On Tuesday the 18th of February we visited the first tech company on the Masters in Marketing & Digital Transformation Dublin trip: Oracle.

Oracle is an American tech company specialized in database software, cloud engineering and enterprise software products. Oracle operates in a B2B environment and is by consequence less known to the broad public. With a revenue of about $40 billion, they are one of the biggest players in the market. They take much pride in the fact that they are able to integrate all the different departments of their clients. Sales, marketing, operations, finance, IT and customer service, Oracle offers services for each of these departments, enforcing the synergy between them in order to give their clients the best integration possible. We can in fact say, that this is their unique selling proposition.

1. The art of Storytelling

Oracle is a well-known name in the B2B industry, however, on a consumer level, not many people are familiar with what exactly they do. In order to familiarize us with the company, we learned about the art of storytelling and the way it can be practically used in many situations, even in the professional ones where you least expect it. For the presentation of Oracle’s offering, an enthusiastic speaker engaged the audience by creating a story which started with introducing how an everyday company can encounter problems with integration between departments and how Oracle solves this issue. In order for us to understand their operations and offering better, volunteers helped out to put everything into context. This presentation was very informative, because we got to see how the art of storytelling has risen in importance and how one of the biggest tech companies helps their clients with integration between all departments.

2. “You can be anything you want to be”

In the second part of the visit, we had the pleasure to learn about the experiences of multiple Oracle employees who are very passionate about the company and eager to share their knowledge with us. It was particularly great to see a Vlerick alumni at the panel who was one of the speakers on that day, but was just a student in the same classrooms as us a few years ago. His story was of great inspiration to use, because we got to see that it is possible to work for one of the big tech companies and progress further up the ladder very quickly if you are devoted to your work. As his manager, pointed out, everyone has the potential to be anything you want to be with the right attitude and it is not really about being the smartest, but having the right growth mindset.

Conclusion

The first company visit of this trip was very informative and inspirational for all students. We found out more about a company that the majority of the public does not know exists. Oracle put a lot of emphasis on storytelling and sales in their presentation, because in their HQ in Dublin sales is their major department. Furthermore, the testimonials of some alumni showed that Oracle offers multiple great career opportunities for young graduates and that they have a great culture that helps the company as well as their employees to grow constantly. We would like to thank Oracle for this great opportunity.