2893: Evan Goldberg on the Future of Oracle NetSuite and AI Integration

[00:00:00] Do you ever find yourself curious about monumental ideas, how they're born, how they evolve into

[00:00:07] technology that defines an entire era? Well today I'm bringing the podcast from the Suite Connect

[00:00:13] event in London and I've got the privilege of speaking with Evan Goldberg, Executive Vice

[00:00:19] President of Oracle's NetSuite Global Business Unit. And Evan is not just a tech leader,

[00:00:25] he's a pioneer who co-founded the world's first cloud computing company, yes of course I'm talking

[00:00:31] about NetSuite. From the inception of cloud computing to driving innovation through AI,

[00:00:38] I want to learn more about Evan's journey and ask him to offer some invaluable insights into how

[00:00:44] he has navigated the evolving tech landscape, everything that he's seen throughout his career,

[00:00:49] the parallels that he's seen and how these insights can help business leaders today moving

[00:00:54] forward, especially as the pace of technological change continues to race ahead at breakneck speed.

[00:01:02] So buckle up and hold on tight as I beam your ears all the way to London where you can join me

[00:01:08] and Evan Goldberg live from the Suite Connect event here in London.

[00:01:15] So we're speaking at Suite Connect in London today. For everyone listening,

[00:01:19] how would you describe these regional events and what excites you about getting out there

[00:01:24] connecting with people beyond the keyboard? Well, the most exciting thing is we bring

[00:01:28] customers together with partners and employees and get to share best practices and learn from

[00:01:37] each other. And we learn a lot from our customers and hopefully our customers learn

[00:01:40] a little bit from us too. And from everything I've seen so far, everything's very forward

[00:01:45] looking. We talk about AI of course and so many exciting things. But I want to take it

[00:01:49] back in time for a moment because I think it was 25 years ago that you founded the world's first

[00:01:54] cloud software company NetSuite after a five minute phone call with Oracle founder Larry Ellison

[00:02:00] where you discussed the idea of selling and running business software over the internet.

[00:02:05] And when I read that before I came here, it feels like one of those iconic stories. So would

[00:02:10] you mind sharing that origin story and maybe your memories of that magical moment in that

[00:02:15] golden era? Yeah, well I mean you did basically hit on it. I had run another software company

[00:02:23] that didn't work out. I sort of call it my mandatory Silicon Valley failure.

[00:02:28] But Larry helped me out a little bit on that one. But the kind of you know, you always

[00:02:34] want to snatch a little victory out of the jaws of defeat. And so you know, what do the

[00:02:40] only thing you can do when these kinds of things happen is try to learn from it. And

[00:02:44] one of the things that I learned is that the tools for running small companies and growing small

[00:02:49] companies and trying to make them into big companies were woefully lacking. And so I was

[00:02:54] really inspired to create a next generation of software tools for businesses to help them grow.

[00:03:01] At the same time, Larry had been thinking about the implications of the internet for

[00:03:07] the distribution of software. And he was completely convinced that you know, for like

[00:03:13] the next thousand years, as you would say, people will be consuming software off the internet where

[00:03:20] the provider of the software is responsible for running it rather than you being responsible

[00:03:25] for running it. And so it was really literally a five minute conversation that we sort of

[00:03:31] mashed up those two ideas and came up with NetSuite, which even the name kind of tells

[00:03:36] you that it's the net plus the suite. Incredible. And one of the reasons I wanted to take you back

[00:03:42] down memory lane was because in NetSuite's early days when it established itself, you found yourself

[00:03:47] battling the demands of a significant customer. And I read that one of your biggest lessons you

[00:03:52] learned was not to get distracted by the shiny stuff. Now fast forward to 2024 and arguably

[00:03:58] AI is the shiny stuff now that is distracting everyone. So can you share the lessons and

[00:04:04] maybe a few parallels that you find with back then and today's?

