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Rating: 
Summary: Not so bad
Review: I enjoyed reading this book regardless some inaccurate informations. Inspiring me how to treat people in a succesfull organization.
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Summary: Oracle Corporation and its key strategies to a grand success
Review: I enjoyed this book from the beginning till the end. The Oracle edge is a book about key strategies for success. The ideas and strategies have been well proven by the Oracle Corporation, which started as a small Company in 1979 and grew into a major Corporation. This is an in depth description of the culture and character Larry Ellison developed around him which gave life to Oracle. Larry Ellison set himself as a model by presenting an impeccable image, supporting team work, boosting employee morale, enforcing discipline and cultivating innovation especially from his employees. His innovative ideas made the Oracle survive and emerge as the world's largest database company, amidst brutal competition and technology shifts. The highlights of Oracle culture like recruiting the best talent, indoctrinating the company culture in the new recruits, and prudent power sharing really caught my mind. This book is a wonderful source for many of the executives who are seeking strategies to give their organization an edge . I loved the book especially because of the fact that many of the ideas can be put to practice not only just in a software company, but also in any other walks of life. Stuart Reed seemed to possess a first hand knowledge of the Corporation due to his seven year tenure with Oracle. I recommend this book to anyone striving towards achievement of better management skills.
Rating: 
Summary: Too superficial
Review: I picked this book up a couple of years ago and when I read it then, I thought it was too unreal, too fictitious. Everything the author wrote about Oracle was that Oracle is the paradise and there is not a thing wrong about Oracle. I read it again a month back and thinking it would changed my mind. It didn't. In fact, it made it even worse. I have been with several high profile Silicon Valley tech companies and despite the rosy outlook of these companies (especially during the dot-com days), it was not all heaven. The author failed miserably to inject realism into Oracle machinery. I would definitely give this book a thumbs down.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is so-so
Review: I'm always interested in what people write about Oracle, being an international Oracle employee for almost 5 years now. The good thing with this book is that the author really tries to give beef to the title - how can others take profit from Oracle's success methods and which are these anyways. It's not easy to analyze and find a structure, but the author solves this quite well. Sometimes though the facts seem to be stretched and inaccurate (see other comments on wrong project, customer etc.) and also my interest wasn't holding up until the end. I was skimming through the last 80 pages. For an Oracle outsider who wants to know what's going on inside surely a good read, except the various little inaccuracies. The minority runs around in suite & tie, we all know how developers usually dress in most companies of Silicon Valley. Other than that: easy & informative
Rating:
Summary: Insight & Frosting
Review: Much of this work seems like a light and fluffy tribute to Oracle, without looking very hard at what might be ethical issues with the business practices described. If, however, you are negotiating a contract with Oracle, some of the basic hardball tactics described in the book will prepare you for the session and help to educate any starry eyed rookie team members regarding what they are up against when playing in the big leagues.
Rating:
Summary: Too superficial
Review: Published in 2000, this book was in many respects already out of date. By now, more is. Much of what remains current is represented here by truisms and by gee-whiz exclamations, as for instance Read's goggling at Oracle's fitness center and cafeterias. He appears to subscribe to, and he promotes, a very unreflective adherence to Oracle business practices. However, one must salute Read's marketing abilities, without which his book was unlikely to interest even so obscure a publisher as Adams Media Corporation. On the other hand, the book is astonishingly ill-written--Read is reported to have a degree from Harvard, but I'm waiting to see it--and his publisher evidently never even thought of editing his annoying prose. Stay away from this book. By contrast, _The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison_ is a gem.
Rating:
Summary: Great for the outsider!
Review: Thanks to Oracle (ORCL), my retirement plan is in pretty good shape. I had always wondered what was inside the company, and am glad that someone took the time to write it up for me. I was surprised that the book was as accessible as it is to me - as I am an outsider to the technology industry - and can definitely recommend it to people like me. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Management Policies
Review: The book follows a historic description and the developing management policies of the business up to about 97. He doesnt show the thinking, choices and options that lay behind the management's decisions clearly. He relates the policies, their successes/ failures and how they seemed to work with the insight of a guy who was their recipient, not their creator. He wasn't passive but I didn't feel that he really gave executive insight into strategy, leadership, planning, competetive battles and especially in the ways they were thought out and won. We don't experience Ellison first hand. It is an insiders book from a lower middle level. I like the book in that although it struggles with its organisation, the contents are still mainly composed of insights into the policies and it takes a business focus rather than the journalists' history valuing approach. I would buy it again for the ideas, but I haven't read any other Oracle books. It is very easy to pick up and just read.
Rating:
Summary: Insights Are Few And Hidden By Unimportant Data
Review: The Oracle Edge is too superficial to be of much value to all but those who want a quick excursion into the subject. You'll have to provide your own interpretations. The author doesn't provide much. The key lessons I took away from the book are that the company succeeded by providing software benefits for large companies ahead of anyone else in the areas of compatibility across computer platforms, upgrading to new releases, adding new applications, and having maximum up-time. It appeared to have helped that its early competitors did little to respond to any challenge Oracle provided. As to the future, it looks like Oracle's processes for improvement are not yet robust enough to take on the Microsoft hegemony in personal computers. Fully eighty percent of the book seems to be about recruiting methods, compensation processes, expense accounts, ways of meeting with customers, and handling of new product releases that are completely unremarkable in the context of what best practice companies do. You can skip over those materials. One thing that makes this book a little suspect is that there is primarily perspective provided about the company from the author and financial people (I couldn't tell if it was one or two in the latter case). That's a pretty thin base for a whole book about a company. Interviews with customers and competitors would have been nice. I suspect that the next book about Oracle that someone writes will be the standard for all of us to consider. This book reminds me of The McKinsey Way, a thin abstract of the famous consulting firm's processes from someone who didn't operate at a very high level in the company. If you don't feel you have to know about Oracle, I suggest you take a pass on this book.
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