No wedding, we’re afraid…

 

If you recall the last traditional weddings you might have been invited to, you will certainly remember the bride arriving to the ceremony. And if you squeeze a bit your brain, you might as well remember that she probably was late a reasonable time for. It is actually expected from her to be late on purpose, in order to increase expectation around her. But not too much. Arriving later than a reasonable timing is as worse as not arriving late at all. Like many other things in life, too much is as bad as too little, and finding the right balance becomes almost a form of art, not really at the reach of many people.

                                                             

There is still a second wave, a second wow effect, which spins around the scenery and the atrezzo around the bride. People will pay a lot of attention to any details of her costume, hairdo or make up.

All this wow thing is only justified for the uniqueness brides have around them during the wedding day. It is her guests want specifically to see, to talk to, or to get a nice picture with.

Being too late will, therefore, be a terrible sin for a bride on her wedding day… But still guests are likely to be a little tolerant and magnanimous as they are predisposed in favor of her. (Please note we are prudently avoiding to mention the classical guest, normally being the mother-in-law of some guest that justifies its mere existence with a lot of venomous critic they really enjoy spitting on the bride, the ceremony, the banquet and specifically on any guest younger then themselves). Being in this tolerant mood, should the sin occur, it might be forgiven if (and this is a big “if”) the bride avoids the second (and unforgivable) one, which is not looking magnificent form the top of her head to the end of her toes. If she doesn’t, there will be not a well-equipped enough toilet nor closet in miles around to fix a very bad first impression.

Should the bride have the slightest stain in her dress, the most unperceivable scratch in her make up, or simply one single hair out of its place, then the “someone’s-mother-in-law” effect will be unleashed as a thunderbolt throughout the guests and relatives, and something that was planned to be the most wonderful day in her life will turn into the worst, slowest and longest possible nightmare for both mortal sins, eventually leading to psychological issues for the bride and potential divorce in record time.

We have no idea about the social life or family setup of the guys responsible for the Windows Phone 7 launch at Microsoft. No idea either about their education nor manners.

                                                                              

But we seriously suspect the so-long-planned wedding between the market and WP7 operating system may not end like fairy tales. No matter if the bride’s father (ultimately a certain Steve Ballmer) is planning to throw in $400 million to ensure the most wonderful celebration. It could very well be ten times as much, result will more than probably remain unchanged.

First Sin: The bride has arrives real late. Too much even for the most unconditional fans and supporters of Microsoft, who, by the way, had not had too good experiences with previous girlfriends (ie Windows Mobile different versions), and while waiting for the bride, have been exposed to very nice-looking, well-educated and good-mannered alternative ladies (ie RIMM, IOS4, Android –yes, yes, we admit “Android” is not what you would call a nice-looking lady precisely). Even another late arrival as WebOS or an old-fashioned veteran like Symbian might be better considered than WP7 at this point.

Second Sin: Despite expectations, and knowing before-hand what the other ladies had been doing around for a lot of time, WP7 came handicapped: No matter how “Pure and Virginal” (Microsoft claims it was built brand new from scratch, breaking a historical family tradition of patching and patching it once and again, Service Pack 1 to Service Pack n), Apps are (very) limited, in the scale of 1 to 300 compared to IOS4, for instance; as well, App Developers are seriously restricted (no access to camera, for example) and basic features like “cut&paste” or flash capabilities simply do not exist. WP7 alone, conveniently hosted and supported by Microsoft, of course, threw away all the majesty that a proper bride needs for her wedding day.

If this were not enough, there is yet more…

In the classical marketing approach that Microsoft has accustomed all of us for years, once more they are overdoing themselves. Not happy with deserving eternal damnation without relief (those of you who have read some of the Bible know what we are talking about), they have already announced (vaguely, but they have) future upgrades and improvements that sound as scary as Service Pack Release Notes.

So Microsoft is planning to get the dollars from the customer and give him in return a limited product with limited development possibilities (already declined by some of the top guys there, like Layar or Fring), and a promise of having to travel though the desert for an unspecified period of time to eventually get to the end state they are supposed to have paid for. Simply fantastic… but only for making the script for a Hollywood B-series moviestarred by Barbra Streisand, Diane Keaton or Meryl Streep, so sad a romance this sounds like.

Whoever ends up willingly with the knot tied must really love this bride…

…what probably is a sacrifice Apple, HP, Nokia, HTC and others may be willing to assume.

You will tell

It appears the guys from Dell are going to to their own version of HP’s “Personal Again” stuff.

Well, it seems that HP’s results from that campaign paid off, and have not passed unnoticed to them.

For the moment, the level of investment is similar to HP’s, though they might have had more should they had not screwed up with their financials, according to a bunch of dollars’ fines recently awarded to them.

Anyway, we will se how it goes, and how far it reaches. We might say these guys are running similar risks to HP’s when it comes to advertising. Moreover, they even have further limitations, the main one not lacking a basic ingredient for today’s market needs if you really want to become personal as HP does, like an operating system to work on (WebOS).

We will certainly be able to tell it is going to be a Dell…as this former topper in the personal systems market will claim.

Given the company’s recent trajectory, its prospects and the market environment, not mentioning their internal leadership issue, those people that fall under their marketing spell will certainly tell when it comes to support, customer experience, quality issues that even reach court...

For Dell itself they might accept the suggestion of adding a little tag to their motto: “You can tell we are Dell, because it is just like Hell” (even if it only were because of Windows®)…

Nothing personal

 

In an attempt to grab back presence in the market, mainly in the consumer space, but collaterally in the more professional one, the guys at HP launched a massive marketing campaign a few years ago, “The Computer is Personal Again”.

It was a massive, integrated, worldwide campaign that certainly allowed HP to catch some attention and again recover some of the punch it had in earlier times, as you might have read in the above link. The main idea here was to make people understand that they could use HP hardware, mainly from the Personal Systems Group division, for their daily life.

Leaving aside stories on top execs that took too seriously the campaign motto, and engaged in fishy affairs too personally, the effect in the market was certainly notorious. HP made a good marketing job, and collected the corresponding results in its financial statements since the launch of the campaign.

Still we believe the campaign remained just that: A mere campaign. It did not fundamentally change a company that started from hardware and still is mainly hardware-based. Mark Hurd himself, as the last relevant CEO for the time being, based his strategy in being “the infrastructure leader”. This was not at all in synch with all the personal messaging, was it?

It appears that in fact, there is really nothing personal in the HP strategy. And the problem with this is that a significant part of the available IT hardware these days and in the near future is really going to be truly personal.

