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Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle
In a business where great risks, huge fortunes, and even bigger egos are common, Larry Ellison stands out as one of the most outspoken, driven, and daring leaders of the software industry. The company he cofounded and runs, Oracle, is the number one business software company. Perhaps even more than Microsoft's, Oracle's products are essential to today's networked world.
In Softwar, journalist Matthew Symonds gives readers exclusive and intimate insight into both Oracle and the man who made it and runs it. As well as relating the story of Oracle's often bumpy path to industry dominance, Symonds deals with the private side of Ellison's life. With unlimited insider access granted by Ellison himself, Symonds captures the intensity and, some would say, the recklessness that have made Ellison a legend.
With a new and expanded epilogue for the paperback edition that tells the story behind Oracle's epic struggle to win control of PeopleSoft, Softwar is the most complete portrait undertaken of the man and his empire -- a unique and gripping account of both the way the computing industry really works and an extraordinary life.
In Softwar, journalist Matthew Symonds gives readers exclusive and intimate insight into both Oracle and the man who made it and runs it. As well as relating the story of Oracle's often bumpy path to industry dominance, Symonds deals with the private side of Ellison's life. With unlimited insider access granted by Ellison himself, Symonds captures the intensity and, some would say, the recklessness that have made Ellison a legend.
With a new and expanded epilogue for the paperback edition that tells the story behind Oracle's epic struggle to win control of PeopleSoft, Softwar is the most complete portrait undertaken of the man and his empire -- a unique and gripping account of both the way the computing industry really works and an extraordinary life.
528 pages, Paperback
First published September 23, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
November 19, 2014
3.5 stars.
A fun book with a longer blog post (with all my notes) certainly coming soon. I picked up Softwar after Ellison stepped down as CEO of Oracle a couple of months ago.
The most important thing I picked up from Softwar was how often historical trends repeat themselves — fundamentally, the battles we're currently witnessing with SaaS stacks are just iterations of wars that existed between database stacks and enterprise systems in the mid-nineties. Oracle and Ellison were in the thick of this — more than anyone else I've seen, Ellison goes to war (and wins).
A lot of syllogisms touted about business now are lessons from history — while platforms change and major players shift, the game is still fundamentally the same. My favorite example of this is Thiel's philosophy about monopolies — Microsoft might be a dinosaur now, but focusing on monopolising smaller markets (and settling its' many anti-trust cases) was how it rose to prominence early on.
At it's core, Softwar is a fascinating case study of Oracle's rise to prominence and provides an intimate profile of Ellison (one of my favorite characters in the industry), as promised. However, the book probably could have been half the length it was — 600+ pages should give me a "shut the door on this topic" tome of a biography (ala anything Issacson or Gleick writes). There was an excessive amount of detail about Ellison's personal life and a lot of esoteric details of Oracle corporate politics that could have been cut.
My favorite part of the book was seeing what predictions were made for the next 10-15 years in the early 2000s. Slowly realised that Ellison is often radically wrong — but Oracle's bread was won on the basis of him being right more often than not.
Recommended for anyone who's fascinated by history of the software industry, Larry Ellison or enterprise software. Else, skip the book and check out my (forthcoming) notes.
A fun book with a longer blog post (with all my notes) certainly coming soon. I picked up Softwar after Ellison stepped down as CEO of Oracle a couple of months ago.
The most important thing I picked up from Softwar was how often historical trends repeat themselves — fundamentally, the battles we're currently witnessing with SaaS stacks are just iterations of wars that existed between database stacks and enterprise systems in the mid-nineties. Oracle and Ellison were in the thick of this — more than anyone else I've seen, Ellison goes to war (and wins).
A lot of syllogisms touted about business now are lessons from history — while platforms change and major players shift, the game is still fundamentally the same. My favorite example of this is Thiel's philosophy about monopolies — Microsoft might be a dinosaur now, but focusing on monopolising smaller markets (and settling its' many anti-trust cases) was how it rose to prominence early on.
