What a welcome! :)

I had taken 3 weeks off for my wife's delivery in Jan. This, at a time, when going on vacation or leave might result in a memo from the management asking you not to come back ever! So in that context, I think my boss is really cool. And that too after giving me 12 days off in December as well. Does the fact that I hit my annual sales target in December matter? For argumentative sake, let's just ignore that for the time being! ;)

And was it hard for me to leave my new born baby and wife behind and come back to work? Hell, Yes! How on earth was I supposed to concentrate on work? How would I feel when I sat at my desk?

This is what awaited me when I got to my desk.


Balloons, a big teddy bear, candles, chocolates, sweets, a baby record book, wind chime, small baby porcelain boy, funny messages posted on my cubicle walls, message saying 'Welcome Ibrahim' and a card signed by the whole team - everything in BLUE! And to top it all up, everyone was dressed in blue as well. Here are some more snaps of my desk





It was just unbelievable. My team had spent a large portion of Friday making arrangements. It was perfect. There couldn't have been any other way that I'd have liked to get back to work with. It raised my spirits. Felt so much at home. I was amongst a team where human emotions mattered. We are not working at a sweatshop. They were there to share my happiness and welcome me. I felt happy when I could have felt sad, lonely and depressed. It was so overwhelming that I almost cried. To me, this is a TEAM. And I am proud to be part of it.

Later found out that it was my boss's idea and another member of my team. But in the end, everyone helped set things up. I've been raving about this to whoever I find. Surprisingly its taken me four days to blog about.

Oracle licensing explained (by my bro)

I work for a company that sells software. Our flagship product is the Database. Licensing a database is a little complicated (as perceived by our customers!). This is how it's done.

We take the hardware specs of the server on which is database is to be installed i.e. number of processors, number of cores & the brand of CPU. The calculation is done as follows:

(number of processors) x (number of cores) x (licensing factors)

where,
1. factors depend on the brand of CPU i.e. Intel, AMD, UltraSPARC etc.
2. user minimums & number of sockets to be taken into consideration depending on the database edition.

Last week, my brother (who heads the Infrastructure and DCO Division at Panasonic) wanted some Oracle database licensing options for a new project he is undertaking. I explained the licensing model to him and how the calculation is done.

Yesterday on our way to work, we had the following conversation:

Me: Hey, what about those database licenses you inquired about?
Bro: Oh yes, do you know how Oracle is licensed on virtual servers?
Me: Hmm...I'll have to look that up. Haven't come across any such requirements yet.
Bro: Yeah. Let me know. Probably, we'll need to take the square root of the inverse of the processors, then take factors and integrate it and take the third derivative of the limit of the function at infinity, differentiate it and do a Fourier transform of that!!!!!

LOL

Edited to add: If anyone has any questions on Oracle licensing, please leave a comment on my other blog: http://logicalobscurity.wordpress.com. Thanks.

Diversity at work

I work under a Moroccan manager with Russian, Indian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Tunisian, Pakistani and Swiss colleagues, Filipino sales assistant and a Sri lankan office boy in an American company located in the Middle East!

woo-hoo!!!!

194.65%

:)

Redemption personified.

Confused? Read this.

Update: As on 18th Sept, the number stands at 213.4% ! :)

Back to work

Time out is over and I am back to work on a typical Monday morning. Tired, sleepy and bored. Boo.

Weekend was fun. Doha is not too different from Dubai. Traffic, erratic driving, luxury cars, corniche, food joints, malls, humidity & buildings to sum it all up. We spent most of our time indoors during the day waiting for the evenings before stepping out. Out here in any Gulf city, be it Dubai or Doha or Manama, stepping outdoors is either going to one of the umpteen malls or to the movies or to the beach or eat out or spend time in the car commuting between places. We visited the malls and ate out. Too hot for the beach. Not interested in wasting 3 hours inside a movie hall. Commute was OK. We almost ended up slamming our car into a SUV. We did hit but only just. No apparent damage to either cars, except a few scratches, so no one really bothered to call the cops. All's well that ends well. Overall, it was a good, fun weekend.

Now that I am back to work, this week is important for me. I am expecting 3 big orders to book this week. If all goes well, and I so wish it does, I will be at 200% of my numbers. This would be my first real good quarter since in joined Oracle Dubai. Gone are the days when my achievement was never in the hundreds. It was always in thousands. Don't believe me? OK, here are a few numbers:

Dec 06 - Feb 07: Achieved 2712% of my target
Mar - May 07: 1387%
Jun - Aug 07: 1801%

Big numbers right? Even bigger commission cheques I assure you. These were the numbers I wooed my interviewers with before starting with this job. Now wait till I mention my numbers since I moved here:

Sept - Nov 07: 25.1%
Dec - Feb 08: 32%
Mar - May 08: 42.3%

Pathetic I know. That's why this week is important for me. This is my chance at redemption.