In a world where being online permanently gets more and more relevant, people will demand devices which suit them upfront. Not that a device is capable of whatever feature you could imagine and the user has to change his habits and customs to adapt himself to it. Not that much that manufacturers define how the world is going to be, but more how much manufacturers are able to offer a product and its services which are adapted to what the customer already knows he could do, and the way he wants to do it.

Smartphones, for instance, are today more powerful than PCs from five or six years ago. And you can carry them in your pocket. You can even do things with them you could not dream about with your old desktop unit 10 years ago. For an increasing number of people, they are their main tool for daily life: From work to personal purpose, entertainment or planning vacation. They store very private data, as their wallets or purses would. Is there anything more personal for someone than his own wallet?

Once you have quite a variety of operating systems, hardware manufacturers and telco carriers that fundamentally do not differ much from each other (including prices and fees), customers will choose the combination of device, operating system and carrier that makes it easier to just start to use the device, or that allows the easiest customization to tailor the end product to each individual, even letting him choose the color, texture and shape of the case!

Just look to the automobile industry. When mass production started in the times of revered Henry Ford, he got the famous question: “May customers choose different colors for their car"?”. And he made his famous reply: “Yes, as long as it is a Ford, a model T, and black”. At that time, all the possibilities around a car (a black Ford model T was a finished product) were beyond imagination, and features that today we take for granted in the simplest car did not yet exist in the most visionary pioneers of that industry. Today, when it comes to buying a car, the set of options and accessories sometimes reaches the volume of a pocket dictionary. Even the guys making the Mini (quite popular in Europe for decades) claim today that there are not two Minis alike. The idea being “your Mini is unique because you are unique”.

The guys at Apple, from the very moment the first idea sparked in Steve Jobs’ mind have always applied the same principle. From what the customers wants, from what the customer would like to have, from how the customer would like to use the product, they make all the way up to the components they might need to build the product, and as well to the how to build the unit. Moreover, the product would still not be released until it really was the most perfect item (by design, by quality, by functionality) that could be produced within the industrial environment of the time. Jobs’ himself is famous for being a perfectionist close to hysteria.

As an example, we might quote iPhones… An iPhone is basically an iPod Touch (a definite winner, a conqueror of users’ hearts) that gets telephone capabilities after it has proved a success. Symbian and Windows Mobile have been designed as phones that afterwards were to have added email, music, multimedia capabilities. Precisely the opposite approach.

Apple took a successful product and added valuable features and functionalities customers would be glad to pay for. When making their first calls with iPhones, they already knew how to use the device, and setting it up was a matter of seconds. Windows Mobile and Symbian devices were forcing users to adapt themselves to the smartphones they supported. No wonder that Apple fans are rather unconditional fans, and do not worry much about the product cost premium.

This is HP’s issue: How can you claim your product is personal when you are asking your customer to do what Microsoft Almighty allows you to do the way Microsoft Almighty forces you to do it?

To be personal again means that your device (notebook, tablet, smartphone…) has to be as unique as possible, and that, once the OS, hardware and carrier layers are put aside for a moment, can only be achieved with the right AppStore: Broad variety of developers and applications, easy to use kind of thing. And this matter, not being easy for a guy like Windows7 Mobile, will certainly be a major challenge to HP, no matter how good or bad WebOs is (judge by yourself).

We believe the market will be personal. For everybody, and this includes HP. And being personal will take more than millions of dollars spent in nice fonts, nicer ads, and some celebrities of the moment. Nothing personal, but you cannot afford having nothing personal.

Léo, hurry up!!!!

 

Disclaimer: The historical references to the tragedy of World War II used in this post are exclusively intended for educational and illustrative purposes. No comment herein should be understood as any kind of support (political, social, cultural, even military) to any of the parties involved in that conflict. References are made at high level, objectively, and from a pure historical perspective.

In particular, we would like to apologize Léo Apotheker, as he is explicitly mentioned for heading HP as corporation. We acknowledge that, given his family’s background in those years (as has been published), he may be particularly sensitive to anything related to the events that struck the worlds the way they did.

In late 1944, when the USAAF and the RAF dominated the Western and Central Europe skies almost unopposed, they suddenly had to face a new kind of aircraft. Something really revolutionary, something based on what for them was, in the best case, a lot of paperwork from physic theoreticians. It took some time for them to realize what they were up to.

As it soon was to be painfully realized, Germany had finally made it for the so-called “secret weapons” that would change the tide of the war, and deliver, according to German propaganda of the time, final victory against the rest of the world. We talk about jet propelled fighters, from which the top representative probably was Messerschmitt’s Me262 Schwalbe (“Swallow”).

Interesting to note that Swallows were the most technologically advanced piece ever. Best specs, every single flight established a new aviation record. British or American pilots would not even actually “see” the enemy, so fast and high it flew. Virtually undetectable, thus. It was never defeated in the air. The only way Allies found to beat or capture enemy units were on ground (lack of fuel and/or pilots) or by pilot defection to the Allied lines.

It is very probable that had had the German Air Force a couple od hundreds of these aircraft as early as 1940, Great Britain would not have won the Battle of England, Russia would have surrendered, and the US would have never entered the war in Europe.

The plane came. But is was too late. In fact 1942 started with Germany strong enough to be likely to win the war, but when it ended it was obvious to all the world but Germany that the war was lost for them. It was just a matter of time.

Best quality, best features, best design, best performance, maximum possibilities. A clear winner on paper, useless as a bottle of shampoo for actor Yul Brynner, because of several reasons:

First, it came too late. Germany was exhausted by late 1944, alone and surrounded by all the biggies, up to their home gates: the USA, the UK, the USSR, and representation from another forty-something nations from the free world. Clear dominant positions in the European skies of the big three.

Second, Germany lacked pilots. La crème of the German war pilots was already dead by then, or promoted to commanding ground posts, or dedicated to classical (ie propeller) planes. Even if part of the human force were to be transferred to jet units, there was no time nor resources for proper training.

Third, fuel was as scarce as ever. With no actual physical sources in the remaining areas controlled by the Germans, the little fuel available was synthetically produced, extremely expensive, and normally given priority to ground units trying to hold both the Eastern and Western fronts. Even worse, in some cases it went to other so-called “secret weapons”, like flying rockets V1 and V2.

Fourth, the German High Command made some key “positioning” mistakes, without clear guidance, or targets for those units. Clearly designed as fighters, they were eventually as much used as bombers, reconnaisance units and even transports.

HP has recently presented its WebOS 2.0.

