Question

Is an Eye for an Eye Fair Play?

What happens when a charismatic leader’s relentless pursuit of a vision encourages extreme or even ethically questionable behaviour? Consider the CEO of a company that hired an investigator to dive into other firms’ dumpsters for information about their dealings with a major competitor. The same CEO’s company has used precisely timed news releases as strategic weapons against particular rivals. And the same CEO’s company once announced a hostile takeover bid for a direct competitor with the stated intention of not actively selling its products but acquiring its best customers and employees. This CEO, described by the Wall Street Journal as “a swashbuckling figure in Silicon Valley,” is Larry Ellison of Oracle. Ellison’s charismatic leadership has built Oracle into a software powerhouse. Although it is locked in fierce competition with Microsoft and other giants, it does not ignore smaller rivals such as i2 Technologies. Oracle once issued a news release belittling i2’s attempt to develop a certain type of software only minutes before i2’s CEO was to meet with influential analysts. Such hardball tactics are hardly random or spontaneous. “We definitely sit down with a calendar and work out which week we’re going to pick on Siebel and which week we’re going to pick on i2,” says Oracle’s chief marketing officer. When Oracle pursued an unwelcome acquisition bid for rival PeopleSoft, the two CEOs traded barbed quotes for weeks as the companies battled in courtrooms and in the media. PeopleSoft’s CEO, a former Oracle executive, described the situation as “enormously bad behaviour from a company that’s had a history of it.”91 Nevertheless, Oracle finally bought PeopleSoft in 2005.

Imagine that you are the CEO of i2 Technologies, which makes inventory and supply tracking systems that compete with Oracle’s large-scale business software suites. In five minutes, you will be meeting with a roomful of financial analysts who make buy or sell recommendations to investors. Your goal is to showcase your company’s accomplishments, outline your vision for its future, and encourage a positive recommendation so your stock price will go even higher. You just heard about Oracle’s news release belittling your product in development—and you suspect the analysts also know about it. How will you handle the news release?

Answer 1

Instead of letting the meeting be influenced by the news release and the bad publicity it garnered for my company, I would put the focus back on the company's past records, future plans and how the company is working hard and driving all its efforts towards becoming a bigger company in the future.

I will let the analysts check and analyze the data of the company which prove how well the company is doing financially, how fairly it treats all its stakeholders and how it is a law abiding company which also follows its corporate social responsibilities efficiently. The favorable reviews of the customers and the general positive image of the company among the population will help me in cementing the goodwill the company has earned with hard work, dedication, and commitment in the past few years.

Next, I will let them know the true potential of the company with its friendly and open work cultural organization which helps our staff in delivering most innovative ideas and turn them into great products and services that the customers love to use. I am sure all these qualities backed up by profs will help me in forming a positive image of the company for the investors.