual. Since the environment for most of
the businesses Oracle has presence in is quite stable, the culture is suited for
and works well for the organization. The challenge for promoting a culture for
innovation within the defined boundaries remains, and the company has specific
groups catering to the need for innovating in a growing organization.

9. Major Acquisitions
9.1.

Oracle acquired Sun:

The acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation was completed by Oracle on January 27,
2010. Significantly, Oracle, previously only a software vendor, now owned both hardware and
software product lines from Sun
Reason:
Main reason was to acquire control on Java and Solaris technologies. Java is one of the computer
industrys best-known brands and most widely deployed technologies, and it is the most important
software Oracle has ever acquired. Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracles fastest growing business, is
built on top of Suns Java language and software. Oracle can now ensure continued innovation and
investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community.
The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracles largest
business, and has been for a long time. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle
database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris. Oracle is as committed as ever to Linux
and other open platforms and will continue to support and enhance our strong industry partnerships.
Integrating Mechanism Used:

Oracle enables faster innovation across the entire stack.

Engineers collaborate directly to share core intellectual property across product lines

There were no non-disclosure agreements to sign and no alliance managers required to

facilitate sharing of critical information such as core Intellectual Property.

Focussed on Optimizing the full stack by forming Cross Functional Teams and as a result
Oracle now provides a complete stack, engineering, tuning, and collaboration can be done at
any level to solve problems or exploit new opportunities. Software can be optimized to take
advantage of hardware features, hardware can be engineered to provide direct advantages to
software, and functionality can move within the complete system as needed to promote
performance, reliability, scalability, or other desired aspects.

Challenges Faced:

Each product has a set of unique strengths, only some of which will be applicable to a specific
customer. For the sales rep to be able to present these unique strengths he or she must know what
questions to ask, so make sure your sales team is equipped with those questions.

Because the new product strategy can be confusing, sales reps need a matrix of how the products
fit together. What works with what, etc.? They need to know terms of the service contract. One of
the issues with the Oracle/Sun merger was that Sun had different service terms for their products

than Oracle. Clarifying these is huge. Remove all uncertainty

Make sure the sales team knows how they will be compensated. As you redefine the product
positioning and unique strengths it is critical that the sales team knows the structure. Lets face it;
most sales people are coin operated in that their compensation plan will dictate behaviour.

9.2.

Oracle acquired PeopleSoft:

Oracle acquires PeopleSoft Inc. for $ 10.3 billion at $26.50 a share which was being blocked by U.S.
government on antitrust grounds. PeopleSoft manages functions such as financial reporting, human
resources and customer relation
Reason:
Corporate customers, which spent wildly on software in the 1990s, are cutting back, buying cheaper
software in smaller bites, demanding bigger discounts and testing new approaches, such as lower-cost
open source programs. Customers are rebelling against large upfront licensing costs, ever-rising
"maintenance" fees and technology that frequently fail to deliver promised benefits. So Oracle needed
PeopleSoft to bolster its business-applications business, which trailed both SAP and PeopleSoft. Apart
from that the building deals with IBM and PeopleSoft had put Oracle on back foot so it adopted this
defensive strategy.
Integrating Mechanisms used:
Oracle pushed its database, application server and other infrastructure software into PeopleSoft's
customer base, to run beneath PeopleSoft's applications. It also integrated Oracles PeopleSoft
Enterprise Projects and Oracles Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM).The
combination of PeopleSoft Projects and Primavera P6 EPPM enabled customers to drive profitability,
increase productivity and improve operations by delivering the first comprehensive enterprise PPM
solution for PeopleSoft ERP customers.
The financial management tools within PeopleSoft Projects combined with the time-based planning
tools within Primavera P6 EPPM helped organizations achieve the expected return on investment on
projects by enabling them to be delivered on-time and on-budget. Oracle also configured its
PeopleSoft applications to run on Oracle's Fusion Middleware 10g Release 2

10. Oracle Partners: Suppliers and Distributors

10.1.