Going through the details, one must admit it is impressive. A clear winner. Léo Apotheker has quite a number of reasons to feel well about this indeed. BUT:

First, would this not be too late? HP has spent fortunes on its former Smartphone line.based on dear Windows Mobile-no-matter-what-version, and the “secret weapon” is supposed to seek its place in skies which are heavily dominated by Android, IOS4 and eventually Win7 mobile (or Symbian, for the matter…).

Second, you need pilots to make the maximum of the units potential. You need apps… and app developers, call it trainers if you’d like. The “enemy” has them by the hundreds of thousands… and upping every day.

Third, the fuel these devices need is as well scarce. App developers will develop apps that are demanded, and demand for a new thing has to be created first. Back end R&D and strong support plus consultancy as well needs to stand behind, as ground personnel is needed to keep the planes in the air. All this to keep the right focus, not diverting priorities to other bombastic stuff that might in parallel happen to appear (storage, networking, software, whatever).

Fourth, Léo & Staff have to make sure positioning is right, and customer segments are addressed correctly. Corporate, Consumer, both? Tablets, smartphones, both?

Hurry up, Léo… but make sure the brains that you are putting in here should not oversee the basics.

Footnote: This post is dedicated to a good friend of ours that has the potential of the ME262 of the time, but every now and then gets confused about her own strategy and positioning to achieve goals. Differently from the original ME262 case, this person should understand that in this case, three years do not necessarily mean it is too late; even if it is not being yet realized, like Germans say, “Ende gut, Alles gut”…

Constipation by words

 

It normally is very healthy to eat fruit. In fact, it is much recommended here and there… moms of all times have had their little struggles here and there with their kids tough, but still, it is a good thing to do.

However, eating too much could be not so positive. When you have too many apples, for example, you might have either an indigestion issue, and afterwards hate them for ever on, or you could have a more or less severe case of constipation for which we kindly decline to comment further.

Difficult to say, in any case, how many apples represent the limit that separates a healthy diet from a traffic issue in the belly.

For instance, if we go back in History to the first documented case of issues around apples, we can see that it took just one bite for Eve and Adam to release the wrath of God and have them fired from the Garden of Eden. I guess that after having seen the results, they would indeed have chosen constipation rather than having to find a new home. Incidentally, we must add, that’s the moment when Evil probably invented mortgages, so Adam and Eve could afford housing for the large family they were supposed to deliver afterwards; at the end of they day, they had been expelled from Paradise with no stock options they could cash-in, and just with a little powerpoint slideset in the shape of a tree leave to cover their nakedness. Poor fools; the snake came around teling them that if they bit the apple, they would be like Larry Ellison, above Good and Evil…

To others, it takes quite many more apples to get severe issues.It looks as if after millions of them, Evil succeeded in making Steve Jobs believe he was like the Almighty, with power on life and death.

Dead on arrival they are, he claimed, like the Pope launching a Crusade (“Deus le volt”, Latin scholars may recall. ie, “God wills it”). The War Cry.

(in order to better play God, we believe the guy’s chief marketing officer should advise him to let his beards grow a bit longer)

An excess of self pride was the very reason for the Fallen Angel to break apart with God and pretend to corrupt God’s creation from the beginning by making Eve and Adam take the bit and the “byte”. Have too many apples driven you, dear Steve, the same direction?

Let the market decide. And make the most of it while you can. If Apples are so healthy (not only to your personal fortune, by the way), don’t you think that people will eat less berries, whether they are blue, red or black?

Great marketing stuff, all these stories about leading the market, creating the future, inventing tomorrow, blablabla. But it is just that: An enormous bluff that just sets the environment of choices for end users to select what fits them most.

In the US it is said that Ronald Reagan won the 1980 elections because he was running against Jimmy Carter; had he been running alone, he would have lost. This basically meant that it was not Reagan winning, but more about Jimmy Carter having screwed up all by himself. Be more elegant, and do not give in to the arrogance of basing your success in removing the credit of others that are not necessarily doing a bad job, Jobs.You have already got quite a number of things to be proud of. You do not need to insult the millions of smartphone, tablets, PCs, notebooks and mp3 players users who have not yet been lucky or intelligent enough to fall under the apple spell. You might want to keep in mind that insulting is the privilege of the oracle, and he might sue you if he feels you are competing against him (unofficial rumors say that he once sued himself for not having insulted a taxi driver in a compliant way).

Not to mention that given your relatively recent medical record, you should actively be very careful with your diet. Too many apples may cause indigestion or constipation… but having to eat your own words might even kill you.

A real life marriage

 

It seems that there are marriages that can resist any sort of shaking…

When we see the romantic turning in Dell’s and EMC’s love story, it comes to our minds the illustrative Clintons’ affair. Sort of an automatic link, we suppose, probably natural in our feverish minds.

Of course, we mean the most famous affair in the Clintons’ whole story, say, the Lewinski case. We understand the readers could be confused if we are not precise, so many affairs Bill Clinton was credited for.

Hard times for America, those years, when their Supreme Leader was pushed to the limit of potential impeachment, if we recall correctly… Unofficial accounts report him addressing American people right at the lectern, asking them to “prepare for hard and difficult times; times for Americans –not you, Monica, to grind your teeth and hold on tight”.

Surprisingly, at least in front of public audiences, Hillary stood by him all over. Admirable.

Years later, a declining Bill has left Hillary the stage, and he is more and more being known as The Secretary of State’s consort, while Hillary solves the world’s problems and enjoys the limelight.

Dell used to be, too, the Master of the IT industry some years ago, when its fragile business model of bringing cheap PCs, together with some Intelgate thing delivered short term results that outshone the marketplace. They were a kind of Supreme Leader market-share-wise.

Here and there they partnered around with EMC, who supplied the Storage solutions and capabilities Dell lacked. (As a side note, we could imagine that should Dell have had appropriate storage of its own, they would have recorded better the funding they got from Intel between 2001 and 2006).

So the IT industry had this nice couple, Dell + EMC, living a sort of honeymoon…

But then temptation happened to appear. The “younger” and less expert 3Par stepped up. Huh, this was indeed interesting for Dell. It was about novelty, it was about youth, it was about new practices.. it was sexy!

EMC held on. They kept cool head while considering their chances. “Don’t blow it!”, they said, “keep holding on!”.

In front of public audiences, EMC kept its head high, ignoring gossip. Dell kept on promising the earth and the moon to 3Par (couldn’t possibly promise the Sun too, as Larry Ellison was already building his own Solar System), but…

There was a big “but” in this story… Notice we wrote “but” with one “t” only, as there was a big “butt” too, though it was something different that HP would kick out later).

