Safra Catz

"Clearly, we had an amazing start to the year because Oracle has become the go-to place for AI workloads"

"We have signed significant cloud contracts with the who's who of AI, including OpenAI, xAI, Meta, Nvidia, AMD, and many others"

"You want to make a transition like this when things are great"

"Today, Oracle is recognized as the cloud of choice for both AI training and inferencing. I'm very proud of that"

"Oracle's technology and business have never been stronger. And our breathtaking growth rate points to an even more prosperous future. At this time of strength is the right moment to pass the CEO role to the next generation of capable executives. Congratulations Clay and Mike"

"Transforming yourself and modernizing yourself — that’s not a destination, it’s a constant journey"

"In fact, anytime you stop, your competitors are going to pass you"

"And one of the reasons that businesses succeed is when they’re adaptable and when they’re absorbing those new technologies. But those that sort of stick with what they have? They get passed over"

"And by the way, this is true not only in companies — whole civilizations survive or disappear because of whether they’re adaptable to new conditions and new capabilities, and those that really take advantage of them are going to prosper"

"And today we’re seeing that. We’re seeing this incredible prosperity and improvement in productivity, in capability, in really meeting customer expectations and exceeding them. And that’s what we’re pushing forward with"

"Anyone who goes to the hospital or a doctor, you see that — as great as our physicians are and our nurses are and the equipment, it’s all amazing — there are still a lot of doctors typing into things and spending a lot of their time doing that instead of spending the time with the patient"

"But now we can offer a complete system that just listens to that entire interaction and records it and transcribes it and gives recommendations to the physicians — what an incredible time saver! Instead of having doctors spend time putting data into the system, you actually have the system help the physicians figure out what’s best for you"

"Think about it: in the shopping world, we’ve been in the 21st century for a long time–they’re always recommending that next thing you should buy. But in healthcare? Nope! It’s still stuck in typing all the data into the system like the old days"

"And that has been a real passion for the whole company, and we’ve put a lot of energy into it and I think a lot of our employees are very excited about being part of it because as much as we love to make shopping more efficient, or running a giant utility more efficient — and all of that is very important, just like helping a bank be better and more efficient — but when you’re in healthcare, you’re actually saving lives"

"The reality is that industrial companies and governments and other types of large organizations are all realizing that they cannot waste resources. They have to use all of their resources to drive a better customer experience, better employee experience, and better supplier experience"

"Many of them learned that lesson during COVID,” Catz said, “but were afraid, to some extent, to move all the way in. So they started in one place, and now they’ve built that confidence and they’re going to go all the way"

"More and more of our customers are not only moving into the infrastructure cloud, not only the database cloud, not even only the applications cloud, but even the vertical applications cloud"

"People are saying, ‘I have to get in there or I’m going to be left out!’ And so yes, they’re being bold, and they’re watching others be bold, and that is really encouraging them"

"My best decision was to choose to go to Wall Street over law. I learned a lot and focused on the expanding software industry at a time when the independent software industry was just beginning. That ultimately brought me to Oracle"

"I come from Wall Street, and you’ll never see me do a PowerPoint because I’m all about Excel spreadsheets…If it’s not in the numbers, I don’t care how strategic it is, it doesn’t play out"

"“I encourage you to also think very, very carefully when you’re making an investment decision that in fact that decision is really a need you’re filling that you believe in. Don’t just go with everybody else. Don’t just watch a PowerPoint like a dog watching television. Make sure it makes sense…The focus needs to be where you can add competitive value to your customer and have competitive advantage"

"Unfortunately there’s no easy way to get there…Of course, time is money. But that’s the way to go – hard work, focus, and specialization, and then no one can catch you"

"There’s an expectation that when you become a senior executive that you got there in part because you’re really listening. It’s very, very important to listen to your customers. They’re it. They’re doing you a favor by telling you what they think and you can’t get to this position without listening to the issues and engaging in creative problem solving, because that’s what this is really about"

"Sometimes you have to take some blame for something that’s happened in the past and say, I was wrong. That was a mistake. And maybe it’s not you, but it’s your company, which means you’re responsible. I’ll say, Okay, if that’s what we did, I’m sorry about that. Let me see how to make that right"

"The most significant barrier to female leadership is the actual lack of females in leadership. The best advice I can give to women is to go out and start something, ideally their own businesses. If you can’t see a path for leadership within your own company, go blaze a trail of your own"

"The biggest challenge for the next generation of women is to turn these generational expectations on their ear. Hopefully in the future generational challenges will be measured by achievement, not gender"

"The most important thing is to understand the goals and issues of the customers and work through them. Often hard work can solve most problems as well as some real willingness to try"