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!

FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ORACLE OF ORACLE

Larry Ellison Speaks Out.

On wisdom and education
"I have always had difficulty with conventional wisdom. Teachers would say certain thingsóand I wouldn't necessarily believe what they had to say. Just because they said it, and they were experts, and they were in authority did not automatically mean they were right."

Dressed in cap and gown, Ellison told Yale's Y2K graduates that they were "losers" whose hard won diplomas would never make them rich. All their diplomas could give them were "pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs where your checks will be signed by former classmates who dropped out two years ago."

Despite his disdain for Ivy League credentials, Ellison has decreed education a "core competency of Oracle." Over 500,000 students enroll in Oracle University annually.

On winning in business
Ellison has a penchant for quoting Genghis Khan: "It is not enough that I succeed; all others must fail."

Ellison spurs Oracle to competitive victory with his corporate mantras:

"Crush the competition."

"Lock in customers, lock out competitors."

"Spend money on what matters."

"Think like a stockholder."

"Fix the mistake and move on."

"Every second counts."

While infamous for promising product miracles then figuring out a way to deliver, Ellison firmly believes: "Quality is absolutely the right strategy to kill our competition."

On the future of the PC and e-business:
"I think personal computers are ridiculousÖWhy should I have to go to a store to buy software? It's a box of bits; not only that, they are old bits. The software you buy at a store is hardly ever the latest release."

Fired up about developing the first applications for Oracle's E-Business Suite, Ellison declared: "I love running the business now-I love getting involved in every detail of the business. I was never interested in the sales force before. Now we control the sales force or choreograph the sales force by using computers. It's all programmed."

On the matter of grooming a successor to the throne at Oracle:
"A dumb idea."

From THE ORACLE OF ORACLE: The Story of Volatile CEO Larry Ellison and the Strategies Behind His Company's Phenomenal Success by Florence M. Stone.

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