And the “but” was that Dell’s attempts where finally frustrated by the “big butt”, who, before it was turning to a fishy Fisherman, promised a bigger moon and a bigger earth plus assorted stars to dear 3Par.

Defeated, Dell turned back to heal its wounds, and, like Bill Clinton (unofficially) has been reported to tell Hillary after making love (“I’ll be home in 15 minutes, Hil”), they begged pardon from their former partner.

Hillary kept solemn silence in public, and as she had broader and certainly more ambitious goals of her own which Bill still could be some use for, she decided to pardon him and play again the respectable role of a respectable, reasonable and forgiving loyal wife.

EMC’s Tucci, CEO, is probably as well considering the use Dell can be of for the dollar revenue stream, despite Dell’s declining path in the last years… and probably will end up forgiving the sinner.

In a relatively short time from now, the once almighty Dell Inc will be known as just one of the guys that provided PCs for EMC deals… while the latter enjoys the sweet limelight its recent performance at Wall Street is showing.

As an Epilogue to the story… 3Par as well got its fifteen minutes of fame that according to Andy Warhol everybody deserves, and will be soon diluted among tins, crystal jars and pharmacist wares in Apotheker’s workshop. Same as formerly famous Lewinsky, who after fifteen minutes of embarrassing fame and another fifteen to clean up Bill’s DNA free samples, quietly disappeared in the shades of indifference.

The “HP Way” at Oracle?

 

So here we got the guy haranguing his new army…

The gesture in the picture seems to be as if he were explaining the kind of seat he was using that very moment, by the way, though probably this could be subject for a different discussion. Still, please note the pointing finger IS NOT the middle one, which probably is reserved for the exclusive use of his boss (oh yes, THE man has a boss…)

Still, the picture portrays what we could consider his style, doesn’t it?

And, consistent and straightforward as his reputation tells him to be, he might carry it from the beginning to the end.

As a matter of fact, his career at HP does not differ much from his predecessor’s Fiorina (and could as well potentially be Apotheker’s) from the perspective that both Hurd and Fiorina, consistently enough, ended at HP the same way they started. That is, “fired with enthusiasm”.

Fear does not exist

 

Someone spoke to us today about fear. It shocked us; frankly, we did not expect that sort of comment. It was not the moment to talk about that, it was not the conversation to engage to that topic, but I made us think about it.

We have a theory about the subject though. We were surprised today to know that someone had fear, because we do not believe in fear. We actually think fear does not exist.

For us, what people call fear is just the psychological reaction to lacking information about whatever thing generates that so-called fear precisely.

If we take a look to History, we realize the urge people have for knowledge, for knowing what might be going on in a given moment, for what might come in the future, for the cause of a given effect, for the future effect of a given cause.

And when people did not know why something happened, when they did not know the cause of certain effect, they reacted typically following two patterns.

Either they invented an explanation for it, which would stay valid until someone came up with a better theory or they allowed an uncomfortable feeling that hey happened to call fear to justify their ignorance.

The first approach is actually the basis of old mythology… and scientific progress afterwards. The need for knowledge made people invent gods and myths that moved waters, caused rain, or even separated day and night. And those who remained ignorant were subject to manipulation of the myth-creators. When people do not understand something, they tend to worship it… (Incidentally we must say that this probably is why so many politicians love statistics and supposedly scientifically-based studies… or why so many top managers here and there adore Excel worksheets and PowerPoint presentations…)

The second reaction is very similar to the one that children have at night, when everything is dark… When obscurity surrounds you, you are not able to see, and not seeing is equivalent to not knowing. Not knowing is precisely the origin of that feeling called fear. And this is why the most common action from parents that have children afraid of dark is simply switching a light on. (Incidentally we should mention that terror movies should not be sponsored by electricity companies in the hope that they will charge consumers more in their regular bills.)

If someone tells you about being afraid, what that person is really telling you, even without knowing himself or herself, is that he or she misses information or knowledge about whatever it is that frightens he or she.

That person is telling you basically that regarding that matter, he or she is in darkness, and that he or she needs help. The mere fact that he or she admits fear is a positive request for help, for if he or she did not want that help, fear would not have been confessed.

When someone tells about his or her fears, turn a light on for him or her… maybe that person is so much into darkness that does not even realize that there is a switch somewhere to be turned on.

We are in the age of information; somewhat ironic that we talk about ignorance, isn’t it? Still, enlightening darkness is as important as ever… Turn the switch on: It might be lighting a bulb, or it could be starting your PC so you can send an email.

Do that for the person that needs to know, and you will prove trust. And trust is one of the pillars of a much stronger and important psychological reaction, let’s put it this way. 

Three thoughts, one decision

 

When Max Hard’s latest scandal blew up in his face last summer and his company fired him, the third thing that probably came to his mind was something like “So what now?”

(The first one probably was “Oh, shit!”, and the second was “What am I going to tell the wife?”). We admit we might be wrong with the first one; we were thinking of something like “Oh my God”, but for a guy with an ego the size of Texas we would have needed to write “Oh Myself”, and this doesn’t really look well in writing. If we are mistaken with the second, then we guess he guy would not deserve a second of our time as his wife indeed, being as prudent and discreet as she is, deserves all our recognition.

In ancient Greece, when in doubt, a man of wealth and power would possibly do the only possible thing to find out anything: He’d go to visit an oracle, and put the question up.

As a side note in case the reader does not remember from school, the most famous oracle in Greece was the one at Delphi, where a priestess called the Pythia would ritually “listen to the gods” and then transmit their wishes to the visitor. In a totally unrelated transaction, the more gold and treasures the visitor had offered the gods, naturally, the more favourable the answer. From Pythia we derive the word Pythoness, a person who is supposed to be able to foresee and predict the future.

Back to Max, as his former company’s board would probably not have accepted at that time any expense report for a trip to Greece, especially if it included offerings to any Pythia, the guy pulled his recently awarded Palm smartphone, and set an appointment with a much closer and more affordable oracle.

After the customary exchange of greetings upon his arrival, he and the Pythoness went to business.

The priestess had to honor her reputation: “So then let me guess what has brought you here…”, and, Max, a guy whose own reputation as well had to be cared for, proved he had documented himself thoroughly, and made sure the Pythoness had a clear view of the treasures and valuables he could be offering the gods.

The Pythonese was indeed pleased. Very pleased.

Max was ready to wait as long as it took to get an answer. After all, at that moment he had nothing to lose.