[00:04:07] No, that's a great question. And I do think that this is potentially as revolutionary a time for

[00:04:13] technology as the internet was, you know, 25 plus years ago. We've been working with AI

[00:04:22] for many years at NetSuite because we do think these systems should be smarter. They

[00:04:28] shouldn't just track things and just let you run basic reports on them. They should give you

[00:04:35] advice, they should give you assistance. And that's what AI is sort of all about when you

[00:04:42] look at it from a business perspective. So we are very optimistic that there's going to be a

[00:04:47] lot of opportunity to improve the business application, make it more effective and help

[00:04:54] you run your business better. I mean, that's what it's all about.

[00:04:57] 100%. And there is a lot of distraction around AI at the moment, a lot of hyperbog. But

[00:05:01] I wanted to highlight that it's not about tech. It's not about AI. It's about ticking

[00:05:06] all the boxes that CEOs care about. And by that, I mean generating business value,

[00:05:11] solving real world problems and delivering the elusive ROI on a tech project. So how do

[00:05:17] you see this impacting your customers who are located in multiple industries?

[00:05:21] Yeah, there are a broad set of industries running from companies that build products,

[00:05:29] companies that sell services, companies that do both, companies that are not for profit.

[00:05:34] And one of the benefits of that is it gives us this sort of very broad view on what businesses

[00:05:40] want and need. And we are continuously pulling our customers on how could we help you run your

[00:05:47] business better? How can we allow you to get more focus on what's important and less on the

[00:05:53] manual drudgery? Well, obviously AI has some great potential there to be able to automate

[00:05:59] things that previously you needed a human to do. And maybe a human still has to check it,

[00:06:06] but maybe it goes a lot faster for them. And that individual has a lot more time to think

[00:06:12] strategically about the business or work on things that are really going to add value,

[00:06:16] focus on the important rather than the urgent. And so as we roll out AI tools in NetSuite,

[00:06:23] we're going to be working very, very closely with our broad set of customers to understand

[00:06:27] both what things are universal that we can do with AI and what things might be more

[00:06:32] perhaps industry specific that we can do with the tools.

[00:06:36] And there is a lot of economic uncertainty out there at the moment, but we've been here

[00:06:40] many times before. And as someone who's had a front row seat to the meteoric growth of

[00:06:45] the internet and cloud-based computing, seen the dot com bubble and rebound, the rise of

[00:06:50] e-commerce, the cloud coming to the rescue during the COVID-19 lockdowns, of course as well.

[00:06:56] What have you learned about managing a business during recessional times? Is there any advice

[00:07:01] that you'd offer to any business leaders listening? You've been there many times before.

[00:07:05] No, we've been through a couple of them. And I'm sure many of the people listening

[00:07:11] have heard of that expression, don't let a crisis go to waste. And my experience has been

[00:07:18] that when the times are good, you neglect certain parts of your business in terms of

[00:07:24] efficiencies that you could get because it's just so easy to grow and the orders are just

[00:07:30] coming over the trans-sum. It's during those times when it's a little more difficult to

[00:07:36] reach your growth targets that you have to make sure that you're using cash really wisely

[00:07:42] and that you start to look at some of those areas of business that maybe you glossed over

[00:07:47] before. And hopefully those changes you make will be lasting when the times are good again.

[00:07:53] And a concrete example is what we learned during the financial crisis is that our customers,

[00:08:00] obviously, were suffering themselves and that we could help them navigate their difficulties by

[00:08:10] helping them use NetSuite better, really understanding what parts of the system they might

[00:08:16] not be taking advantage of. And so we developed a whole discipline around working really closely

[00:08:21] with our existing customers. And that's a natural thing that I think businesses

[00:08:29] should always be doing, but sometimes the lure of the shiny object keeps them away from that.

[00:08:34] So that discipline and developing a really methodically understanding our customers,

[00:08:40] each individual customer, and how we can help them use NetSuite better is a discipline

[00:08:43] that we carried forward even beyond the immediate crisis.