At it's core, Softwar is a fascinating case study of Oracle's rise to prominence and provides an intimate profile of Ellison (one of my favorite characters in the industry), as promised. However, the book probably could have been half the length it was — 600+ pages should give me a "shut the door on this topic" tome of a biography (ala anything Issacson or Gleick writes). There was an excessive amount of detail about Ellison's personal life and a lot of esoteric details of Oracle corporate politics that could have been cut.
My favorite part of the book was seeing what predictions were made for the next 10-15 years in the early 2000s. Slowly realised that Ellison is often radically wrong — but Oracle's bread was won on the basis of him being right more often than not.
Recommended for anyone who's fascinated by history of the software industry, Larry Ellison or enterprise software. Else, skip the book and check out my (forthcoming) notes.
August 9, 2013
Great Read, but Flawed
True to its subtitle Softwar does indeed deliver an 'intimate portrait' of billionaire business leader Larry Ellison. Unfortunately, although the book is enthralling and features an incredibly interesting format including written responses by Ellison to points raised by Symonds, it falls short in two important areas for biographies.
Firstly, Symonds is not objective - he clearly worked very closely with Ellison and certainly paints a more rosy picture of the complicated man than a more impartial observer may. Secondly, the structure of the book is lacking.The first section of the book (although it is not actually divided as a section) covers Ellison's business life chronoligically and perhaps in too detailed a manner to always remain interesting (there's an alphabet soup of executive names that are never heard from again). Then what I would consider the second section of the book jumps around from business to personal ventures and lacks a real 'feeling of time'. A more traditional fully integrated narrative of the personal and business sides to Ellison's life would perhaps have been superior since it's difficult to gage how much pressures in one area of Ellison's life are affecting the other.
Even with its flaws, Softwar is well written and comes as close to being autobiographical as a non-autobiography can. The subject himself is certainly interesting enough to warrant the 500 pages, and the unique response format is refreshing.
True to its subtitle Softwar does indeed deliver an 'intimate portrait' of billionaire business leader Larry Ellison. Unfortunately, although the book is enthralling and features an incredibly interesting format including written responses by Ellison to points raised by Symonds, it falls short in two important areas for biographies.
Firstly, Symonds is not objective - he clearly worked very closely with Ellison and certainly paints a more rosy picture of the complicated man than a more impartial observer may. Secondly, the structure of the book is lacking.The first section of the book (although it is not actually divided as a section) covers Ellison's business life chronoligically and perhaps in too detailed a manner to always remain interesting (there's an alphabet soup of executive names that are never heard from again). Then what I would consider the second section of the book jumps around from business to personal ventures and lacks a real 'feeling of time'. A more traditional fully integrated narrative of the personal and business sides to Ellison's life would perhaps have been superior since it's difficult to gage how much pressures in one area of Ellison's life are affecting the other.
Even with its flaws, Softwar is well written and comes as close to being autobiographical as a non-autobiography can. The subject himself is certainly interesting enough to warrant the 500 pages, and the unique response format is refreshing.
February 21, 2022
I tried but 200 pages of drivel with Larry Ellison chiming in from the back row is too much for me. There were a couple interesting ideas early on but VP alphabet soup is exhausting to read. It's just not worth it. Go find the couple good quotes and save yourself the hours.
December 31, 2017
I always wanted to read this book, and now a decade later I finally get to it...
Good news
- There's some great reporting embedded in what is really a ~500 page PR piece for Ellison
- The Ray Lane story was worth the read
- Ellison at the emergence of the Internet and struggling (like others) to see the future is a great historical read
Bad news
- Giving the subject of your book permission to have a running commentary on the bottom of each page of your text, makes a mockery of the word journalist. (Doubly so because Ellison's commentary was unnecessary and extraneous. It added nothing to the story. It only proved how badly he compromised the author.)
- The book was in desperate need of an editor. It has periods of true reporting sandwiched in-between verbatim transcripts of Ellison position papers. Easily could have been 1/2 the size and twice as good.
- Tons of tactical details about: Ellison firing execs, defending Ron Wahl is spite of overwhelming evidence of incompetence, management by parachuting in, management only in crisis,etc. but none of this gets put into a coherent description of 1) who is Larry Ellison, 2) why given the permanent dysfunction of the company did it and he succeed. If there ever was a great example of "can't see the forest for the trees" reporting, this book is it.