The priestess took her time, as it was no simple job to measure and evaluate all the gifts and presents offered by her visitor. In the meantime, Max took as well good note about anything he saw, and drew too his own conclusions.

Finally, the Pythoness spoke: “You have come here for advice, and the gods are pleased to see what you have brought them”.

Max listened carefully, and thought “well, if statesmen, warlords, sages and wealthy men come here for advice, he who controls this oracle, controls the world”.

The Pythoness went on: “Your riches and your sacrifice to the gods prove your fate and destiny deserve the return of your recent past glory… but still, your recent sins have as well set hard stains that will require some penance from yours”.

All the alarms started buzzing in Max’s brain, but he was not willing to show any weakness.

“You can either become CEO in a mediocre company… smaller than your former one, much more resource-less, definitely less interesting for the press and media, and with a hell lot of fewer female contractors for marketing services”…

Max felt a shiver under the zipper in his pants, but found the strength to hold on. the news sound like Hell with a D to him.

“… or, as the most valuable asset of yours is the information in your head, we would let you stay with us and join the Priesthood of the Oracle”.

Max could not prevent this time the feeling of devastation of his. He was realizing for the first time that his ousting was having worse consequences than he had imagined in his way to the oracle. “Mediocre company with no female contractors or priesthood working for the Pythia”.

We are not sure about what did the Pythia understand for Max’s expression, but she was really puzzled. She expected Max to be as smart as he appeared when he led his former company to success.

“Max, wait a minute. Cheer up: This is not the Vatican. We take Priesthood here quite differently. I myself have not missed any company I have needed… and some of my senior priests are no candidates to classical sainthood either…”

That did sound much better to Max’s ears… “But, Pythia, will the other priests accept me in their ranks?”

“Max, Max, Max…”, the Pythia’s voice sounded soft, almost like a caress, while her hypnotic eyes penetrated deep into Max’s. “I AM THE ORACLE; the oracle is me… who do you think put all these priests and priestesses here? Do you really think there is anything here that happens without my permission, that escapes to my active approval, that is not brutally severed if I do not like it?”

Max gulped: “Then I would be somehow working for you"…”

“Would you prefer a mediocre company?”

“No, of course not”, said Max, though he was sure for a moment that his ego was outstretching him. “Any chances for career development?”

“Only gods know…”

The Pythia looked once more into Max’s eyes: “Done deal?, said she, offering her hand.

Max hardly heard himself saying yes, and felt a sting in his hand when he shook the Pythia’s. When the Pythia released him, he found two drops of his own blood signing his new contract.

While the Pythia put his arm around Max’s shoulders, she gently pushed him forward and said: “Now let’s put some Sun into the lives of the people in the world…”

 

“

Mark of Troy

 

About twelve centuries before Christ, somewhere in the southern half of Greece, a man named Pelops happened to win a chariot race that entitled him to the throne of the city of Elis.

This geographic area is called Peloponnese after this lucky winner, so many of his descendants ruled in the cities down there… Cities like Athens, Sparta, Messene, Mykenae or Thebes.

One of Pelops’ son, Atreus, ruled Mykenae. Another one, Thyestes, entertained himself seducing Mrs. Atreus. Revenge, as human an attribute it can be, fell on Thyestes. Atreus had some of Thyestes children cooked up, and served them at dinner to their dad.

Thyestes fled… not before cursing Atreus and all his house.

Later on, two of Atreus’ sons grew up. Agamemnon ruled Mykenae, and Menelaus was looking for his own space in the sun. Young bachelors at the time, they went shopping, looking for the best wives money and power could buy. In their travels they stepped into Sparta, where queen Leda had two daughters. Perfect match, you night think: Agamemnon took Clytemnestra back to Mykenae, while Menelaus stayed in Sparta to become king by marrying Helen, the most beautiful woman ever, according to the record of the time: “The face that launched a thousand ships”, would historians of the time say at Aulis years later.

After some time, people from far away came around to Sparta. Prince Paris from the city of Troy led the Trojan group… and was introduced to the King and Queen, Menelaus and Helen. The following morning, Helen was gone… and so was Paris. Menelaus was left alone with their daughter, Hermione.

More than a mere matter of who slept with whom, that was a big crisis indeed. At the end of the day, the left-alone King of Sparta was only King for having married Helen, and with Helen gone, the whole wealth and power equilibrium in Atreus’ family empire was at the stake.

Menelaus turned back to his brother Agamemnon, who made the call, and the whole Peloponnese backed it. From every corner in Greece, the armies gathered at Aulis ready to sail. The wind kept blowing the wrong direction, and the priests decided Agamemnon had to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, to get good wind. Agamemnon made the deal, what, logically did not do any good to Clytemnestra’s feelings for Agamemnon.

The wind changed, the flotilla sailed, and the Greeks sieged Troy in demand for Helen’s return to Sparta. The Trojans bluntly refused to give her at all, and the Greeks decided to wait as long as it took…

Nine long years passed; nine long years during which historians’ reports are inexistent, during which the very few things we know get mixed with legend, rumors, invented stuff…And in the tenth year, the story of the Trojan Horse came up.

Troy fell, and the surviving Greeks went home. Agamemnon was murdered by Clytemnestra and lover (one of the brothers of the cooked children).

One of Clytemnestra’s sons, Orestes, killed her mother and lover back in revenge. Realizing what he did, he went insane and fled, pursued by the mythological Furies. Menelaus got Helen back… just to die and leave his Kingdom to Orestes, after the latter had regained sanity.

…

If we were to judge human nature by the acts of people here and there, we could eventually conclude that more than three thousand years later, mankind has not really changed much, besides having more powerful means to access information.

We could find a group of little fiefs that made up together a company like HP, called this way after the initial founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard established the realm… In a given moment, one of their heirs, Walter Hewlett, felt somewhat screwed by the CEO of the time, Carly Fiorina, who outraged Walter as seriously as Thyestes betrayed Atreus. The HP Board reacted, and forced Fiorina out, as a fleeing Thyestes…

The are no public records of Fiorina cursing anybody, and we actually do not really know if she has the power to effectively curse anybody. Still, we do not believe she was the happiest woman on earth when she had to close the door behind her. May be no cursing then, but probably hard swearing was there for a while…

And so went HP for a while…an some of the board members realized they needed a new king… Off they went, looking for the best kings that brand and stock options could buy. And they ended up close to the little realm of NCR, where its board had the most perfect (we will not say “beautiful”) candidate that anybody could have imagined, by the name of Mark… “The head that launched a thousand blogs”, would journalists –the historians of our time, say in the Internet a few years later.

