Mark Hurd: The Importance of Growth

Mark Hurd has been the head of several successful technology corporations. Each of these corporations has increased in size and profits during Mark Hurd’s tenure, all while increasing efficiency. In fact, increasing efficiency has become one of Mark Hurd’s trademarks: During his 25 year tenure at NCR, he was noted for increasing operational efficiency in the Teradata Division, of which he was first vice president and then COO. As President, COO, and CEO of the entire corporation for 4 years, Mark Hurd was once again noted for increasing the company’s operational efficiency.

When he was hired as President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard in 2005, he was immediately recognized for his improvement of the company’s operational efficiency. By the time he left HP, they were number one in laptop and desktop computer sales for most of his tenure, and the price of stocks had doubled.

Now, as President of Oracle Corporation, Mark Hurd is standing by his mantra of increasing efficiency and continual growth. In all business, growth is important for a company’s survival. In the field of technology, where rapid industry-wide developments can take place in single 24 hour period, standing still can be fatal. Mark Hurd is well aware that a company must always be moving forward, always innovating, and always striving to produce better products.

For Mark Hurd, one of the best ways to grow is to focus on customers. In his keynote speech at Oracle OpenWorld 2013, Mark Hurd stressed two issues. Firstly the importance of recognizing value in big data, and secondly the importance of customer service. Big data is something that all companies have to deal with as levels of technology users grow exponentially larger. Customer service is an issue that companies have had to deal with since the beginning of business.

For Mark Hurd, customer service is about relationships. He makes it a priority to visit with and answer the questions of his customers. He wants potential clients to understand that he cares about them and their business, and that by working with him and Oracle, a mutually beneficial partnership will emerge.

In every transaction, there must be a level of trust. In technology, that trust is based upon the assumption that the product or service will work as advertised, and that if there are glitches they will be fixed. Mark Hurd goes out of his way to show customers why doing business with the Oracle Corporation is the best choice for them.

For the Oracle Corporation to grow, Mark Hurd needs to find new customers, and to find ways to network with existing customers to generate profit for both parties. That is why Oracles’ goal is to spend 5 weeks of every quarter, 3 days a week, talking with and building relationships with customers. The goal is to talk to 50 customers a day. While this may sound ambitious, Mark Hurd recognizes that it is necessary for a company to grow.

Mr. Hurd understand the importance of a customer relationship and always building upon that. Every customer should be talked to in the loop about new services or even helping them with training.

The Bellevue office just east of Seattle was created just for that. They call it the Oracle Training University and it helps educate and train their employees for current and future Oracle products. Oracle not only builds and invests into their employees, they want to have the sharpest and most educated team in the Seattle area.

If you like to get a feel for Mr. Hurd, his experience, and leadership, be sure to watch his speech below at Oracle’s OpenWorld event.