Editors’ Note

Jon Chorley is Group Vice President of Product Strategy for Oracle’s supply chain and manufacturing (SCM) applications and leads the team responsible for driving the business requirements and product roadmaps for these applications. These solutions include product life-cycle management, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, asset life-cycle management, value-chain planning, and order fulfillment. Chorley is also the chief sustainability officer for Oracle. In this role, he drives and coordinates all initiatives, both internally and externally, related to environmental sustainability. This responsibility covers all areas, from IT infrastructure and business operation to corporate reporting and risk management. Oracle is committed to developing practices and products that help protect the environment. Chorley has more than 30 years of experience in the software industry in a broad set of roles including sales, implementation, and development, mostly focused on supply-chain applications. He joined Oracle in 1997. Prior to his current role, he was responsible for the development of Oracle’s supply-chain logistics applications. Chorley graduated with a joint BA in physics and geophysics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Company Brief

Oracle (oracle.com) offers a complete suite of integrated applications for sales, service, marketing, human resources, finance, supply chain and manufacturing, as well as secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud.

Will you provide an overview of your role and key areas of focus for Oracle?

I hold the combined roles of Oracle’s Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and Group VP of Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) Product Strategy. In my role as CSO, I lead an integrated cross-functional team comprised of people from many different groups within Oracle that helps to maintain our facilities and run our business in a responsible manner while minimizing environmental impact. We also focus on developing products and solutions that support our customers’ own sustainability initiatives. In my SCM role, I drive the development direction for Oracle’s Supply Chain & Manufacturing products (known as Oracle Cloud SCM). These product areas include supply chain planning, procurement, manufacturing, and logistics. There is a natural overlap between these two roles, as sustainability should be a natural extension of supply chain, manufacturing, and all business operations.

How do you define Oracle’s culture and how critical is culture to the success of the company?

Oracle’s corporate culture values teamwork, quality, and diverse perspectives. We work together to make things the best they can be. We collaborate, share ideas, and give constructive feedback. We strive for excellence and hold ourselves to the highest possible standards, always trying to improve. It’s an innovative culture in which we welcome new ideas and dare to try new things. We value a diversified workforce. It’s those differences that make us strong, as we believe that different points of view are essential for innovation. We also care about making the world a better place. We’re committed to changing lives by advancing education, protecting the planet, and giving back to our communities.

Will you discuss Oracle’s best-in-class SCM applications and how they support value-chain transformation?

Supporting end-to-end value-chain transformation is crucial to getting ahead with your business. Oracle Cloud SCM manages and automates planning, sourcing, production and delivery of goods and services around the globe. Oracle’s supply chain solutions enable you to digitally connect these applications in the cloud for cost-effective operation. They provide the visibility, analytics, and execution capabilities to increase the speed and accuracy of decision-making, deliver to agreed customer service levels, and reduce complexity and costs. Enabled by cloud, mobile, analytics, big data, AI/ML, IoT and blockchain, Oracle’s best-in-class supply chain and manufacturing applications support value chain transformation. When market conditions change fast, being prepared matters more than ever, and Oracle Cloud SCM provides the visibility, rapid decision-making and flexible response needed to support dynamic supply chains and accelerate the introduction of new products to market.

Oracle has placed a major focus on sustainability. Will you highlight Oracle’s initiatives related to environmental sustainability?

At Oracle, we know that sustainability is good business. We continually invest in initiatives that help us run our business more sustainably and develop products and services that help our customers do the same. Oracle is in the unique position of providing solutions that cover all aspects of the nexus of IT and sustainable business practices, hardware, technology and applications, from cloud data centers to business intelligence to smart utility grids. Oracle operates an efficient, clean, and circular cloud infrastructure that enables our customers to not only drive business value, but also lower their environmental impact. Many of our customers are using Oracle technology to help them make a positive impact on the environment and address the severe problem of climate change.

Oracle uses many of these same technologies and business practices within our own operations. We have set some ambitious goals for 2025 which focus on reducing global CO2 emissions, shifting to renewable energy sources, diverting waste from landfills, reducing the use of potable water, and ensuring our key suppliers have environmental programs in place. One of these goals includes powering Oracle Cloud with 100 percent renewable energy. Sustainability is at the heart of our business operations, from managing our use of natural resources to ensuring responsible supply chain practices and running sustainable events globally.