- The whitewash of the Oracle contracting scandal with the State of California is a great example of when reporters become PR flacks of their subject. The author spent 3 years with Ellison and couldn't conclude "of course Oracle was pushing the edge?" A reporter would have asked if the "sales at any price" culture that almost killed the company in the 1990's had returned. A comprised flak rationalized it.
- Three years with Ellison and Oracle and no summing up of how this talented and flawed human being built the company
Good news
- There's some great reporting embedded in what is really a ~500 page PR piece for Ellison
- The Ray Lane story was worth the read
- Ellison at the emergence of the Internet and struggling (like others) to see the future is a great historical read
Bad news
- Giving the subject of your book permission to have a running commentary on the bottom of each page of your text, makes a mockery of the word journalist. (Doubly so because Ellison's commentary was unnecessary and extraneous. It added nothing to the story. It only proved how badly he compromised the author.)
- The book was in desperate need of an editor. It has periods of true reporting sandwiched in-between verbatim transcripts of Ellison position papers. Easily could have been 1/2 the size and twice as good.
- Tons of tactical details about: Ellison firing execs, defending Ron Wahl is spite of overwhelming evidence of incompetence, management by parachuting in, management only in crisis,etc. but none of this gets put into a coherent description of 1) who is Larry Ellison, 2) why given the permanent dysfunction of the company did it and he succeed. If there ever was a great example of "can't see the forest for the trees" reporting, this book is it.
- The whitewash of the Oracle contracting scandal with the State of California is a great example of when reporters become PR flacks of their subject. The author spent 3 years with Ellison and couldn't conclude "of course Oracle was pushing the edge?" A reporter would have asked if the "sales at any price" culture that almost killed the company in the 1990's had returned. A comprised flak rationalized it.
- Three years with Ellison and Oracle and no summing up of how this talented and flawed human being built the company
October 7, 2019
Silicon Valley has a tendency to forget even recent history, so it was fascinating to see the parallels in leadership, marketing, and competitive dynamics just a few decades ago. Selling enterprise software never seems to change. That said, the rest of the book was dull, unendingly detailed about unnecessary areas, and failed to paint a clear portrait of its subject.
February 24, 2020
An interesting, though bloated, portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle.
Really in need of a good editor to cut the length in half and give it some structure. The business parts—technology, strategy, and management—are fascinating, but highly repetitive. There are interminable meetings that are basically all carbon copies of each other, with Ellison explaining yet again the benefits of centralized databases and unified business suites. I recall at least three times Ellison telling some story about how shipping software is like childbirth (a lot of pain, but after you have this beautiful new baby)… okay fine, but one time would have gotten the point across.
The non-business parts: personal life, bigass yacht stuff, Ellison’s $100M house in Woodside, family life, are not super interesting, with the exception of the harrowing tale of the Sydney-to-Hobart race in 1988. They feel like obligatory biographical details, and could have been dealt with in 80% less detail while still communicating what they have to say about Ellison personally. (And he is one interesting dude—vain, brilliant, ruthless, materialistic, technically strong, often strategically brilliant and sometimes way off, an incompetent manager, etc.)
I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a particular interest in Ellison and Oracle.
Really in need of a good editor to cut the length in half and give it some structure. The business parts—technology, strategy, and management—are fascinating, but highly repetitive. There are interminable meetings that are basically all carbon copies of each other, with Ellison explaining yet again the benefits of centralized databases and unified business suites. I recall at least three times Ellison telling some story about how shipping software is like childbirth (a lot of pain, but after you have this beautiful new baby)… okay fine, but one time would have gotten the point across.
The non-business parts: personal life, bigass yacht stuff, Ellison’s $100M house in Woodside, family life, are not super interesting, with the exception of the harrowing tale of the Sydney-to-Hobart race in 1988. They feel like obligatory biographical details, and could have been dealt with in 80% less detail while still communicating what they have to say about Ellison personally. (And he is one interesting dude—vain, brilliant, ruthless, materialistic, technically strong, often strategically brilliant and sometimes way off, an incompetent manager, etc.)
