Innovation + Responsibility

If you are at all interested in technology and you don't live under a rock, you heard the news yesterday of Sun's acquisition of MySQL. By most accounts, this is a great move on the part of Sun's business.  I'll leave it to the technologists to analyze the merits of the deal, but overall most Sun employees seem pretty fired up about it.  

I first learned of the news when I woke up yesterday morning and, as is typical for an email addict, checked my email to find a note from our CEO announcing the news. Being as self-absorbed as I am, I soon went to thoughts of "What does this mean for me?"

With no other information than what was contained in Jonathan's blog post, I was optimistic. Why? Well, mainly because MySQL was founded by Europeans, (two Swedes and a Finn, which excited me because I know two words in Finnish - hello and thank you) and everyone knows that European firms are (generally) much more sustainability minded than American companies (we can debate another time about why this is, legislation and regulation vs. free market, etc.).  And so as I wondered what this acquisition might mean for me and my job, I got excited about the possibility of an infusion of a sustainability-minded culture into our own, thus strengthening Sun's "corporate responsibility" agenda.

So when I went to the MySQL Web site and found this in the About section:

MySQL AB and the people of MySQL AB:

• Aim to be good citizens
• Prefer partners that share our values and mindset

I was thrilled. It says other things, too, but remember I was self-interested at this point so this is where I focused. It seems our values are aligned - the people of Sun also aim to be "good citizens." We prefer to work with those who value what we do - innovation, sharing, openness. In my opinion, having these core values in sync bodes well for the success of this venture.

Other points of interest:

*MySQL has a distributed, mostly virtual work environment - about 80 percent of employees do not work in an assigned office.  That probably sounds familiar to anyone who knows about Sun's Open Work program. 
*OpenEco.org, the new online community that aims to help organizations calculate, compare and reduce their environmental impact, uses MySQL.  

I have some experience (from my former life) in cultural change management, specifically with the challenges inherent in a merger of two distinct cultures. Often, the biggest roadblock to a successful merger is that the two organizations' cultures are too different to become one.  But I am confident that won't be the case with MySQL because it is clear that we share some basic values about what kind of company we want to be.

So where did I settle on the "What does this mean for me?" question? Well, I think it means that I have several hundred potential new recruits for the Sun CSR Advisory Board!

Seriously though, I want to extend a welcome to our new MySQL colleagues. I am excited about the business opportunities this merger represents as well as the opportunity to bring new blood into our quest to become a more responsible, sustainable company.