This book is based on what others have publicly written about Oracle, and as I read this, I get a very strong feeling that I am going through a "second hand reading" of those articles. The author shared what she understood from reading those artciples and papers, but I don't get the feeling that she understands the subject she is talking about at all.

And I learn a new word from reading this book, deepness [ page 208 ]. Amazingly, that word is found in several online dictioaries. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is not found in my printed copy of Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus. If more books like these were printed, 'O' and 'A' levels English would not have been so hard.

This book was a huge disappointment. The author does not appear to have any previous background on this dynamic industry. This book is not even suitable for a primer as much of Ms. Stone's analysis is not accurate. Having worked for the company, I can attest to the fact that its history is not as simple as portrayed in the book. Stone seems bent on proving that Ellison - despite his rock star ego - is the epitome of a true leader.

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.

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.

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.