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Title: The Oracle of Oracle: The Story of Volatile CEO Larry Ellison and the Strategies Behind His Company's Phenomenal Success by Florence M. Stone ISBN: 0814406394 Publisher: AMACOM Pub. Date: 15 January, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.11
Rating: 4
Summary: Insightful!
Comment: Despite recent troubles that might cause readers to quibble with Florence M. Stone's description of Oracle as a "phenomenal success," this examination of Larry Ellison and the company that he created is worth your time. Stone sticks to a single theme: How do Ellison's personal beliefs, characteristics and personality affect the way Oracle does business? In answering this question, the book delves into the brutish outlook of company and founder, which Stone summarizes as, "crush the competition." Oddly, Ellison himself is not present. Instead, we glimpse him only through the words of official spokesmen and journalists. Luckily, these accounts were written after the dot-com collapse, providing the book with a balanced, up-to-date perspective. We from getAbstract recommend this book to all readers, whether your interests are in high tech or general business strategy.
Rating: 1
Summary: Mindless Drivel
Comment: At the outset, it should be pointed out that the publisher of this wretched little book is the American Management Association. There are those who consider their publications to represent the height of business sophistication; others should consider spending their time and money elsewhere.
According to biographical information on the flyleaf, Florence Stone is the "editorial director of Web management communications" at the AMA, "and previously served as the organization's group editor of newsletters and journals." In other words, a glorified administrative assistant. No other qualifications for writing this book are stated, and the content does not suggest otherwise.
Ms. Stone lives in a remarkably simple world. Her basic premise is "Larry Ellison is rich; therefore he is a genius." She totally ignores the more interesting question of how someone who thumbs his nose at conventional business wisdom (much of which is merchandised by the AMA) could have achieved Mr. Ellison's level of success. Here is a man who routinely violates the law, intentionally misleads his customers, abuses and ultimately fires his key employees, and knifes his business associates in the back, yet new candidates for abuse keep pounding on the door, seeking the opportunity to feed Larry's insatiable ego. Why?
That is the key question that Ms. Stone's sycophantic little book fails to address.
Rating: 5
Summary: Inseparable Powerhouses
Comment: This is a semi-clever title but, as portrayed by Stone, Larry Ellison reminds me more of an Old Testament prophet than he does of a mechanism by which to learn the wishes of the ancient Greek gods. Presumably many other people could also have launched Oracle but few (if any) of them could have led it so rapidly to the prominence and influence that global corporation now has. In Stone's view, "Larry Ellison has all the traits and characteristics that make for an outstanding leader in the high-tech industry. He also has one characteristic that many lack -- the ability to sell his ideas to others....Ellison's human persona has become so intertwined with his personal life that it is impossible to separate them, even in a business book whose purpose is to share the reasons behind Oracle's success." She organizes her excellent material within three Parts: A Man, a Company, a Place Like No other; Oracle's Value Systems and Strategies; and Where Do the Oracles Go From Here? Throughout the narrative, Stone traces the history of Ellison and his company from their origins to the present time, in process examining very closely the Silicon Valley culture, progressively more ferocious competition sales and share, Oracle's efforts to lock in its clients for life with sales and service, its on-going product development, problems created by the company's fast growth, Oracle's commitment to the WWW, and Ellison's various real and perceived feuds with his own executives as well as with those at competitor companies. (The latter group includes several who once worked for Oracle.) For me, Chapter 9 is one of the most interesting because Stone focuses primarily on Ellison as manager, leader, and visionary. Countless anecdotes included throughout the book which recount his personal behavior help the reader to understand (albeit incompletely) an immensely complicated, sometimes contradictory, and on occasion infuriating human being. In the final chapter, Stone shifts her attention to an uncertain future, attempting to answer this question: "What's next for Oracle and the software industry?" Ellison is often difficult to like as a person but, as portrayed by Stone, I found much to respect and even admire in his professional career thus far. The book's subtitle promises that Stone will provide "the story of volatile CEO Larry Ellison and the strategies behind his company's phenomenal success." Stone does indeed keep that promise with a highly readable and informative analysis of a unique man and his remarkable company.
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Title: The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: Inside Oracle Corporation: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison by Mike Wilson ISBN: 068816353X Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Larry Ellison, Sheer Nerve by Daniel Ehrenhaft ISBN: 076131962X Publisher: 21st Century Books Pub. Date: 2001 List Price(USD): $23.90 |
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Title: High Noon: The Inside Story of Scott McNealy and the Rise of Sun Microsystems by Karen Southwick ISBN: 0471297135 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 13 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: ebusiness or Out of Business: Oracle's Roadmap for Profiting in the New Economy by Mark Barrenechea, Larry Ellison ISBN: 0071373365 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade Pub. Date: 22 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry by Michael Dell, Catherine Fredman ISBN: 0887309151 Publisher: HarperCollins (paper) Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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