[00:08:47] – 100%. And I think sometimes we're all guilty of becoming obsessed with other people's

[00:08:53] hard-line rails and success stories, but we learn so much more from the long, challenging

[00:08:58] climb to the summit rather than reaching the top of that mountain. So do you have a story

[00:09:02] you can share about how failure actually lays the groundwork for future successors? Because

[00:09:07] that's where you learn the lesson. – Well, as I said earlier, I think

[00:09:12] I learned a lot from running a business for the first time, which was my first startup.

[00:09:17] And the challenges of being responsible for people's payroll and wanting to how do you

[00:09:26] get the best information, even though information is always flawed in some way and limited in some

[00:09:32] way. You want to just eke out the best information you can to make decisions. So it was really out

[00:09:38] of that experience that I felt like I could really empathize with entrepreneurs much more.

[00:09:46] And then I learned that there was a dearth out there of tools to help

[00:09:52] entrepreneurs succeed, and that led to NetSuite. – Another big change we've seen in recent years

[00:09:58] is that socially aware consumers now look to businesses and brands to do the right thing,

[00:10:03] to do good, not just please their shareholders. And the recent focus on ESG scores is even

[00:10:08] making companies even question their support partners and see them in a different light.

[00:10:13] So can a business be successful and do good? Is that something that is important to you at

[00:10:18] NetSuite? – Absolutely. And I mean, it's really been built into our DNA from the beginning.

[00:10:23] Early on in the company's history, my wife was president of the PTA and she was complaining

[00:10:31] about the woeful financial systems that they had there to track their donations and their

[00:10:35] expenses, etc. And I thought, well, why don't we try putting in NetSuite? And we did,

[00:10:41] and it worked out great, especially because it was available anytime, anywhere back then. That

[00:10:46] was not the default. And that made me think, wow, there must be a lot of organizations that are

[00:10:56] not for profit but that still want to run their organization efficiently. They want higher ROI.

[00:11:03] It's just that there are, it's not necessarily dollars or euros or pounds.

[00:11:08] It might be mission impact, but they want to get the most mission impact for their money

[00:11:14] and for their people. So that's when we decided that we were going to have a social impact

[00:11:21] organization within NetSuite that gives away NetSuite to other organizations that are doing

[00:11:28] good for the world. We like to say we help them do good better. And as they grow,

[00:11:33] eventually we give them highly discounted versions of NetSuite as they get bigger.

[00:11:38] But we get them started and we even have employees do pro bono work to help them

[00:11:43] get the most out of NetSuite. So they take hours and work with them, and it's a huge win.

[00:11:48] They love these organizations. These employees get to learn how NetSuite is used in the field.

[00:11:54] And it may hopefully are really helping these organizations succeed. And so that's a big

[00:12:00] component of what we do and really important to us and all the influence.

[00:12:05] Toby So if we just go back to AI and the event here where we're talking today,

[00:12:09] Oracle Corporation recently shared its plans to bolster its NetSuite software

[00:12:14] by bringing AI to life with text enhance. For anyone that missed that announcement,

[00:12:19] can you just talk a little bit about it and what embracing AI everywhere essentially means

[00:12:23] for the evolution of NetSuite? Jason Suellentrop

[00:12:25] Yeah, I mean, text enhance is only the first of many, many AI capabilities that are going

[00:12:29] to be surfaced throughout the NetSuite application. That's what AI everywhere means.

[00:12:34] And it's not a separate add-ons NetSuite. We're not going to have the unintelligent version

[00:12:39] of NetSuite. It's just table stakes for these applications in the future, I believe. I mean,

[00:12:45] I think as I said, there's so much promise for AI for improving businesses' operations.

[00:12:51] And so this first capability, text enhance is pretty simple. Actually, people do write a lot

[00:12:57] of text when they use NetSuite for all different kinds of things. Finance

[00:13:01] ask to write emails when they see anomalies. And salespeople obviously are communicating

[00:13:06] with customers as our customers support people. And you have a website that you want to put

[00:13:11] descriptions of your products on. So there's lots and lots of text that's being written,

[00:13:15] and the text usually incorporates information from the associated business information that

[00:13:21] you're working with. So if you're working with putting a product on the web and writing

[00:13:26] a description, you want the information that's right there in the product record

[00:13:31] about that product. And you shouldn't have to copy that in and then word, massage it.

