In the run up to Oracle Experience’s 15th anniversary, the members of staff, who started with the company from inception, have described the company as a ‘family’. They said that Oracle is not an agency as being touted but a company that is qualified to be called a family.
Andrew Eiremiokhae, Executive Director, Operations at Oracle Experience, while narrating his experiences disclosed that the company has invested heavily in equipment and human resources to stay afloat in the business in the last 15 years.
According to Andrew, a pioneer staffer with the Oracle, people could be very terrible to handle in the industry. “We invested heavily in equipment because we realised that doing business with the third party can be very challenging”.
“We are not just oracle for the namesake. In this business, we have the biggest LED screen with modern lightings. We also have the biggest and best projectors. “We don’t go out to rent anything. We don’t work for clients. We work with them as partners,” adding that “Where other companies may charge some N50 we can charge N30, because we are partners.
“The beauty of it is that we don’t have to rent our equipment out, so anytime we go to any event we still remain top-notch”, he said.
He also noted that to avoid unwarranted gridlocks that people often create in the course of doing business, Oracle’s penchant for proficient planning coupled with the help of God have paid off over the years.
Though he sees managing people as the most difficult thing in the industry, he says with good planning and the help of God in their operational activities, they are proactive rather than reactive,
The head of finance, Olusegun Matthew, who had spent 15 years with the company, stated that Oracle Experience really knows its ‘onions’ to remain not just in the trade for 15 years but also to be at the top of the business in a highly competitive industry.
Matthew described Oracle as an exceptional experiential agency saying, “Oracle is a company that really knows its onions. What I mean is that we know the objective of every client and we always work towards that. God has blessed us with the right people”.
He added that God has also blessed Oracle with someone that has the vision and works towards the vision. “Our MD, in the person of Dr. Felix ….., is somebody that doesn’t sit down as MD. He works with everyone. This has affected every member of staff positively because he is not behaving like MD sitting down somewhere while staff members are left to do the job”.
For Bukola Akinola, Senior Account Manager at Oracle Experience, the company does not sack. The outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic has put so much pressure on organisations globally to downsize. Several businesses have either sacked more than half of their workforce, while others have completely closed shops.
She said at Oracle Experience as bad as the Covid-19 pandemic affected the economy of the whole world in 2020, which forced many organisations to either downsize or embrace the strange ‘culture’ of half-salary payment, in Oracle, no worker was laid off.
Akinola, who manages Friesland’s Peak Milk account for the agency, noted that “last year was really horrible for our country and the entire world. But none of us here has to think of where to get his or her next meal. I know many companies that either downsized or paid half-salary to their workers, but nobody was sacked here or given below the agreed monthly take home pay”.
“In Oracle everybody works together as a family. I remember the first time I came here. I had challenges getting some of my colleagues to work with me. So, I went to the MD to express my frustration to him. You know I didn’t expect him to react immediately. He told them, “You have to work with this person”. So, that was like a push for me to give in my best. It speaks a lot. Here we all work like a family. We are from different tribes and different religions, yet we work together as if we are one family. It has been so amazing working here. And that is the honest truth”.
She said staff members do not have to think of whether their salaries would be paid at the end of the month. “I know how hard it could be at times, but the MD will never make excuses why you shouldn’t be paid at the end of the month. If you do your work, you get your pay. The atmosphere here allows people to grow.
“I used to say that if people are not growing, especially financially, you begin to have problems with them. But when you see people buying carsand living well, even in a small place like ours, it shows that the people are growing and are happy.”
She said in Oracle it is a tradition to always celebrate those who buy new cars, build new houses, among others. “Here we celebrate our success, we celebrate one another. It is quite amazing. Yes, we have our challenges, but if you weigh the pros and the cons, if you weigh the weaknesses and the strengths, it is a beautiful experience”.”
Kehinde Agboola, Head, Nigerian Breweries portfolio for Oracle Experience, said “We create our people and our process to be the best”.
Agboola saiddespite some ups and downs, it has been a wonderful experience working with the agency. “The nature of business here is that we are consistently building ourselves daily. We daily innovate; we create ourselves, our minds, our business, our process and our people. We crave to be the best because in this industry innovation is key”.
The Head, NB portfolio for Oracle Experience, who has been with the agency for eight years, said when asked by The Industry to describe how innovative Oracle is said, “We daily, routinely, consistently come out with different innovative, creative ideas; and apply all those innovative ideas into our field of study, which is marketing communication.”
He added that to sustain partnership with big brands, the agency always strives to execute briefs with the eye-on-the-goal, executing to win. “Like one of the payoffs we have in the Nigeria brewery unit here we say ‘execute to win’. It is all about executing to win. In the course of executing to win, there will be ups and downs. A tough ride, people don’t get to see these ups and downs because it is part of the process. And because people don’t see the process, what people see is the output. It started with building products, ideas, and also building yourselves along the line”.
Speaking on the theme of Oracle’s 15th anniversary, ‘Uncommon Wins’, Agboola said, “15 years is a feat, a milestone. I say this because we are talking of a business in Nigeria, not in England or America. I’m not talking about the economy; I’m talking about the business environment, talking about the socio-politics of developing and managing a business in black Africa. It is a fact that most businesses in Africa, in Nigeria, are so much in the enclave of family and relatives, as a result they do not really last long”.
He stated that despite these obstacles, “Oracle is forging ahead. As you can see we are about to celebrate our 15th anniversary. The theme ‘Uncommon Wins’ means a lot. We have several interpretations in the way we do our things and in the way we operate an open-door policy. While other companies have common ways of working, here we have uncommon ways”.
