The Oracle of Oracle

The Story of Volatile CEO Larry Ellison and the Strategies Behind His Company’s Phenomenal Success

Author: Florence M. Stone
Pub Date: 2007
Your Price: $24.95
ISBN: 0814406394
Format: Hardcover

• Overview
• Ellison Speaks Out
• Press Release
• Sample Chapter
• Table of Contents
• Winning Strategies the Oracle Way
• Request an Evaluation Copy, INSTRUCTOR ONLY!

Beyond the Babes, Boats and Braggadocio,
THE ORACLE OF ORACLE

Capricious, arrogant, autocratic, ruthlessóthese adjectives (plus a few not fit for print) have been widely used to describe Larry Ellison, founder, president and CEO of Oracle. Notorious for his womanizing, his yacht racing, his Armani suits, his $40 million Japanese-style mansion and his hyperbole, Ellison has a larger-than-life personality that belies his exceptional business prowess. An excellent strategist, promoter and manager, Ellison is also a commanding leader and a visionary able to anticipate the demands of his customers. How else could he have risen from a college dropout in the programming trenches to dominate the high-tech industry and amass a fortune second only to his "nemesis," Microsoft CEO Bill Gates?

THE ORACLE OF ORACLE: The Story of Volatile CEO Larry Ellison and the Strategies Behind His Company's Phenomenal Success reveals the complex man behind the audacious anecdotes and the power of his corporate vision and competitive tactics. Florence M. Stone explores Ellison's intertwined personal style and business success, drawing on interviews with his colleagues, admirers and victims. She portrays Oracle's CEO as "the 21st Century's P.T. Barnum," an indomitable optimist with chutzpah and a remarkable gift for selling his ideas to others, backed by ceaseless work and fierce determination.

Referring to someone of great wisdom, the term oracle originated in ancient Greece. In modern Silicon Valley, as Stone reflects, "there is only one Oracle with a capital O, the $10 billion software developer, and only one oracle with a lower-case o, the oracle or idea man, Ellison." She makes clear: "To understand Oracle, you have to understand Ellison.they are so interlinked that the man is the company, and the company is the product of a lifetime of proving to the world just how successful that man could be."

More than a collection of entertaining stories, THE ORACLE OF ORACLE squarely focuses on the Ellison-inspired management that shaped Oracle from its 1977 inception to its corner on the relational database market; from its triumphant 1986 IPO (which earned Ellison $90 million in a single day) to its shattering 1990 financial crisis (which cost him a whopping $390 million); from its rebound and rivalry with Microsoft to its latest drive to dominate e-business with its revolutionary "network appliances." After a brief history of the company and its founder, the book delves into Oracle's value systems and winning strategies. Filled with telling quotes and corporate mantras, chapters offer striking insights into what makes Oracle unique and remarkably successful, including:

• Why work/life mage is critical to Ellison
  
• Why "Crush the Competition" is not simply a slogan but a rallying cry to action
  
• How Oracle locks in customers for life through sales, service and leadership
  
• How Oracle excels at product development with an eye on future positioning
  
• The hard won lessons of Oracle's early meteoric growth
  
• Oracle's bold anti-PC move and new commitment to Web-driven business
  

Eye opening, intriguing and timely,THE ORACLE OF ORACLE presents a fresh take on one of the most daring and powerful companies in the high-tech sector and the brilliant, flamboyant and frequently maddening, man at its helm.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Florence M. Stone is the author of nine books, including Coaching, Counseling, & Mentoring and The High-Value Manager (both published by AMACOM Books) and (under the pen name Rebecca Saunders) Business the Amazon.com Way and Business the Dell Way. She lives in New York City.

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