[00:13:36] So what we've done is we've exposed throughout NetSuite right there in these text fields that

[00:13:42] you're writing and the ability to choose text enhance. And you can write a simple prompt like

[00:13:48] write a description for the web. And it automatically knows to pull in pricing

[00:13:53] information or color information or whatever. It's been pre configured to be intelligent about

[00:13:58] how it uses these generative AI models. So it's not the same as just bolting on chat GPT.

[00:14:05] And it's just the regular use of chat GPT, but it saves you two clicks from going over

[00:14:09] to the website. It's much deeper than that. And we've gotten great feedback from our users

[00:14:14] that it's saving them time and making their text more professional. And for all their users,

[00:14:19] there's more consistency between how people are communicating. And so it's a great first step.

[00:14:26] And I was at a press briefing earlier and somebody asked you the question,

[00:14:28] what to expect from the future? And I think you said that it's moving that fast at the

[00:14:33] minute. You have no idea what is going to happen in the next year. So we'll rephrase

[00:14:36] that slightly. What tech trends excite you? What makes you want to jump out of bed in the

[00:14:41] morning? And what can NetSuite's customers expect in the months and years ahead? I

[00:14:45] appreciate you can't say too much about the roadmap, but what will you tell us?

[00:14:49] No, I mean, there's a couple things that I'd answer about that. First of all,

[00:14:51] I'm really, really excited about the future of the business user experience. For too long,

[00:14:57] people have had to accept poor user experience in their business applications. And

[00:15:02] that may have been okay because they weren't using computers in other parts of their life

[00:15:08] or that, you know, so they were like, that's, they just, oh, this is as good as it gets,

[00:15:11] I guess. But now we have a generation users, digital natives, Gen Z grown up. They are so

[00:15:18] tech savvy and they don't accept it. They're like, no, there's no reason that these

[00:15:22] applications shouldn't be as good as the other applications I use in my life. So

[00:15:27] alongside Oracle, we've been really working hard at revolutionizing the business experience.

[00:15:32] So people can be more productive than ever. They can learn the system much more easily.

[00:15:39] It's enjoyable to use, believe it or not. And it becomes a part of their job that they

[00:15:44] instead of dreading, they look forward to. So I'm really excited about that.

[00:15:47] And we'll be showing that increasingly in future suite connects, et cetera. And then on the AI

[00:15:55] front, I think, you know, large language models were designed to do language. That's why it's

[00:16:01] in the name. And obviously language is an important part of running a business, but

[00:16:04] numbers are a pretty important part of running the business. And we like to say, if you don't

[00:16:08] know your numbers, you don't know your business. So I think applying next generation AI

[00:16:13] techniques with this powerful, you know, new computing capabilities that we have, applying them

[00:16:18] to the numbers in your business and what things can we do to surface insights and to help

[00:16:24] automate things that again may allow you to free up your people to

[00:16:32] do more of what's going to drive your business forward faster.

[00:16:34] And finally, just on that speed and pace of technological change, I think a lot of people

[00:16:40] feel overwhelmed by the pace of it all. So I've got to ask, as someone that's right in the eye

[00:16:45] of the storm, I expected to lead everyone through these uncharted digital waters.

[00:16:49] How do you self-educate? How do you keep up with stuff?

[00:16:51] Yeah. And we are avid consumers of all of the latest information on what's happening in the AI

[00:16:58] world. And we are not overwhelmed. We're inspired, but it's our job to make sure our users

[00:17:06] don't feel overwhelmed and instead feel that they can use NetSuite and rely on the fact that

[00:17:12] all these things that they're hearing in the popular press, we've coalesced them into

[00:17:19] great capabilities in NetSuite that will be coming, I wouldn't say fast and furious

[00:17:23] necessarily because I don't think any business user wants necessarily their application to be

[00:17:27] fast and furiously changing. But doing it in a way that is a natural extension of what

[00:17:35] they're already doing and is continuously improving because the level of resources

[00:17:41] and attention that's being put to AI right now is unprecedented. And I know it's going to

[00:17:46] deliver a lot of great technology that we can leverage for our users.

