Thread regarding Oracle Corp. layoffs

Love CP’s post below. Describes TK on the dot. They say people can change and be better , but I doubt it in this case. The style and attitude seems ti be in his DNA

Google is going to realise too late they made one of the worst C-Level hiring decisions in their history. There is no way TK will succeed there. He is organisational POISON and google will learn this the hard way. Just a shame he was allowed to continue to be with Oracle for so long - which speaks loudly of Oracles fractured management. I’m confident his departure is a critical step in the direction of Oracles turnaround - One also requiring the departure of MH. Only then might oracle reflect seriously on the fact customers, and employees, might be their most important assets.

I think Google cloud is in for rough seas..... will be interesting to see if the ship goes down there, too.

CP pretty much nails it:

https://www.quora.com/Have-you-worked-for-Thomas-Kurian-at-Oracle-He-is-the-new-CEO-of-Google-Cloud-What-is-he-like/answer/Cameron-Purdy

Have you worked for Thomas Kurian at Oracle? He is the new CEO of Google Cloud. What is he like?

Cameron Purdy

Cameron Purdy, former Svp at Oracle (2007-2015)

Answered 4d ago · Upvoted by Geethika Chilamanthula, Senior application engineer at Oracle (2013-present) and Nitin Kesarwani, worked at Oracle · Author has 2.1k answers and 5.5m answer views

Yes, Thomas (aka “TK”) was my boss at Oracle. He was the President of all product development, and his boss was Larry, the Chairman of the Board.

I saw that TK got a new job running Google Cloud at Google, which is an outstanding opportunity. That should be interesting; among other things, he was responsible for Oracle Cloud at Oracle. In that role, I think the results speak for themselves.

I can’t tell you what he is like; I can only tell you what he was like at Oracle when I worked for him:

Detail-oriented: No detail — and I mean absolutely no detail — was too small for him to bring up, focus a large organization on for an extended period of time, and ultimately make a decision on himself, which he was flexible enough to change without warning every 2–3 weeks thereafter. I think the results speak for themselves.

All-knowing: There is no topic, in technology or business, on which he was not the foremost expert, and thus it is important for him to be involved in every decision at every stage from product inception, through product architecture, through product development, through product launch, and for the remainder of the product life-cycle. I think the results speak for themselves.

Dynamic: Some people are content to go “along the cool sequested vale of life [keeping] the noiseless tenor of their way,” sticking with a plan and doing the boring work of building and delivering something of great value to customers. Thomas was far more dynamic than that, working in 2–3 week cycles, within which cycles any product that was conceived, built, delivered, and ramped to $1+ billion in revenue within a single cycle was allowed to continue to exist. Any project or product that could not be conceived, built, delivered, and sold to the tune of 10 digits of revenue — all within a few weeks — was cancelled or dramatically altered every 2–3 weeks thereafter. I think the results speak for themselves.

Audible: Some people speak quietly, and use words that do not convey exactly what they are feeling. TK is very good at speaking at an amply audible level and using very efficient words (often no more than 4 letters long). This has been a very good recruiting tool for Google — what foresight! I think the results speak for themselves.

I’m a results-oriented person. I think the results speak for themselves.

"I would have thought there would be a non-compete clause."

It's simple, Oracle doesn't compete in the Cloud.

Actually, letting him leave and go to google was just plain brilliant. Why? Watch him hire all these incompetent mo--ns he brought into oracle over the years and leave and join him at google. Getting rid of them is literally worth Billions to oracle because of the dysfunction they bring. And now they will go to work destroying google. Double win!

And by giving up on him, they reduced annual expenses by some $50M - $100M a year including the cost of stock and options grants, flows straight to the bottom line and increases EPS - what’s not to like!

Yeah, definitely gave up on him too easily because he should have been tarred and feathered before leaving.

Oracle should merge with IBM.

TK was the worst manager I saw in my 40 year career in the software industry. I was in dozens of meetings with him over 9 years. He's brilliant but a horrifically bad, terrible, no good manager. I cannot imagine he'll do well at Google.

TK was a disaster as a leader. Are you guys implying LE forced him to change his mind every few weeks? Did LE force him to only communicate with individual contributors by screaming and cursing? There were a ton of really mind bogglingly stupid decisions that came down from him and ES's org was exempt from. Are we supposed to believe only TK was forced to repeatedly shoot himself in the foot?

Non compete clauses are unenforceable in California.

Now TK will have skilled people to work with.

The loss is for Oracle - it started to lose good people for past 2 years , it started to lose its customers, it started to lose its partners and soon the investors.

Make no mistake, LE was and still is the one who is primarily responsible for the technical failures at Oracle. He "demoted" himself from CEO to chairman of the board/CTO. LE has always had a lot of power over development decisions and direction. Don't try to hand TK all of the blame.

Oracle didn't give up on TK -- he gave up on them. Up until now TK has been extremely well compensated and able to do whatever he wants at one of the top software companies in the world. It has worked out just fine because LE consistently has played the game of waiting to see if a market takes off and then buys a leader in order to capture market share which gives TK integration work to do without a lot of accountability for results. However, Cloud is a different ballgame and Oracle can't just buy its way in. LE is out of luck and TK knows it. TK found his ticket out and took it.

Too easily? OMG! How did they let the guy hang on and make all that money for so long when it should have been obvious to anybody what a terrible manager he was!

I would have thought there would be a non-compete clause.

Will be interesting to see if TK really has competence and technological vision but was thwarted by lack of resources and cost-cutting CEOs. Or not. Will also be interesting to see if there really is any technological vision and drive left at Oracle or if it fizzled out.

Let TK take the Google Cloud down too.