I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a particular interest in Ellison and Oracle.
May 1, 2023
8/10: Softwar reads like a 500 page HBS case study.
Over the years, many have chronicled the rise of tech businesses like Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. However, very few have focused on enterprise software. It makes sense. B2B is inherently less relatable. It’s hard to get an average American riled up about API integrations.
This book will certainly reasonate with those in tech biz dev, investing, or consulting. Symonds dives deep into everything from
-Biz model evolutions from mainframe, client/server, and the internet.
-How to cross-sell from databases to apps
-What a bad sales culture looks like
-Why system integrators screw up implementations
Softwar has an interesting format. Symonds, a former writer at the Economist, documents the day to day at ORCL. Interestingly, Lary Ellison also provides unedited commentary. This often creates juxtapositions in which Ellison pours the Oracle Gatorade, while Symonds gives a more somber look.
I enjoyed the book. But it’s certainly not for everyone.
Over the years, many have chronicled the rise of tech businesses like Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. However, very few have focused on enterprise software. It makes sense. B2B is inherently less relatable. It’s hard to get an average American riled up about API integrations.
This book will certainly reasonate with those in tech biz dev, investing, or consulting. Symonds dives deep into everything from
-Biz model evolutions from mainframe, client/server, and the internet.
-How to cross-sell from databases to apps
-What a bad sales culture looks like
-Why system integrators screw up implementations
Softwar has an interesting format. Symonds, a former writer at the Economist, documents the day to day at ORCL. Interestingly, Lary Ellison also provides unedited commentary. This often creates juxtapositions in which Ellison pours the Oracle Gatorade, while Symonds gives a more somber look.
I enjoyed the book. But it’s certainly not for everyone.
September 12, 2023
The author doesn’t seem to know a thing and constant throwing confusing comparison between client-server and the internet architecture- internet is fucking client-server, and it’s an Apple vs Orange comparison between the two. This is a just one of many idiotic descriptions from the author, and it’s fucking boring damn long. It’s a moronic book that just echos his master’s voice in a megaphone - just b.s.
June 2, 2021
The structure doesn't make sense, and the psychological analysis of Larry Ellison comes too late. Somewhat boring at times. But it's good to learn that one can make so many mistakes and still build a company as successful as Oracle.
August 23, 2022
Very good read if interested in the history and drama of the software business. The commentary by Ellison was elucidating and entertaining. It was repetitive in the second half and would have been better if it were 100 pages shorter and had an update 10 years after initial publication.
August 26, 2021
I never want to read the phrase “best of breed” ever again.
May 2, 2020
It's definitely an interesting story, but the narrative is non existent. Most of the time, it felt as if I was reading the authors notes. Lots of repetition, revisiting the same events without adding anything to the story. Also, we learnt very little about Larry Ellison,and a lot about oracle and how to make software. Very disappointing reading, especially coz it's 500 pages long
August 23, 2015
If you're in the software business, this is a must-read. This book was last updated in 2004, which makes it very dated given the breakthroughs and changes over the past decade, but in a way that makes it even more interesting. A lot of Ellison's predictions - particularly about software-as-a-service and the Internet as the dominant backbone for business applications - were spot on. His belief and foresight about the relational database as a commercially viable enabler for organizations was prophetic. The world of software, technology and data would not be where it is today without the advancements in the database that Oracle and Ellison relentlessly built. His other prediction that only a few large integrated software vendors would survive was disproven by his own investment in Salesforce, a CRM vendor that's now the 4th largest business software company in the world by revenue. Even more interesting was Ellison's distaste of acquiring your way to growth. He thought not buying other companies and focusing on keeping their tools integrated was critical. But after this book comes out, what does Oracle do? They go on a shopping spree. Peoplesoft/JD Edwards is briefly covered in the book, but Oracle would go on to buy CRM vendor Siebel, go into the hardware business through buying Sun Microsystems, buy HR app vendor Taleo, and others. Do all these tools work together? No. So did Ellison change his tune personally on acquisitions? Or was he forced to because that's what happens to mature companies when they're near the top of their market? Symonds' book will trigger a lot of questions like these, and they're questions worth asking in the business world.
