- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Century (4 Dec 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0712621482
- ISBN-13: 978-0712621489
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 3.2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,008,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
One imagines that Larry Ellison, creator and leader of Oracle, the second largest technology company in the world (second only to Microsoft), would want to swiftly perform a kind of magical 'Ctrl Alt Delete' keystroke and have this book - and its author - permanently deleted from the planet. But he can't, so in Everyone Else Must Fail we have a no-holds barred account of how one man rose from the proverbial lowly roots - he was born to a single mother and given away to relatives - and ended up running a corporate giant, antagonising just about everyone he worked with in the process. It's easy to think of one customer for it: a certain William Gates of Seattle, perhaps?
Product Description
The rags-to-riches saga of Larry Ellsion, born to a single mother who gave him to relatives and now CEO of one of the most important companies in high technology, has been hearlded as another spectacular success story of Silicon Valley.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Well researched, poorly written
3 Jan 2004
Format:Hardcover
This account of the politics and actions of Oracle presents the reader with a ton of great material - insider reports, odd tidbits, lots of interview material with the main cast of characters from Lane on down. But it presents all the material with such unfamiliarity with the world of enterprise software that it is almost unreadable. The author's account chastises Oracle for being hard to work with citing examples of botched projects, wasted IT funds, and non-working products - Hey, enterprise applications are tough, really tough. Numerous comparisons are made to other companies (e.g. PSFT, SAP, etc), but the propaganda of the other companies is taken verbatim and the bad light is shined on Oracle. Let's face it all software companies --- all companies for that matter -- have happy customers and really pissed off customers. Oracle is different only in that they rarely admit to any wrong doing.
But the above does not stop one from reading the really interesting stuff that the author has dug up - it is the unbearable amateurish writing style of the author that really will end up driving you crazy by the end of the book. She just keeps repeating herself over and over again it drove me crazy. Ad did I tell you that she just keeps repeating herself over and over again. And then he said "She just keeps repeating herself over and over again." Message to author: your readers got it the first time around.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
On Target!!
1 Dec 2003
Format:Hardcover
The author has done an exemplary job of interviewing the right people that can give an accurate picture of what is going on inside Oracle and with Ellison. On most subjects she was right on target. The situation is actually even worse than presented in the book given my years experience as an employee. Oracle could have been the IBM of the software world if only Ellison could listen and work with his managers. What he did was to destroy one of the most successful management teams of the 90's and totally ignore what customers and partners have been telling him. If this does not change, it is curtains for Oracle.
Ms. Southwick should be complimented for being brave enough to take on these subjects and report them in a clear and understandable way.
Ms. Southwick should be complimented for being brave enough to take on these subjects and report them in a clear and understandable way.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Read it, you will like it!!
15 Jun 2005
Format:Hardcover
"Everyone else must fail" by book by Karen Southwick is a must read if you want an example of how the goddess of luck favors those who grab their opportunities. When Oracle cofounders Ellison, Miner and Oates land a consulting assignment to feed themselves they know they can spend some time building a relational database without having to worry about their bread and butter.
A few decades later 98 of the top 100 companies in the world would use Oracle software in their businesses. This well researched book gives us inside glimpses of a company which overcame the growing pains of crossing the billion dollar mark, faced bankruptcy, shot itself in the foot with insensitive customer support and successfully completed the largest acquisition in the enterprise software industry. The author also tracks the maturing of the relational database, middleware and enterprise application business. If you want to understand technology trends especially those in the enterprise application industry, grab this opportunity to educate yourself. This is one of the best I've seen on Oracle thus far. I wonder whether anyone will have the energy to write another!!
A few decades later 98 of the top 100 companies in the world would use Oracle software in their businesses. This well researched book gives us inside glimpses of a company which overcame the growing pains of crossing the billion dollar mark, faced bankruptcy, shot itself in the foot with insensitive customer support and successfully completed the largest acquisition in the enterprise software industry. The author also tracks the maturing of the relational database, middleware and enterprise application business. If you want to understand technology trends especially those in the enterprise application industry, grab this opportunity to educate yourself. This is one of the best I've seen on Oracle thus far. I wonder whether anyone will have the energy to write another!!
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Science, Mathematics & Technology > Computers
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Biographies & Histories > Biographies & Memoirs
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > E-Commerce
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Economics
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Management
- Books > Computing & Internet
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