After some time, people from far away came around by HP, led by Larry Ellison (no relation to the city of Elis mentioned before, we trust, but what a coincidence indeed)… They came with bombastic business plans, thanks to which they were introduced to the King, and probably played a lot of tennis and did a lot of business together… and, the following morning, suddenly Mark was gone, so was Larry… HP was left, together with Mark’s “daughters”, Palm, EDS, 3Par…

That was a big crisis indeed; with Mark gone, the equilibrium of wealth and power for the shareholders and the executive managers’ clan was at serious risk.

The Board made the call, and all the HP leaders answered unanimously. From every site of HP, potential would-be leaders appeared, and under the brand banner, they gathered in Palo Alto ready to march against the oracle’s spell. Business winds kept blowing the wrong direction, and the gurus at the Board decided that the Gods in the Cloud Computing Olympus were mad at HP and there had to be a sacrificial victim to clean HP’s sins. The HP Board offered the candidature of Todd in a sacrificial rite, what irritated severely a significant faction within HP…

The winds changed, and the HP armies set off against the oracle…

And here we must leave the unconcluded story, as it looks we are right in the moment when the “Greek” HP starts the siege. Unlikely that the oracle will give HP’s King back easily… on the contrary, it is much more probable the King will actively stand against his former troops… But we will see. At this point, however, most of what we know so far starts dimming in the fog of rumors, myth, legend and invented stuff…

To be continued…

 

Footnote: This post is specially dedicated to one of my best friends, whom in private and with all my appreciation I call “Hermione” for private reasons. She’s been quite a motivation and inspiration for all these posts that I dared to offer for some time now. Thanks, Hermione, this is my way to say it. It would take the courage of a Gryffindor to say it differently, but you know I am much more of a Ravenclaw, don’t you?  

Bastards at war

 

When addressing his troops in 1944 before heading off to Normandy, General George S. Patton tried to make sure his men understood clearly what was that business about.

It was about winning a war.Plainly and straightforward it was.

He made sure that all men had clear in their minds what they were expected to do, and what they were not.

“No bastard has ever won a war by dying for his country; wars are won by making the other poor bastard die for his country”, said he.(*)

As much as Larry Ellison follows Sun Tzu, we think he actually follows fellow Americans who have proven good in the “Art of War” and are not so far in History, such as General George S. Patton Jr.

It appears to us that Ellison has no real interest in dying for his country (i.e. his Oracle thing), this being much more unlikely that he trying to make another guy die for his own.

The other guy, for an appetizer, will have to dedicate a lot of time, resources and energy to get rid of all the hassle and buzz about the TomorrowNow affair. (You may want to check details on it in earlier posts below).

At some point, not being able to deal with your main mission and devoting your energy to cleaning up past issues is in itself a way of dying, we’d say. As well, should you survive that test, depending on the outcome of the trial, potential damage might as well kill you, would you not agree?

(*) Disclaimer: The quote above is shown as portrayed in the movie starred by George C. Scott in 1970. Phrasing might not be exactly as actual speech.

Dangerous artillery

 

In modern warfare, heavy artillery can be necessary. It can be fundamental to determine who wins a battle. It can contribute as much as you like to winning.

But heavy artillery will not be the actual means to achieve a decisive victory. Actual victory is achieved when the ground troops (infantry, cavalry, tanks or scouts) do actually keep the battlefield and the enemy is either gone, captured or dead.

The problem with heavy artillery is more in the when and the how to use it.

If you strike too early, its effects on the enemy will probably be quickly fixed and mended before your ground troops can take any advantage of it. If you launch it too late, you may probably not even have the time to do it, as the enemy will have taken your position before you strike.

If you use it without having considered all the effects of it, without the proper intelligence backing your plan, well, you may not hit the necessary targets to wreck the enemy as you should. If you shoot before coordinating appropriately with your ground forces, you may even hit them by the so-called friendly-fire. In this case, you couldn’t do your enemy a bigger favor.

We have recently seen the first serious move from the HP Headquarters after the appointment of the new top executives, Ray Lane and Léo Apotheker. Ray Lane himself sent an open letter to The New York Times in reply to a long range torpedo launched by the latter.

The first heavy artillery blow in the Oracle Wars show.

Well-intentioned backing from the incoming Chairman to his CEO… but was it the right shoot?

We think it might have been launched too quickly. Though it might have given the market a positive sign about “hey guys, despite whatever Larry Ellison might have said or might say in the coming future, we are not dead yet”, the main message was not strong enough (they pleaded “non guilty” more than “innocent” in the TomorrowNow affair) and the speed of it looked to us more like an attempt to cut short the thesis from NYT than a real solid argumentation.

Not only was it sent too fast. It was aimed to the wrong target. If the main blow from NYT (which could be read as Oracle, after the conflict of interest held by the author, as you can see in the previous links above) was targeting Léo Apotheker and the HP Board, we believe that attacking Hurd again was a very poor defense of HP’s new CEO and those who picked him.

As well, the heavy artillery blow was self-weakened from the beginning. From Ray Lane’s letter to NYT, the reader gets the impression that Léo Apotheker will be called as a key witness only after having been appointed CEO at HP. This is not actually true. Léo’s name appears in the list of Oracle’s witnesses dated August 5th, even before Mark Hurd’s scandal exploded.

If Ray Lane is capable of managing well the artillery he’s got as Chairman of the Board, he won’t make the best use of it aiming to past issues (and Mark Hurd is definitely something past for HP) as this won’t restore the confidence from the market peers that HP badly needs to wage its war. If selecting Léo Apotheker was the best option for the HP Board, let Léo prove it. Support him forward, and in the event of failure, remove him. But Mark Hurd has nothing to do with that.

One collateral effect as well from this unfortunate artillery firing could be as well weakening Léo Apotheker, as it probably limits his natural space of maneuver. It’s adding pressure on him, unnecessarily, as he already got all the IT industries eyes on him.

It is a matter of opinion, however, whether Oracle’s lawyers intended or not to actually call Apotheker. It belongs to the sphere of hypothesis that after Ray Lane’s letter to NYT, Oracle’s lawyers will eventually call Apotheker or not. But it is certainly true that Léo Apotheker’s presence at court was a possibility before anybody in the world could have even imagined that Mark Hurd was to leave the HP CEO job.

What did Michael Dell watch on TV in November 1973?

 

Today we’ve learnt that, after the ongoing Fishergate at HP and all the trailing episodes that keep it up, we have some sort of Intelgate at Dell’s.