September 16, 2018
OMG!
I work for Oracle and I'm amazed and thrilled to be led by Larry Ellison. I now understand how the culture developed.
I work for Oracle and I'm amazed and thrilled to be led by Larry Ellison. I now understand how the culture developed.
September 23, 2008
If you have ever worked with Oracle or competed against them; this book is a must read. It captures the competitive spirit of Larry Ellison and the resultant culture of his firm. The book highlights the "Perfect Storm" of Oracle's infamous encounter with the State of California and details Ellison's gamble in shifting the company from a vendor of client-server software to the E-Business Suite. Whether or not Symonds intended to draw analogies between Ellison's yachting "hobby" and his business pursuits it makes for a very interesting read.
After reading about Oracle's battles against Microsoft you can't help rooting for Ellison and his warrior leadership style.
As a salesperson in the software industry I found it a great read!
James Gingerich
Sr Partner Account Manager
Sybase
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesg2006
http://softwaresalespersoneducation.b...
After reading about Oracle's battles against Microsoft you can't help rooting for Ellison and his warrior leadership style.
As a salesperson in the software industry I found it a great read!
James Gingerich
Sr Partner Account Manager
Sybase
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesg2006
http://softwaresalespersoneducation.b...
August 19, 2010
"I was most interested in the information on Oracle and Larry's theories on computing. This was dominant in the book, though it wasn't complete. I think I'd like to find a less complementary biography to balance this because I thought the author seemed more than friendly with him. I'd also like to find an update to cover the last 5+ years since the book was printed. For example, I know that the PeopleSoft and Seibel purchases have happened since then, and I'm curious on his take on why these were good for Oracle and his business when he seemed so critical of their business model. Overall, it was interesting, and I generally enjoyed most of it."
August 28, 2007
Great biography on Larry Ellison. I've worked in the IT industry for over 10 years some of which focused on implementing software packages. I've seen Larry give keynote speeches and usually came across as an arrogant, self-righteous person. However, after reading this book and contemplating his ideas for the software industry, I now understand his actions and consider him to be one of the geniuses of the industry. At times the book comes across as a sales pitch, but at least it is a very convincing sales pitch. He definitely has a very interesting life.
May 16, 2015
A surprisingly very good book, not because it reads well ( not as great at story telling as many of the biographies I read), but because the insight it offers about Ellision and how he made those revolutionary decisions. It feels real and so relevant even though the book was written more than 10 years ago. What Ellison sai'd and believed at the time have been proved so right, which proves him a true visionary. What also amazes me is that throughout the book you read him readily admit his mistakes, all the time. That says something about success .
August 3, 2014
Working for Oracle makes this book not mandatory to read, for sure. However, I was surprised how it helped me to understand business strategies of today. This book gives an autobiographical insight as well, but not more than I expected.
In my point of view the editor sometimes seemed to be too dependant and is lacking to be objective. But overall reading this book was a pleasure due to the unique live comments and footnotes of Larry himself.
In my point of view the editor sometimes seemed to be too dependant and is lacking to be objective. But overall reading this book was a pleasure due to the unique live comments and footnotes of Larry himself.
March 18, 2008
While this book fanned the flames of a brief obsession with Larry Ellison, it was overly fawning and did not provide much insight into the reasons for Oracle's business success. I suppose I got what I deserved for reading a book whose cover quotes reviews marveling at the "access" obtained by the author.
March 8, 2015
A surprisingly interesting look at the life and work of Ellison. Not the person I expected.
The book benefited from Symonds' close access to Ellison. One could not have written this book well from a distance.
Unfortunately the book is getting out of date. It's 10+ years old now, a long time in the industry.
The book benefited from Symonds' close access to Ellison. One could not have written this book well from a distance.
Unfortunately the book is getting out of date. It's 10+ years old now, a long time in the industry.
May 7, 2009
Liked it...what can I say, I work for the man.
July 13, 2012
Hilarious that they let Ellison comment on the text with footnotes. He needs his own show.
October 13, 2014
Enjoyed the beginning but got repetitive and boring
April 28, 2015
not the best written book, but probably the best book about larry ellison
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews