Who did the award-winning business magazine strategy business choose to feature for their first interview of the series “Inside the Mind of the CEO”? None other than Oracle’s Chief Executive Safra Catz.

Strategy business focuses on management and corporate strategy and is published by firms within the PricewaterhouseCoopers network. Catz is an excellent choice for them to feature first as she has become widely recognized as a leader in the technology industry through her work with Oracle founder and board chairman Larry Ellison and CEO Mark Hurd. She is Oracle’s CEO, as well as CFO, and a member of the board of directors. Strategy business calls her, “one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent voices on the maturation of digital technology and its effect on global industry … one of the most highly placed women in business.”

The Q&A feature of Catz is outstanding. She talks about the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI), from its trajectory and applications over that last 30 years to how leading companies today implement AI to raise productivity. She also talks about how the role of finance will change in the corporate structure with the increase of AI applications.

Quest International Users Group members will know exactly what Catz is talking about but will be excited to see the value and accessibility of AI featured so prominently. Her Q&A also encourages business leaders to embrace the opportunities that change brings from technology. When referring to the opportunities provided by technology, she gives as examples, of course, the successes of Oracle Cloud as it has evolved.

Here’s a list of highlights from the Q&A:

• “AI is finally here,” Catz says about the long-hyped promise. In terms of data quantity access and cost and benefits, this leads to big change – and opportunities- for businesses.
• Catz summarizes three significant benefits of AI specific to business: speed, scale and security. These benefits will change the decision-making process for leaders. “If executives have a clearer view of the patterns in the data, they can make better decisions themselves, or delegate decisions with confidence that they would otherwise have to make themselves,” says Catz.
• If data is now key to decision making, then naturally the role of finance in a business changes. Catz describes the role as changing from “the back seat, looking in the rear-view mirror” to “looking forward, suggesting routes to try out, and modeling new possibilities.” She says, “Finance now rides shotgun.”
• Catz offers advice for those who are with companies needing courage to embrace the crossing of the threshold of digital maturation with AI. “You answer them by saying, ‘Look. You can have a report today that you used to wait three weeks for. Or try these alternative approaches.’ You support their capabilities and give them information — data they can act on.”
• Catz gives a glimpse at an executive level of how change happened at Oracle. It’s inspiring to know that even Oracle’s leaders had to adjust their thinking to accommodate technology. She explains Oracle’s philosophy regarding cloud use and how that interfaces with Oracle’s relationships with their former “archenemies.” She briefly describes the company’s transition from international to global and she offers advice that she learned through these processes.
• Near the conclusion of the Q&A, Catz talks about the high level of confidence in economic growth, especially in the United States. “The optimism in the United States is very, very high. The response to reduction in regulations, which eat up an enormous amount of business investment in paperwork and compliance, is immediate. That downward trajectory [in regulations] is allowing investment in other areas.” She says, “This is the most exciting time because there is a lot of change and opportunity.”

You can read the complete story published on January 12, 2018 by Art Kleiner on the strategy business website.

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