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Oracle Cloud Infrastructure represents the database giant's best hope to make a serious dent in the cloud market— and leaked documents show that the OCI unit is employing corporate values similar to those at its dominant rival Amazon Web Services to get there.

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Those corporate values include putting customers first, treating employees with dignity, and learning from failures instead of placing blame, according to copies reviewed by Insider. The values show how Oracle would ideally like the cloud business to run, and how it expects employees to treat one another. You can read the OCI values in full below.

This look at OCI's corporate values come as the unit's workplace culture comes under scrutiny. More than a dozen current and former Oracle employees and executives recently told Insider that OCI is led by what one person described as a "culture of fear," telling Insider that OCI executive VP Clay Magouyrk is known for trying to get results by "beating down" employees emotionally. 

Two Oracle employees have since told Insider the company has been holding offsite workshops for executives about company culture. Oracle declined to comment for this story.

One of those corporate values, dubbed "Don't be a jerk," states: "We are humble in our interactions with everyone we encounter. We treat each other with dignity. We seek understanding by listening before we speak. We don't talk over each other. We provide others with opportunities to succeed, and we give constructive feedback. We help each other. We cultivate empathy." 

The unit's values are modeled after Amazon's famous leadership principles, as current and former employees recently told Insider. OCI's answer to Amazon's "customer obsession" principle is to "put customers first." Where Amazon expects "ownership," OCI expects employees to "own without ego," and so on. Magouryk and key cloud exec Don Johnson both came to Oracle from stints at AWS, as did many of the unit's earliest employees.

Similarly, two employees say OCI copied Amazon's practice of using "bar raisers," in which a third-party is brought into the process with general mandate to make sure that a candidate meets the company's high standards, and gets the final say on a hiring decision. OCI calls these individuals "bartenders."

Read Oracle's 'OCI Values:'

  • PUT CUSTOMERS FIRST: We exist to satisfy our customers. We do this by listening to them carefully, responding to them promptly, advising them honestly, and exceeding their expectations. We put doing the right thing for customers ahead of doing what they specifically say or ask for. When faced with a choice between what is easy for us and what is good for customers, customers win every time.
  • ACT NOW, ITERATE: We favor action. Notice something that needs fixing? Fix it. See a gap? Fill it. Struggle with a bad process? Improve it. See room for improvement? Grow. We move quickly but deliberately, and we iterate toward better solutions. We recognize that a grungy solution now is superior to no solution at all. We keep it simple. We don't discuss endlessly, and we are scientific in our approach. We offer solutions, not problem statements.
  • NAIL THE BASICS: We focus on fundamentals over flash. We recognize when we don't have the basics in place, and we diligently work to fill the gaps. We recognize that the path to advanced solutions always runs through the basics. We focus our conversations and our products on what is currently appropriate. We make progress despite not having complete information or perfect solutions.
  • EXPECT AND EMBRACE CHANGE: We accept change as a given. We value people who align quickly with current priorities, who have situational awareness, and who are willing to adapt. We are not limited to priorities we set in the past. We do not hang on to outdated processes and goals, and we promote or accept new ideas fearlessly. We embrace change as an opportunity for growth and greater success.
  • TAKE RISKS, REMAIN CALM: We take risks because they are necessary to our success; not taking risks is the biggest risk of all. We are logical and data-driven in assessing our risks. We react to unexpected situations by remaining calm, and then making and executing mitigation plans. We recognize that learning from our failures is part of our path to success.
  • DON'T BE A JERK: We are humble in our interactions with everyone we encounter. We treat each other with dignity. We seek understanding by listening before we speak. We don't talk over each other. We provide others with opportunities to succeed, and we give constructive feedback. We help each other. We cultivate empathy.
  • OWN WITHOUT EGO: We take responsibility for the state of our team, our products, and ourselves. We champion the ideas we believe in. We welcome all help and feedback, and we recognize and incorporate the best ideas offered. We are the first to admit when we are wrong. We believe that our team can produce far more together than we can as individuals. When we notice a problem we either fix it ourselves or find another owner. We never say, "That's not my job."
  • EARN TRUST, GIVE TRUST: We build trust by communicating openly and transparently. We give trust easily, and we recognize that trusting each other is essential to our success. We act responsibly, and we trust others to also be responsible. We don't let occasional failures and differences in work styles undermine our trust. We learn from failures rather than seeking to place blame, and we don't invoke rank to convince others we are right.
  • TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR WORK: We strive for excellence in all that we do, and we take pride in our progress. We do our best when we are proud of what we do. We identify work that needs to be done to achieve our team goals, and we communicate those goals well to the broader organization. We take responsibility for either changing our work or changing ourselves when we don't find pride in our work. We invest broadly in things that allow us to excel at our jobs, dominate in the marketplace, and delight our customers. We achieve things of value, and we value our achievements.

Do you work at Oracle or have insight to share? Contact reporter Ashley Stewart via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@businessinsider.com).

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