Oracle & SAP

SAP AG is a software company, based in Germany that develops enterprise software applications and
business solutions. Until recently Oracle was SAPs database of choice. It was standard for the
industry to have Business Suite of SAP and database of Oracle.
However with the advent of HANA database, and increase competition from Oracle in application
space, Oracle is no more SAPs preferred database partner. With Oracle developing its own inmemory database the competition seems to become even more furious. However, this partnership is a
classic example of a competitor as a partner.

10.2.

Oracle & Infosys

As a worldwide Diamond Partner of Oracle and with the vital experience of managing over 500 large
customers, Infosys-Oracle practice has nearly 25,000 consultants across the globe with more than 20
specializations across the Oracle product portfolio. Infosys won the Oracle Titan Partner Award at
Oracle OpenWorld 2010.
The cooperation spans from financial services to retail and consumer packaged good. Infosys has over
20 Oracle Centres of Excellence focusing on a wide range of applications and technologies. In
addition, they also have several co-development and joint solutions initiatives.

10.3.

Oracle & Fujitsu Consulting

Fujitsu Ltd. is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company
headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by
revenues.
Oracle has a strong relationship with Fujitsu which is termed as Unbreakable in the industry. It has
been awarded Oracle Partner Network (OPN) Specialized status for SOA. The OPN Specialization
programme offers Oracles most experienced and committed partners the opportunity to show
differentiation and competitive edge in particular areas of the Oracle portfolio.
This represents a significant achievement for Fujitsu as it is the first global partner to be awarded
the SOA Specialization.

10.4.

Oracle & Atlantic Technologies

Atlantic Technologies has a long-term partnership with Oracle and has been partnering with them in
the development and deployment of cloud-based solutions since 2007. They are pioneers in cloud
based solutions (Specially CRM) which is considered to be the next big thing for the ERP industry.
With a Gold Partnership Status from Oracle they have been involved in implementing more than 60
cloud based projects. They were also the first Italian Partner for distribution and support of the Oracle
Siebel system.

10.5.

Oracle & Accenture

Accenture is the first member of the Oracle Partner Network to achieve Diamond Statusthe highest
status achievable. They have also won around 85 awards from Oracle.
This significant milestone recognizes Accentures depth and breadth of skills across the entire Oracle
product suite. Their joint capabilities and extensive experience create an outstanding combination of
products and services that ensure the success of their customers.

10.6.

Oracle & Wipro

Wipro is a long term partner of Oracle with partnership lasting for more than 15 years. This is the 5 th
largest System Integrator Partner of Oracle in Globe. Wipro has implemented projects that span the
entire product life-cycle Consulting, Implementation, and Up-grade, Roll-outs, Application
Development and Maintenance services.
Wipro also has dedicated Centres of Excellence (CoE) to drive Knowledge Management, Continuous
Innovation, Transformation initiatives, Business Process Improvements and Competency
Development for Oracle.

11. Recommendations
11.1. Stakeholder Action Planning
Issues
Poor Reward
System

Actions
Introduce performance based bonus
instead of fixed bonus to all
employees

Comments
The action will lead to
better Retention of
Talent

References
1. Oracle Corporate Fact Sheet
2. Booz & Co. Bi-annual list of top technology companies
3. Oracle Corporation OraFaq
4. Oracle timeline, http://oracle.com.edgesuite.net/timeline/oracle/
5. Oracle Annual Report 2012 (10-k Filing), http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/investorrelations/financials/fy2013-form-10k-1966521.pdf
6. Oracle Is The Most Dysfunctional Organization That I Had Ever Seen,
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-how-screwed-up-oracles-sales-org-is-20124#ixzz2wF8yf2Sk
7. Oracle's Cut-Throat Sales Culture Is Hurting Its Hardware Business,
http://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-former-employees-explain-why-it-cant-sell-hardware2012-4#ixzz2wF99f8fh
8. Oracle, SAP Threatened by Big Data Start-ups Lotame, DataStax, Etc., Says Cowen,
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2014/03/13/oracle-sap-threatened-by-big-datastartups-lotame-datastax-etc-says-cowen/?mod=yahoobarrons&ru=yahoo
9. Company Website: http://www.oracle.com/
10. Information Week: http://www.informationweek.com/
11. Wikipedia on Oracle Corporation: http://en.wikipedia.org/oracle_corporation
12. http://www.siliconbeat.com/?s=oracle