Fool Me Once...

Please don't say manana if you don't mean it,
I have heard your lines for so very long"
-Jimmy Buffett

I think everyone remembers the old Peanuts episodes, where Charlie Brown trys to kick the football. Lucy is always the holder and she always pulls it away at the last minute. Then, in the future, she promises once again to hold the ball, only to pull it away at the last moment. Unfortunately for Charlie Brown fans, he never gets to kick it.

When you see this as a child, you are sad, yet hopeful that he will one day kick it. As an adult, you look at it and say "why in the world would he ever believe that she is going to hold it?". It harkens the old line, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...". I think you get the picture.

I almost fell off my chair this weekend when I read through Oracle's recent earnings call. The first thing that came to mind was the Jimmy Buffett song...the second thing that came to mind was the Peanuts. Let me share a sampling of quotes/headlines from the past 5 years:

Exhibit A
"I think the merger integration is complete. I'm not concerned with the development of PeopleSoft 9, J.D. Edwards 8.12 or Oracle 12," Ellison said Tuesday at a press conference to launch the newly merged company. "My biggest focus is on Project Fusion. That is where my focus will be for the next several years." - Larry Ellison

Exhibit B
"Ellison announced that the first Fusion applications would come out early in 2008, focusing on salesforce automation, with pre-built integration packs for Oracle’s E-Business Suite ERP."

Exhibit C
"Final comments by Ellison indicated that Version 1 of Fusion Applications will be released in 2010."

Exhibit D
"As I watched the live webcast of the Keynote tonight at the Oracle Openworld 2010, Larry finally announced the launch of Fusion Apps."

Exhibit E
"The other thing is Fusion is right around the corner, and our customers are seeing us to deliver this new technology. "-Larry Ellison


Now, let me give you the dates on each of these headlines/quotes:

Exhibit A - January 18, 2005
Exhibit B - November 14, 2007
Exhibit C - October 14, 2009
Exhibit D - September 19, 2010
Exhibit E - Last week (12/16 to be precise)

Seriously, does Oracle think that we are all Charlie Brown?

Where is your email from?

A friend said something to me a few weeks back that stuck with me. He said "All you really have to do is to look at someone's email to get an understanding of whether they are internally focused (within their own company) or externally focused (on clients/partners, etc)." That is quite true.

Think of the contrast:

Internal email, in many cases, is just churn. It's negotiating within your company, lobbying for something you want and at its worst, it is infighting/politics.

External email is making things happen. Every minute of every day that you spend interacting with clients/partners, gives you a chance to make something happen. This is good for the client/partner, good for you, and good for your company.

This sounds fairly obvious. But, I am sure that we are all more guilty of internal churn than we would want to admit.

Emerging from the Cloud

The discussion around cloud computing has primarily been fluff, inception to date. As someone who believes that 'clouds' have always existed in the form of an IBM mainframe, I have been a skeptic of all the hype. However, in the last 3 months, I am finally starting to see/believe that the notion of cloud can have some legs in certain manifestations. Three things made me a believer:

1) GoodData- I had a short conversation with the CEO of GoodData. They market themselves as a "BI Platform as a Service". More simply put, they enable any user to develop BI/analytics reports in real-time, by simply uploading some data from their local machine. However, the genius of their business model comes from the fact that they have no/limited fixed costs. If I as user upload some data, they immediately use the Amazon EC2 cloud to perform that requested work and deliver the results. Their use of the Amazon cloud is 100% variable costs (ie they only use it if I pay them to use it). A business with no fixed costs is powerful and self-sustaining for a long time.

2) iPad- When I received my pre-ordered iPad, it took me less than 5 minutes to set it up and have the exact information on it that I had on my other devices. Literally 5 minutes. I contrast that with the effort it takes to have a new laptop set up. Between re-imaging the machine, loading software, loading data, etc, it is typically a minimum of 3-4 hours. The difference is that iPad leverages a cloud of personal information (contacts, calendar, email, files, etc). From 4+ hours to 5 minutes. That is value.

3) Apple- Apple rarely (never?) uses the phrase cloud, but alot of what they are doing fits this definition. As they continue to roll-out new devices, they will use their cloud to manage the setup and application delivery. In fact, I believe that most of the data will be cloud-based for Apple devices. It is interesting that they are the only company that seems to have figured out that this is the most economical and user friendly way to service the devices.

Attributes of an Executive

Here is a very well written piece that I was referred to yesterday. I think the author does a great job of defining important attributes for any aspriring executive in a large company.

There is one other attribute that I would add: Capacity for learning. I am continuously impressed by the learning capacity of many of the executives that I interact. Their ability to understand a complex topic in a short period of time is admirable and gives them a competitive advantage. My observation is that alot of this capacity is due to their focus on reading/learning vs. constant 'corporate communication' (ie email, instant messaging, etc.). I think that developing your capacity to learn is a very hard skill to acquire, but it starts with a mindset to focus on it.

How to think about clients

"Part of the reason the Oracle culture is so strong in the field is because we feel we own the accounts, own the customers," said Phillips.


Believe it or not, I am not making this quote up. He, Phillips, actually said this. The Phillips I am referring to is Charles Phillips, the President of Oracle Corporation. He actually believes, and it is obvious that he is proliferating this culture in his company, that clients want to be 'owned'. Perhaps I am naive, but I haven't met many clients that like to be 'owned' and treated as if they are someones 'property' to be exploited. On the other hand, you could credit Oracle with the fact that their 'we own our customers' philosophy has driven short-term results. Raising prices, exploiting ELA's, and aggressive contractual maneuvering are all things that you can do to drive results, when you believe that you 'own' your clients.


Personally, I have always been focused on delighting clients versus 'owing' them. I think it is how they preferred to be treated and I am willing to go as far as I need to in order to earn their trust/friendship. 


I have also subscribed to Jeff Bezos' theory of obsessing over customers and the Tony Hsieh philosophy  of Delivering Happiness to clients.


Certainly, we are not perfect in this category, but I try to focus on getting us better at it every day.