“Consumers are buying experiences. They are buying the light, not the lamp,” said Abidali Neemuchwala, group president and COO of Wipro Ltd.

The topic of today’s keynote at Oracle OpenWorld 2015 centered around making a digital experience that resonates with the customer. Rick Welts, president and COO of the Golden State Warriors, and Thomas Kurian, president of product development at Oracle, also spoke about cultivating a winning culture — both inside the organization and with customers.

Buying digital experiences

“The product is not the asset. The product is the experience, and the asset is embedded in the experience,” said Neemuchwala. Consumers are buying a digital experience, which is fundamentally changing the way enterprises do business. It’s a “new world order,” according to Neemuchwala. He believes that we are at the cusp of transformation. “Enterprises have no choice. They will either accept this or perish.”

Neemuchwala gave several examples, including Hyatt Hotels Corp. Hyatt backed onefinestay, a startup like Airbnb, Inc., which makes high-end properties available to vacationers. Hyatt is giving its customers the opportunity to redeem onefinestay properties with their loyalty points. So they’d stay in Hyatt for business and onefinestay properties for leisure. By doing this, Hyatt has been able to communicate its appreciation for loyal customers while integrating the old economy model and the new economy model.

Impulsive aspiration and instant gratification 

Impulsive aspiration and instant gratification are the two foundations of today’s consumer, according to Neemuchwala. For example, singer Taylor Swift provided opportunities for concert-goers to buy the apparel and styles of clothing she wore at her concert. Concert-goers could go online and purchase right then over their phones and get the clothes in a few days. It was about an impulse buy and instant gratification for Swift’s fans. It’s called a “swift shift.” Although traditional fashion houses have a design cycle of 12 weeks, that’s an eternity in this day an age.

Traditional organizations can successfully bridge this new world, and IT plays a pivotal part in this. “We, today, are in a position to lead this transformation, and I’m really excited about that,” said Neemuchwala.

Steps to digital transformation

Neemuchwala gave several steps to helping organizations conquer the digital transformation. Simplifying legacy environments was the first step he mentioned.

“The digital transformation is not possible without simplification,” emphasized Neemuchwala. “We need to put ourselves into our users’ shoes … and deliver the experience that you want to see as an end user.”

Another step was introducing design pervasiveness, which is pivotal in this day and age. Design must cross the digital world into the physical world, making a cohesive experience for the user. The user interface must be intuitive and easy for the consumer, because “that is what design is all about,” added Neemuchwala. Wipro has acquired a design firm called DesignIt to help incorporate the necessity of design. “The synergy is terrific,” he said.

The Golden State Warriors and creating a winning culture

The keynote session continued with an interview with Rick Welts, president and COO of the Golden State Warriors, and Thomas Kurian, president of product development at Oracle. Welts emphasized that cultivating a winning culture is something very important in an organization, which he has cultivated within the Warriors.

“People had become accustomed to losing,” Welts said of the NBA team, and this had to change in order to bring success to the team. Welts has also been pushing hard for a multitask arena in the San Fransisco area. “Part of the reason of creating our new facility is we will really craft the experience our customers have,” Welts said. It’s all about that experience.

Kurian related this back to Oracle and the culture Oracle is trying to produce with all the new changes going on in the digital world. “We had to go and find people in areas — like infrastructure in service — where Oracle had never had an offering,” he said. “We had to bring the whole company — back office, finance, our IT systems — and get them all on board.”

Kurian agreed it’s all about the customer. “You only win when your customers love what you offer,” he said. This is the winning culture Oracle hopes to bring to the table with every customer it does business with.

Stay tuned for the full video interview, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Oracle OpenWorld 2015. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE