Povestea "samuraiului din Silicon Valley": cum a construit seful Oracle un imperiu

Autor: Andrei Ciltaru Miercuri, 23 Februarie 2011, ora 10:26

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Larry Ellison a transformat Oracle intr-un gigant al IT-ului mondial, prin forta vointei sale. Aceeasi vointa a fost aproape sa-l si distruga.

Talentul sau de vanzator care imbina cunoasterea cu agresivitatea l-a facut sa aduca clienti importanti, cand Oracle era abia la inceput, informeaza Bloomberg. Cand compania s-a maturizat, agresivitatea vanzarilor a inceput sa dauneze companiei deoarece produsele nu se ridicau la nivelul promisiunilor. Iata povestea de marire si decadere a "Samuraiului din Silicon Valley", care este acum pe locul 6 in topul celor mai bogati oameni din lume, cu o avere de 28 de miliarde de dolari. Larry Ellison a pus bazele firmei Software Development Labs, investind in ea 1200 de dolari. La inceput, nu a stiut ce directie sa-i dea companiei de software. Pana intr-o zi, cand a citit o lucrare de la IBM, despre baza de date relationala. Chiar daca IBM nu vedea potentialul acestei idei, Ellison a gasit directia de care avea nevoie. Primul client important caruia i-a vandut o baza de date, numita Oracle Versiunea 2 a fost CIA. Motivul pentru care prima versiune a fost botezata "versiunea 2"? Nimeni nu cumpara prima versiune a unui produs. Mai tarziu, Ellison si-a redenumit compania in Oracle, propunandu-si sa acapareze 100% din piata. Multumita stilului "obraznic" al lui Ellison, Oracle a devenit un mare succes, fiind listata la bursa in 1986. Pachetul de actiuni detinut de fondator valora 93 de milioane de dolari. Oferta publica initiala a Oracle a fost umbrita de cea a Microsoft, care a anuntat listarea la bursa la o zi dupa compania lui Ellison. In 1989, Ellison a construit un sediu urias pentru Oracle, care a primit la scurt timp porecla de "Larryland".

Un an mai tarziu, Oracle era deja in pericol, din cauza software-ului de calitate indoielnica si a agresivitatii oamenilor de vanzari. A sasea versiunea a software-ului Oracle era plina de bug-uri, ceea ce i-a infuriat pe clienti si a dus la o scadere fulminanta a vanzarilor. La sfarsitul anului 1990, averea lui Ellison, care a fost nevoit sa-si concedieze aproape tot managementul, scazuse cu aproape 800 milioane de dolari. Salvarea a venit de la versiunea 7 a software-ului, mult mai buna decat cea anterioara. Oracle si-a revenit, insa Ellison vroia mai mult. Scopul sau era sa zdrobeasca Microsoft. A vrut atat de mult sa-l prinda pe Bill Gates pe picior gresit, incat a angajat un detectiv particular care sa gaseasca informatii defaimatoare despre fondatorul Microsoft. Pentru a bate Microsoft, Oracle a lansat calculatorul de retea fara hard disk, pentru o mai buna conectare la internet. Precursorul iPad-ului si a "cloud computing"-ului costa 500 de dolari. Vanzarile au fost slabe, iar Microsoft a castigat intrecerea. In 1997, Ellison a fost numit director la Apple, dupe revenirea lui Steve Jobs la carma companiei. Din lipsa de timp necesar pentru a participa la intalnirile formale, seful Oracle a demisionat in 2002. In aprilie 2009, Oracle a anuntat intentia de a cumpara Sun Microsystems, companie dorita atat de IBM cat si de Hewlett-Packard. Pe 27 ianuarie 2010, Sun a fost achizitionata de Oracle, care a platit 7,4 miliarde de dolari.

CASE STUDY: 'Oracle Powerdays webcast series' for Oracle by Marketing Options International
24 October 2011 Summary Oracle is a global vendor of business software and hardware systems. In 2003 it embarked on an ambitious acquisition strategy which has seen it buy 69 technology

companies to date. The challenge for Oracle now is to communicate the benefits of over 5000 individual products to organisations of all sizes across the globe. To address this challenge in the Asia-Pacific region, Oracle enlisted Marketing Options International (MOI) to manage the rollout and marketing of a series of Powerdays webcasts introducing Oracle products to a diverse audience of IT and business executives in over 40 countries. The objective was to deliver qualified leads to Oracle sales and build a community to nurture.

MOI drew on its knowledge of local country markets and its international campaign management expertise to deliver localised marketing communications in three languages to promote each webcast. MOI also tailored the content of each webcast to local cultural practices while still respecting Oracles global branding and messaging. Between December 2010 and April 2011 MOI managed 15 Powerdays webcasts, resulting in a total of 7236 live attendees, 2000+ viewers of archived webcasts, and 1619 hot leads delivered to Oracle sales with a combined value of $98 million (63 million). ROI was achieved many times over. About Oracle Oracle is a global vendor of business software and hardware systems. Founded in 1977, it developed the worlds first commercial relational database, and in 2000 introduced the worlds first integrated suite of enterprise applications. In 2003 Oracle acquired PeopleSoft, ushering in a period of intense acquisition activity during which it has bought 69 companies including Siebel and Sun Microsystems. Strategy broader business issues the company is facing Oracles business strategy has seen it acquire new technologies at an astounding rate. Every acquired product is made compatible with Oracles existing products to form a complete, integrated stack, from hardware and operating systems through to databases, middleware and applications.

The challenge for Oracle is to communicate the benefits of over 5000 individual products and its full technology portfolio to organisations of all sizes worldwide. Its marketing campaigns must be slick, cost-effective and tailored to the target audience and culture in each country, while still retaining global brand and messaging consistency. Campaign outline In Asia-Pacific (APAC), an important part of Oracles product marketing strategy is its Powerdays webcast series. These webcasts explain the benefits of different Oracle technologies to IT and business audiences across a region that includes countries as diverse as India, Australia, China and Korea. Oracles senior marketing manager for APAC programs, Meredith ORyan, briefed MOI to propose a marketing and support plan for the Powerdays webcast series. It was a challenging brief as the programme needed to be localised for three languages (English, Chinese and Korean) and regions in eight time zones. The webcasts and associated communications also had to reflect local legislation and culture in eac country. MOI was tasked with evaluating the different country markets and building a marketing strategy that would maximise the results from each webcast. MOI needed to coordinate with Oracle stakeholders throughout the APAC region, as well as partner agencies in China and Korea who could advise on localisation strategy. Objectives of the campaign The campaign had four main objectives: 1. Re-activate a minimum of 1000 cold leads by delivering a programme of carefully targeted communications promoting useful webcast content. 2. To achieve a minimum of 500 registrations per webcast (15 webcasts in total). 3. To strengthen the relationship between sales and marketing by delivering a steady stream of 50 warm leads per webcast and 10 hot leads to Oracle APAC sales every week, over 22 weeks. 4. Build a community of regular webcast viewers from across APAC for sales nurture. Target audience The target audience is a mixture of IT and middle management depending on the webcast topic. The target audience for each webcast was agreed at the start of each campaign, with care not to over-target individual contacts. Media, channels or techniques used As the objective was to drive recipients to register for the webcasts online, the bulk of the campaign communications were digital. Online communications were clearly tracked and measured throughout the campaign, and were the most cost-effective way of communicating to such a large and geographically-dispersed audience. The campaign elements were:

eDMs: one preliminary invitation to register for the webcast and two reminders sent to c. 100,000 targets per webcast. Microsite: previewing the content of each webcast and providing a calendar on all events. Landing pages: categorised by product solution to gather relevant on-demand webcasts and re-market them. Online event calendars: posting details of each webcast on relevant online event calendars and forums. Twitter: tweeting about the webcast with webcast specific hash-tags to promote discussion. Mobile: SMS reminders sent to registrants who opted into this service 15 minutes before the webcast. Telemarketing: up to 400 handpicked contacts per event were invited via telemarketing and registered through a specific link for tracking purposes. Telemarketing was also used to follow up with attendees and no-shows to gather input on how the webcasts could be improved. Media: online banners and adverts on media suitable to the target group. Webcasts: webcasts were delivered in a culturally-appropriate format, e.g. the Korean language webcasts are in a talkshow format, while the English-language webcast is a live presentation with audio and Q&A. Surveys: audience surveys were integrated into each webcast to qualify leads and five-week timescale.

Campaign timescales Each webcast had a rigorous four-five week timescale:

Kick off with client to agree content, target audience, time and date of webcast etc. List request from Oracles marketing database. Brief partner agencies in China and Korea to build relevant local lists and registration pages. Creative work to produce eDM and reminders. Localisation of content into Chinese and Korean. Update microsite to promote new webcasts. Distribute eDM. Track and consolidate registrations for daily client reporting. Speaker training. Manage external list purchase for telemarketing. Organise telemarketing to increase registrations. Organise SMS reminders to registrants. Moderate webcasts and monitor presentations. Send follow up emails to attendees and no shows. Post-event prize draw fulfilment. Final reports and analysis to Oracle. Upload leads to Oracles database for follow up by sales.

Results MOI managed the marketing campaigns for 15 Powerdays webcasts, each attracting over 700 registrations. In total, 7236 people attended a live webcast, with over 2000 additional unique viewers watching an archived version. The programme has delivered 1619 hot leads to Oracle. ROI was achieved many times over. Client testimonial Meredith ORyan, senior marketing manager APAC programmes, Oracle, said, MOI has demonstrated a thorough understanding of our target markets in a culturally and linguistically very diverse region. Thanks to their local knowledge, event marketing skills and budget optimisation expertise, we have been able to deliver a powerful series of Webcasts that have delivered $98 million in the sales pipeline as well as revenue opportunities of over $4 million. I am delighted with MOIs work on this campaign.