Would you bet against Larry Ellison?

When I began my journey at Oracle HQ, it didn't take long for John Wookey and Jeff Caldwell to challenge me with the "Would you bet against Larry Ellison?" proposition. It was often used as a way for us to get our positioning right or our heads in the right space as we adjusted our software engineering activities to address an external competitive threat. As independent and agressive independent though is well regarded at Oracle, we would blaze away with our thoughts and strategies. From time to time we'd reach a point where our thoughts would be in direct conflict with Larry's specific intent in a space, and that is when the question would be put. Then we'd watch Larry as he'd change an entire marketplace to suit his outcome (very "Blue Ocean"). It didn't take us long to appreciate how well his strategy works and therefore adopt his very broad style of thinking when it came to addressing a market requirement.

I was reading back over Guy Kawasaki today, and found this specific reference to Oracle and Larry. Guy is addressing exactly this topic, but from an external perspective.

“Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.” Larry Ellison has his own jet. He can keep the San Jose Airport open for his late night landings. His boat is so big that it can barely get under the Golden Gate Bridge. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are flying on Southwest out of Oakland and stealing the free peanuts. There's a reason why Larry is where he is, and entrepreneurs are where they are, and it's not that he's big, dumb, and slow. Competing with Oracle, Microsoft, and other large companies is a very difficult task. Entrepreneurs who utter this lie look at best naive. You think it's bravado, but venture capitalists think it's stupidity.

Read more: How to Change the World: The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs - http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie_1.html#ixzz0Bg5lrEcx

Kudos to Guy, and respect to Larry.

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