How do you engage Oracle’s workforce in the company’s sustainability efforts?

At Oracle, we believe that sustainability is everyone’s business. Every day, Oracle employees make a difference by building forward-looking technologies that help our customers drive sustainability, by finding eco-friendly ways to run the business, and by supporting environmental causes locally and globally. Based on annual surveys, we know that the overwhelming majority of Oracle employees are passionate about protecting the planet. To this end, we regularly engage and support our employees in sustainability initiatives at work and beyond.

Each year, Oracle recognizes a group of Sustainability Champions – employees around the world who are setting an example by directly contributing to a more sustainable future. Oracle encourages employees who share a passion for the environment to get engaged by forming Green Teams. There are more than 40 Green Teams that drive sustainability efforts in offices globally. They host educational sessions, engage with local real estate and facilities teams to promote recycling and eliminate waste, encourage more sustainable modes of transportation, volunteer with environmental organizations, and more. Protecting the environment is also a key focus area of Oracle’s Corporate Citizenship programs. Year-round, Oracle Volunteers contribute tens of thousands of hours to environmental causes globally.

What do you see as the responsibility that leading companies have to being engaged in the communities they serve and to being a force for good in society?

At Oracle, we feel strongly that we need to lead by example and help make the world a better place. Responsible companies can and should be a powerful force for good and an active member in the community. Good corporate citizenship means being intentional and thoughtful about the value Oracle generates as a company – not only for our shareholders, but also for our people, our planet and future generations. It means applying the same level of commitment, rigor and sincerity to changing lives as we do to building cutting-edge technology for our customers.

Some examples of this include our educational, giving, volunteering and healthcare efforts. We help students of all backgrounds develop through our educational initiatives Oracle Academy, Oracle Education Foundation and Design Tech High School. In 2018, Oracle became the first-ever corporation to build a home for a public high school on our campus. Oracle supports thousands of nonprofit organizations globally through cash grants, sponsorships and work. All year long, Oracle Volunteers around the world help people and the planet by undertaking virtual and in-person projects. The Corporate Citizenship Communities program unites employees who share a passion for giving back.

We invest in our employees through ongoing career development, continuous learning, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and health and wellness programs. We are proud to leverage our greatest assets – our technology and our people – to change lives around the world. We also value the important role that Oracle Cloud technology is playing in helping many of our customers improve the world around us.

You have spent over 20 years at Oracle. What has made Oracle so special for you?

The people are really what makes Oracle a special place to work. Oracle is filled with passionate employees who work hard and value their impact while having fun along the way. As an organization, we incorporate excellence and quality in our work and continuously strive to improve. The culture is built around the pursuit of excellence to satisfy our customers, collaboration, and teamwork.

Another reason I’ve been at Oracle for over 20 years is that I sincerely love my job. In my role as Chief Sustainability Officer, I am part of a team that helps Oracle minimize its impact on the environment and fight climate change. In my role as Group VP of SCM Product Strategy, I help to develop products that our customers can use for their own sustainability initiatives. We are also on the cutting-edge for developing new technologies and exciting innovations. We’re using emerging technologies like AI, machine learning and blockchain to solve critical real-world problems. The work we do is not only transforming the world of business – it’s also helping other companies make a difference. While I know we have made significant progress, I also know we have much left to accomplish and that is what continues to motivate me.

What advice do you offer to young people interested in building a career in the industry?

Supply chain management is key to economic growth and global stability. Within the field of supply chain management, there are many different fields and potential career opportunities. In today’s workforce, there are not enough people to fill the positions within all of these different fields. As more of the baby boomer supply chain workers retire, that gap is widening. If someone is interested in a supply chain career, I’d recommend that they get some industry or functional experience. This could be through internships, training and certificate courses, or joining social and industry trade groups. It might be that one field of supply chain appeals to you more than others and it’s only by experience and action that you find out what direction is most compelling for you. Once you decide on your direction, work on gaining the wisdom and knowledge to support it and make sure to always keep learning and challenging yourself. Do work that you care about and don’t be afraid to take risks.