Several millionaire fines have been set on Michael Dell and Dell Inc after inappropriate accounting practices from 2001 and 2006. Details published recently.  

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Technorati Tags: Dell,Apotheker,Intel,HP,Oracle,Ellison

One of the funny aspects of the story is that Dell Inc is quoted as having won (!) a judge’s permission to pay $100M to settle accounting fraud claims.

What a victory, we’d say. Who call’s a $100M fine a “win”? The only reasonable explanation we could think of is that Dell Inc feared a much higher cost… derived perhaps from a murkier feeling of guilt?

Another $4M fine to Michael Dell that will allow him to continue as the company CEO. Well, sounds cheap, according to the earnings of other CEOs in the industry. Just recall the recent figures published about HP’s Apotheker, who got about that much just for signing up for his new job, and another $4.6M for moving house to California, or Yahoo’s Carol Bartz, who tops the list of well paid toppers… Oracle’s Ellison being the 6th fortune in the planet…

Adding the fines imposed to Dell Inc, We would compare that to the hypothetical impact had this company not injected the money coming from Intel into the financial statements. Still would probably seem a bargain, we think.

In 1973, Richard Nixon defended his record strongly by declaring to the Washington Post “I’m not a crook” in the arch-famous Watergate affair.

A famous quote indeed, probably still familiar to many Americans, who learnt then that the Top Guy was abusing his resources in a fraudulent manner.

Maybe these days there is another Top Guy that is trying to convince himself that he’s not a crook since he won’t probably convince others. Maybe he should have watched carefully TV in 1973.

The shadow of doubt

 

It seems that a columnist from NYT has added some fuel to the war between the titans…

And though it is not the first one the same journalist writes after more or less similar thesis, this time he has provoked some reaction from the HP biggies.

None less than the incoming non executive Chairman of the Board himself.

In a polite and educated letter to NYT, Ray Lane replies back to the author in a double-pronged manner:

In one hand, he pleads “not-guilty” for his CEO.

On the other, he drives attention to the sacking of HP’s former CEO, in an attempt to settle for once and for ever the reasons for that. He actually sides with his new board colleagues and endorses the ousting.

It could be somehow imaginable that sooner or later there could be articles in the press like this one. As a matter of fact, this is not the first one, and probably won’t be the latest…. but this one has provoked a formal reply from the highest HP figure so far. Personally.

What makes us think that the author of the NYT column has touched HP in an extremely sensitive aspect, in an extremely sensitive way, and in an extremely sensitive moment.

Assuming that a Chairman of the Board of a company such as HP does not have the time to answer like he’s done all the opinions which are spreading so rapidly throughout the internet, why has he backfired so quickly?

The shadow of doubt will surely float around, we suppose.

One thing under any reasonable doubt is certain though: There is a trial going on, and Léo Apotheker is going to be called as a witness, according to WSJ.

We will see in a few weeks how this story keeps going, but we could expect Big-Mouth Larry becoming growingly excited about the prospects of embarrassing HP…

Bon appétit, monsieur

Moving forward in his war against the world, Big-Mouth Larry has recently reinforced his eyeing on a chip-maker. No later than in the recent shareholder’s annual meeting, we heard, a few days ago.

So it Big-Mouth Larry is just considering the menu, we’d say, as the choices are there.
ARM, Broadcom, Nvidia… or AMD, why not?
There’s a lot of buzz around, and there are a lot of apparent good business reasons for betting for AMD, not the lightest the fact that Oracle is about enterprise business, and enterprise business is about servers, a segment where AMD is way ahead the rest of the candidates.
With a $4 billion market cap, AMD can be easily taken over. Their CEO Dirk Meyer has declared AMD’s not on sale, but they’d be happy to listen to any proposal in the interest of their shareholders…
We’d agree. But not for the same reasons. We believe it will be AMD as much as we think that all the good business reasons have come after Big-Mouth-Larry has made his mind up.
We think that AMD is the chosen one, as this would certainly hit Big-Mouth’s nemesis, HP, harder than any other choice. In the server space, in the PC’s, in the Notebook’s, eventually in tablet’s, and as well in the workstation’s.
It might not do any good to his health, as the frankfurt in the picture certainly does not to a man of his age, but it appears too big a temptation to resist to the voracious Big-Mouth Larry, as the frankfurt in the picture certainly is.
Bon-appétit, monsieur… but keep your cardiologist’s number at hand, just in case.

Coherence for trust

 

We believe one of the biggest needs a company like HP does need these days is trust.

Trust from customers, trust from partners, trust from shareholders, trust from vendors, trust from employees too. Trust from the market, in short.

If it only were for the fact that trust is the base of the share value that ultimately will hold, support and sustain the company career in the market.

Trust in its values, its leadership, its ways and procedures, its fair play.

Though History has plenty of examples of leaders that have succeeded based on the general trust they have inspired, the recent episodes starred by HP generate some doubts in our minds.

In early August CEO Mark Hurd is ousted after some ethics and confidence principles.

HP takes its time to name a successor, while zillions of rumours of all imaginable flavors, like Bertie Bott’s beans, spread all over the media.

In a context background were relatively recently Oracle was swiftly but openly sliding to war against the rest of the Universe, including HP in particular, the latter needed a bold and clear move that as well went as fast as reasonably possible.

A probably not irrelevant coup about one month after Hurd packed his stuff from Palo Alto, drove him into the arms of Big-Mouth-Larry at Oracle. This could be seen today as the natural aftermath of a series of unfortunate declarations from the Oracle’s Pontifex Maximus where words like idiots, resignation en masse and other delicatessen were not infrequent.

We think it is not unlikely that HP’s Board took this last bravado from Big-Mouth as a somewhat personal insult to HP and its board… and even eventually determined them to twist the path they could very well have followed up to that point by naming CEO a more expected or natural candidate. At the end of the day, all the media have been filled up regularly with the names of Bradley, Livermore, Joshi, Tim Cook and quite a number of others…The usual suspects. HP even tried to prevent Hurd from teaming with Big-Mouth by filing suit against the move… a minor clash that ended up quickly with no further consequences than making more obvious who was on which side. The war theatre even afforded getting special guest stars as Jack Welch who starred an unforgettable panegyric for some in pectore candidate…

So 55 days after Cathie Lesjak stepped up temporarily as interim CEO, enter the unexpected Léo Apotheker… followed by Ray Lane as the new non-exec Chairman of the Board. Rescued from unemployment, and with a background at SAP that won’t lead him to succeeding Jack Welch as Manager of the Century precisely, he still might deserve a pass.