Team BI-ZAR

Aimlessly going through some old emails, I suddenly noticed a year old email lying in my sent items. One look at it and tons of fantastic memories came rushing back to me of my days in Oracle Bangalore. This is what that email contained:

"With eleven new hires we started, towards millions we darted,
Nobody else would have dared it, coz nobody else would have nerved it,
With just quarters three and four, eleven million in revenue galore,
Brightest among all superstars, step aside for BI-ZARS!"

I wrote this citation last year when my team was nominated for the 'Superstar Team of the Year' award. In two quarters that we were operational, we closed more business than 15 other teams that had worked all year long. Our team spirit was uncrushable, team work nonpareil. We called ourselves Team BI-ZAR (Logic behind the name - Business Intelligence cZARs (Our product line was Business Intelligence) and by BIZAR we really meant 'bizarre'). Truly a superstar team.

Here's a snap of the team during one of our 'bizar' moments

Oh, and did I tell you we won the award?

Corporate lesson 1 : Communication

The first lesson I learnt when I entered the corporate world was about communication. I always fancied myself as a good, confident communicator - both verbal and non-verbal. Language was not a problem. Infact that's what had landed me the job in the first place. So I thought I was in good shape but that conviction lasted only till my first few days at work.

I think this incident took place towards the end of my first week at work, some time in May 05. My company provided us with provisional accommodation for 15 days, within which, we were supposed to hunt for a suitable place to stay for ourselves. So I decided to ask people for help. After all, this was my first trip to Bangalore. I could use all the help that I can get. And, who better than my boss to ask. He seemed like a nice, sensible guy. Surely he would help me out. All I need to do is ask. That's what he told me.

So, ask I did. While we were walking to the cafeteria. And here's how that conversation went:

MS: (In a low tone) umm...Boss, As you are aware.......
AB: Pardon? Sorry can't hear you.
MS: (Louder and nervously) Actually..uh..I am staying at this hotel...and..umm we got just 15 days to find a house..so uh...just wanted to know.....actually, where do you stay? Coz the thing is...I'm new here so uh...don't really know any places.......and I thought if you knew any.......
AB: What? (Confused)
MS: (Took a deep breath and tried to compose myself) Boss, do you know any real estate agents who could help me find a house?
AB: Oh, that...OK. Hang on. (Takes out his cell phone) Here, note this number. Call this guy. He helped me find a good place.
AB: Actually, let me call him up right away.
MS: OK

This small incident thought me big lessons:

1. Be audible and clear
2. Be concise and to the point
3. Speak only when you need to speak. Timing is everything.

These are the basics of business communication. Till today, I haven't forgotten that incident.

Note: AB was my boss till my last day at work there. I considered him my mentor and, for the two n a half years that I worked with him, went to him for all kinds of advice, both professional and personal. I am still in touch with him, despite both of us moving on. More on him in a later post.

Oracle and me...

On 2nd May, I completed 3 years at Oracle corporation!

I pat myself on the back for that. No bones about the fact that this is the largest enterprise software company in the world. And at this point, there are close to 71,000 people working for Oracle across 126 countries. Our product portfolio includes anything and everything that has got to do with databases, middleware, ERP, functional applications, CRM, BI etc. And what we don't have yet, don't worry too much about that. We just go ahead and buy that company!

I am part of a multi-billion dollar multinational company! I feel proud to be associated with a company that needs no introduction. The name speaks for itself. Year after year, quarter after quarter, Oracle exceeds expectations of analysts and shareholders. In 2007, we celebrated it's 30th birthday. Hats off to the visionary and charismatic leadership of Larry Ellison. Someone said it right, God really must not think he's Larry Ellison!

Oracle has also done its part in corporate social responsibilities - EOE (Equal Opportunities Employer), supporting children and elderly homes, refugee camps, education scholarships, fund raisers, corporate games, blood donation camps, to name a few. Stringent HR policies against racism, harassment, regional or gender bias etc. ensure that the employees are well protected. We have regular trainings. team building exercises - ensuring continuous learning and personality development. I can just go on and on....

My journey at Oracle has been awesome. From the minute I stepped into the Oracle building in Bangalore, I knew this was the beginning of something special. And it was. It really was. Quarters went by, targets came and were blown away, numerous awards and recognition, pay hikes, profiles changes, leadership and mentoring....and whilst on the top, in Sept 07, I decided to change locations! Dubai was a totally different ball game. New dynamics, markets, customers, responsibilities and targets....but it's not over yet....the game has just begun!!

I feel Oracle is a part of me now. All that I know about corporate life has been what Oracle has shown me, thought me. And regardless what's lined up next, I know I will always carry a part of Oracle with me.