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

by Florence M. Stone

Book Overview

"Admired as a visionary leader and brilliant business mind, feared as a ruthless and formidable competitor, and loathed as an egomaniac with an explosive temper, Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814406394
• ISBN13: 9780814406397
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Amacom
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.4"
• Age Range: 17 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Good Book, But What Does the Future Hold?

I was a big fan of Ellison's swashbuckling style, iconoclasm, functioning as a much needed and cash rich arch enemy to The Borg from the North, long history of success, but things just don't seem to be the same without Ray Lane kind of functioning as Ellison's superego. The Oracle of Oracle had experienced a great run up until Lane's departure, and companies don't flourish on the cult of a personality alone. I dumped my Oracle stock a while back, but hope Ellison's seeming spiral into ill advised hubris isn't completely intractable. The story of Oracle and Ellison is more than compelling, and only time will tell whether Ellison's risks in Lane's absence will prove fruitful or fatal.A final note: Mergers and acquisitions are often great for investment bankers and lawyers, but not necessarily great for shareholders and customers. The bigger the merger and/or acquisition, the bigger the potential problems as well. Seems that Oracle is biting off more than it can chew with PeopleSoft.

Insightful!

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.

an excting look into a great management story

This is a superbly written book that is a real page turner. It tells an exciting story that will reward all budding entrepreneurs who would like to create their own brilliant companies that will change the way we view capitalism and the history of free markets. If you want to achieve success, read this book!

Fascinating Insight into an Enigmatic Man

I really enjoyed this book. It's a business book that's actually fun to read. Larry Ellison is almost a mythic character in the high tech business world. Everyone is familiar with his company, his strataspheric success, and his fierce competition with that other successful mega-maniac Bill Gates, but the man himself remains a mystery, like Oz behind the screen. This book does a good job of taking us behind that screen to give us insight into the man's psyche.Stone's book made me respect Ellison for what he is -- an incredibly smart businessman with the talent and drive to transform his vision and knowledge into an amazingly successful company. While I agree with Stone that I wouldn't want to work for him, I'd probably like to BE him!Love him or hate him, Ellison can teach us a few things about business and success.

Great Clues to Oracle's Success

Very nice job of synthesizing info available about ceo ellison--a very secretive guy -- into chunk-size clues as to the success of his management style and organization. Well-organized material, nicely presented. well worth the read.