Apparently, the stage was set for just a “wait and see” status quo, the market anxiously awaiting the next move. But not all the elements had been considered so far.

Next November the show will go on in a different scenario, a trial about inappropriate procedures by SAP against Oracle. The hot topic won’t be about guilt versus innocence, but more about how much. As a matter of fact, SAP has admitted responsibility, and though being tens of millions a reasonable fine for them, Big-Mouth talks of billions.

We do not know the level of engagement and involvement of the apparently calm Léo… but the matter sounds fishy enough to consider whether he was appropriate or not for HP, given the situation HP’s in, and the reputation it is rapidly earning.

If Hurd was ousted based on ethics… why the very same judges forget so easily about ethics now? Was that important to slap Big-Mouth in his face? Is the slapping worth a reputation?

If you are interested in details, yo may want to read The New York Times.

 

Léo Apotheker, new HP CEO

Ray Lane, new Chairman of the Board at HP’s.

Heroes and sidekicks

 

Who could recall Batman without Robin? How could Shrek have conquered half of the world's hearts with no Donkey? Even Mr Incredible would have failed without Frozone.

Out from Disney’s or Dreamwork’s worlds, real life, and eventually business world has no standalone heroes without sidekicks: Bonnie and Clyde, Robin Hood and Little John, King Arthur and Lancelot… No Hewlett, no Packard; no Gates, no Ballmer…

On the contrary, villains usually operate in a standalone mode… The Joker, Lord Farquaad, Syndrome, Michael Dell…

Quite doubtful, by the way, about the lonely Ellison… that could be the exception of the rule. Maybe age has softened him a bit (despite such a big mouth) and looks for his sidekick in his dear friend Mark. Still wondering though about who the latter is sidekick to; might make his mind up after a nice seafood dinner…

So… we got this nice couple stepping up: Léo and Ray…

Tough choice to make at this moment, who the hero is, and who the sidekick is. Theoretically, one would think that an exec would play the main role, and a non-exec would stay in the backstage providing sidekick support… but still, it could be the reverse, having Mr-Backstage-Nice-Guy behind the steering wheel, while the exec limits himself to the actual execution of Mr-Nice-Guy’s higher-level strategy.

Ambiguous enough, we have an Apotheker (that’s German for “pharmacist”) that might have the magic potion that his new company needs urgently… and we have what someone called the a Ray of sunshine to shed the light his new company urgently needs too.

Light or potion? Light to prepare the right potion, or the appropriate potion to enlighten around?

We think that after the recent experiences with CEOs that HP has had, this time they’d better try to position themselves in the right lane and race fast as light rays before the oracle’s rage strikes hurder.

Back to ruling SAP, Léo?

 

One of the good things about numbers is that they may tell you more than what they seem… and though interpretation might as well vary, readers can be really wise when drawing conclusions…

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=HPQ+Interactive#chart7:symbol=hpq;range=20101001,20101007;compare=sap;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

Observe carefully the trend since we started to hear rumors about a sound wedding between (h)ardware and (s)oftware, with curious initials…

Silicon Valley might be great for living there… but maybe someone’s mind is homeward bound, Léo?

Now, wait a minute!

 

We start to see around some claims about HP employees’ morale reaching new lows…

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/HP-Employee-Morale-Hits-New-siliconalley-803856163.html?x=0&.v=5

Well, though the sample is quite limited so far in terms of the number of employees that have responded to the “request for feedback”, as well there is a significant time constraint: Léo Apotheker has not yet formally started in his new job.

It seems to us pretty unfair to even dare to publish verbatim the feedback of just a couple of individuals.

This is not meaning that these two chaps are not right in the long run… just that it is too risky an assertion to have it as the basis for a conclusion that is highlighted in the headline.

We know of people who have known of much better days at HP years ago. We do as well. And though the reasons for the changes within the HP world can be thoroughly and passionately discussed, we believe any single employee from this relevant company should consider several things before just letting the first feelings that pop up in their minds reach the email of a journalist that just needs to fill up his words’ quota.

Of course this about letting time pass, and judge after having had some perspective. At the same time, newcomers should be allowed the time to start and show what their plans are.

But probably the most important thing is that employees themselves should try to avoid this feeling of “over-protection” they sometimes too much seem to expect from the company they work for. Even if this was a feeling that came as a consequence of former Management’s attitude and manners. Even if “employee-protection” was a motto in the past, this does not really entitle anybody to assume that the company he or she works for is really obliged to the employee beyond a certain limit. It is the responsibility of that employee to care for himself. As much as he would not allow the company to tell him or her what to do with his salary once he or she has earned it, right?

And while they let newcomers develop their plans, and while time provides a better judgment, it is the employees obligation to support his company as much as he or she is able to precisely to make sure that the company will later provide for him.

Sounds too Kennedy-an, doesn’t it? “It’s not what your country can do for you…”, some veterans might recall…

Well, that might very well be the problem of our times… people in the basis of families, companies, or any other organization, that just limit themselves to milk a cow they think they have been born with the right to milk.

Once these guys do this… then they will earn the right to say whatever they feel like about managers, companies and even the rest of the world.

 

They need toilets too…

 

What’s wrong with the 666-guy? the 66-year-old and 6th fortune in the world seems to have gone a bit nuts.

We mean… what has the whole world done to this guy, that needs to declare war to anything that moves?

He started the war when hiring his tennis-buddy… and he is basically trying to justify it by blaming the rest of the world so far, and probably part of the Universe tomorrow.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-07/ellison-s-rants-expose-oracle-anxiety-as-ibm-hp-add-software.html?cmpid=yhoo

 

Or maybe an unstable balance between testosterone and dopamine…

http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/07/brain-science-neurobiology-leadership-managing-hormones.html?partner=yahootix

We are not in a position to discuss biology not psychiatry… but maybe suggest a more direct and simple approach (could be Occam approves this).

A bit of megalomania here and there?

History has quite a number of examples of people that, having reached the point of an astounding success and power, they fall under the spell of confusion, and start to get unable to differentiate themselves from living gods, with the responsibility of differentiating good from evil: Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler…

It’s amazing how selective their minds can be to forget that, regardless how much they like it, they are (and will continue being) mere human beings. Probably their super-high standards of living, they environment where their daily lives develop expose them too much to temptations… But we believe that every time they have to pay the toll of visiting a toilet (an unavoidable task that probably happens several times a day, and in the case of a 66 year old veteran many more times likely), they could consider that precisely those very moments, they are not at all different from six billion other human beings who probably do not need to boast around about how great they are.