Oracle has effectively traded innovation for acquisitions, functioning more as an M&A machine than a tech pioneer. By buying products like WebLogic and Java instead of building them, the company has gutted its R&D and triggered a massive brain drain. Visionaries cash out, and top-tier engineers end up buried in a hierarchy where they’re forced to babysit legacy products in maintenance mode rather than building the future.
The culture is currently defined by stagnation. We need a "meritocracy or exit" pipeline where upward movement is the standard; if a leader or employee isn't consistently contributing or growing, they shouldn't be occupying a seat. Instead, we see stagnant management protected while high-level individual contributors (IC 3–5) are hit by layoffs. This transactional, "cog-in-the-machine" mindset has to go. The left over managers just search talent needle in haystack with hackathons.
Even OCI feels like a reactive attempt to copy AWS, backed by massive data center spending that lacks a clear, long-term strategy. To turn this around, Oracle needs a total leadership overhaul. We must purge the non-technical bureaucracy and "people managers" to make room for visionaries who are ready to challenge the status quo and actually build something new.