MARK V. HURD

The more I use a matrix, the easier I make it to blame someone else.

The more accountable I can make you, the easier it is for you to show you're a great performer.

Our job is to execute.

When someone gets a job, it better be clear what they did to get it.

We need to temper the idea that this company has to have some earthshaking event every 15 minutes.

My day starts at 4:30 A.M., and I sort of have two speeds: fast and stop.

When you're a leader at any level of any scale, leaders are defined at times of crisis.

Not everyone is comfortable with being pushed.

Processes break in two ways. They break because they don't have the right checks and balances and because they don't have the right execution.

My daughter's got a smartphone in her hand with roughly the same power as a mainframe circa 1982, and she's running around Beijing and wants an answer as fast as she can.

References drive the industry.

I really don't want the best people at the highest cost.

We make a significant effort at Oracle to focus the organization on making customers successful in how they deploy Oracle technology and transform their business through IT.

There will never be a day where the depth of integration, unless it was all built from the bottom ground up, will be integrated as any of us would like.

When I left HP, I thought about sitting it out for a while.

Cloud represents the maturation of the IT industry.

I'm old, I'm used to crummy service, I'm trained to get crummy service. To me, the fact I can get through to a call centre and then hold for 15 minutes, I don't get that upset. My kids won't. They want to know the answer to their question now. As a company you have to provide an answer to that consumer.

I like being part of teams that go into things that people don't think are doing very well and getting into them to do better.

It's tough to reenter the work force.

Executives need ample flexibility to respond to the market. That means both reducing costs and increasing innovation.

Oracle will continue to componentize all of its solutions so we can work in a heterogeneous environment.

To be very blunt, I am not really that concerned with what labels get associated with somebody.

After formulating and communicating the right strategy and optimizing operations to execute that strategy, CEOs and other top leaders then must be able to build management teams that truly understand the big picture.

In times of crisis, you just have to bear down and lean on your own instincts and your own beliefs and make decisions.

It's important to know when your work is done.