RE: [***SPAM***] - Re: Two New Books On Larry - Found word(s) to be removed remove money free list error e-mail in the Text body.

Book review from Amazon ... might be a good plane trip read

Everyone Else Must Fail: The Unvarnished Truth About Oracle and Larry Ellison

>From Publishers Weekly
Southwick, a veteran Silicon Valley observer and author of several books (including Silicon Gold Rush), offers a detailed look at Larry Ellison, who created Oracle software. Ellison is one of only a handful of computer pioneers still heading a high-tech company. Southwick praises Ellison's innovation and business skills, but is far more critical of his management style and interpersonal skills. In fact, much of the book is devoted to chronicling horror stories from former employees. Even people who thought they had "worked well together" with Ellison are fired or, more usually, made to feel so uncomfortable that they choose to leave. "Ellison lavishes opportunities upon his favored executives-giving them almost free rein to grow-until he tires of them for one reason or another, or feels threatened by them, and finds a way to get rid of them," writes Southwick. With so many interviews-many quite bitter-with former Oracle employees, the author provides an in-depth look at the ! company and insights into its business strategies. For example, in a discussion on promotion, she notes, "Oracle's marketing campaigns are unusual in the technology industry in that they directly assail competitors." Ellison emerges as an innovative and smart businessman, albeit unlikable. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
KAREN SOUTHWICK, an executive editor at CNET News.com, has been a writer and editor for Forbes ASAP and Upside, as well as metropolitan daily newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle. She is also the author of three previous books: Silicon Gold Rush: The Next Generation of High-Tech Stars Rewrites the Rules of Business; The Kingmakers: Venture Capital and the Money Behind the Net; and High Noon: The Inside Story of Scott McNealy and the Rise of Sun Microsystems. She lives in San... read more

Book Description
Karen Southwick's unauthorized account provides the full story of Larry Ellison's brilliant, controversial career. Ellison's drive and fierce ambition created Oracle out of the dust and built it into one of America's great technology companies, but his unpredictable management style keeps it constantly on the edge of both success and disaster. The hostile bid for PeopleSoft is just the most recent example. With one clever strategic move, Larry Ellison threw much of the business software field into play.

The saying "It's not enough that I succeed, everyone else must fail" has been so often used by or associated with Ellison that most people think it originated with him. It's actually attributed to Genghis Khan, but it's a dead-on way to describe not only the way Ellison thinks about competitors but the way he runs Oracle. His weapons are not marauding hordes, but Oracle's possession of database technology that is crucial for keeping mission-critical information flows working at thousands of organizations, corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies.

Inside Oracle, Ellison has time and again systematically purged key operating, sales, and marketing people who got too powerful for his comfort. Most notable was Ray Lane, Oracle's president for nine years, who was widely credited with bringing order out of the chaos that was Oracle in the early nineties and growing it into a ten billion dollar company. Ellison got rid of the one key person who was building confidence with Wall Street, business partners, and customers that Oracle was no longer flying by the seat of its pants and had its act together. Ellison's mania for absolute control and his inability to coexist with the very lieutenants who bring much-needed stability to the company have brought Oracle to the brink of collapse before, and may well do it again.

Ellison is a throwback to an earlier, much more freewheeling version of capitalism, the kind practiced by the nineteenth-century robber barons who ran their companies as private fiefdoms. Larry Ellison is one of the most intriguing and dominant leaders of a major twenty-first-century corporation, and Everyone Else Must Fail raises the question of whether Oracle's products and the reliance placed in them by so many are too important to be subject to the whims of one man. While giving credit to Ellison's brilliance and devotion, the book sounds a warning about an ingenious man's tendency to be his own company's worst enemy.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 7:40 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L removed remove money free list error e-mail in the Text body.

Speaking of WSJ, they got more then a honorary mention in the great book by Al Franken. Being an admirer of Mr. Al Franken, you'll understand my hesitation to give money to WSJ in any way or form.

On 11/07/2003 09:18:03 AM, KENNETH JANUSZ wrote:
> RE: Wall Street Journal, 11/7/2003, Review/Books page W8
>
> I opened my WSJ this morning and found a review of these two books on Larry.
>
> Everyone Else Must Fail by Karen Southwick
> Sofwar by Mathew Symonds
>
> The reviews were very interesting.
>
> This is the print version of the WSJ. The reviews may be available on the on-line WSJ but you have to subscribe to it (not free).
>
> My $0.02 worth,
> Ken Janusz, CPIM

Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA

Note:
This message is for the named person's use only. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system, destroy any hard copies of it and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. Wang Trading LLC and any of its subsidiaries each reserve the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its networks. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the message states otherwise and the sender is authorized to state them to be the views of any such entity.

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Mladen Gogala
  INET: mladen_at_wangtrading.com

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Tony Johnson
  INET: Tony_Johnson_at_Trimble.com

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).