[00:17:52] Well, I know you've been busy back-to-back with meetings today. So before I let you go,

[00:17:56] there's been a lot of announcements over the last few days and there will be a lot more

[00:17:59] throughout the year. Where's the best place for anyone listening to keep up to speed

[00:18:02] with your announcements? Certainly netsuite.com is a great place to go. We try to keep that one

[00:18:07] pretty updated. Fantastic. As I said, I know you're incredibly busy. So many great insights.

[00:18:12] We covered so much in a short amount of time, but thanks for taking the time to sit

[00:18:15] down with me today. Thanks so much for having me. So as we wrap up today's insightful

[00:18:20] conversation with Evan Goldberg on the train ride home, I'm left pondering the relentless

[00:18:25] pace of technology and how it continually reshapes our world. Whether it's learning

[00:18:31] from past challenges or looking ahead to future innovations, the journey of technology

[00:18:37] is never static. And what part of today's discussion resonated with you? Was it the

[00:18:43] origin story of NetSuite, the strategic integration of AI here in 2024, or perhaps

[00:18:49] the discussion of economic resilience? A very timely message right now.

[00:18:55] One of the big reasons I love going to events like this and taking the show on the road is I

[00:19:00] get to leave my podcasting chair in my home where every week I'm currently recording 10 podcast

[00:19:06] interviews and writing 10 articles a week as well. And getting to meet my guests face to

[00:19:11] face and also getting to meet other people in the field. And for that, I've got to give a

[00:19:16] big shout out to Brian McKenna and Rory Bathgate. And these are people I've met and had a chat

[00:19:22] with everywhere from London to Vegas on the Tech Journal circuit. So a big shout out to both

[00:19:27] of those guys. Always a pleasure meeting them and stuff like that means the world to me. Just

[00:19:31] getting out there and speaking with people and sharing ideas as well. And finally, there's also

[00:19:36] a little bit of good news. I've just been invited to join the recently rebranded LinkedIn

[00:19:42] influencer program called Top Voice. I'm so glad they removed that I word. Nobody wants

[00:19:48] to be associated with that in 2024. But I'm called to be associated with the Top Voices

[00:19:54] program. But not because of myself. I don't consider it being about my own voice, but

[00:19:58] getting to share my guest Top Voice and also you, my listeners, getting to share your Top Voice.

[00:20:05] That is the stuff that motivates me. So a big thank you to everyone at LinkedIn for

[00:20:09] inviting me along to that. As I head home, I'm now going to place the microphone

[00:20:13] in front of you. Wherever you're listening in the world, please share your thoughts,

[00:20:17] join the conversation. You can email me techblogwriteroutlook.com, Twitter,

[00:20:22] LinkedIn, Instagram, just at Neil C Hughes. I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything we

[00:20:27] talked about. I don't know about you, but I just absolutely loved hearing that story of that five

[00:20:31] minute phone call with Oracle founder Larry Ellison back in the day where Evan discussed

[00:20:36] the idea of selling and running business software over the internet. Really was one of

[00:20:40] those iconic stories. And for regular listeners of the show that may have missed this, we also

[00:20:45] interviewed John Scully probably about four or five years ago now. And he shared with me the

[00:20:50] moment that Steve Jobs said to him when he was at Pepsi, are you going to stay here and

[00:20:54] sell sugar water or come with me and change the world? For me, this was a very similar

[00:20:58] story like that. But as I said, let me know your thoughts on any aspect of the conversation

[00:21:03] and it's time for me to head off home now. So thank you for listening as always. Join me

[00:21:08] again tomorrow where we've got another guest lined up. But until next time, don't be a stranger.