Summary of the leader’s current and previous position and career highlights
Lawrence Joseph Ellison is an American born philanthropist and the founder of Oracle Corporation. Lawrence is also the executive chairman of Oracle Corporation. Other than being a major stakeholder of Oracle, Lawrence serves as the Chief Technology Officer of the company ( Kobeski, 2004) . Ellison earns a gross salary of 41.5 million dollars and he is one of the richest people on earth with a net worth of $54.5 billion ( Reda, and Tonello, 2015) .
The entrepreneur went to the University of Illinois and later transferred to the University of Chicago ( Ante and McGregor, 2006) . However, he dropped out of school and moved to California in 1966 where he began his career in the computer software industry. Ellison worked at Ampex in the 1970s and was more interested in the database design ( Gibeaut, 2003) .
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The Philanthropist established the Oracle Company from the contemporary research by Edgar Codd on a relational database. Oracle became a competitive database vendor in the US and competed with established firms such as the Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase. Lawrence also owns military jets and he is a licensed pilot ( Burton and Weller, 2005) .
Summary of the leader’s traits, behaviors, and style
Ellison portrayed leadership traits throughout his early career as a businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Some of the leadership traits which have been demonstrated by Ellison include hardworking, risk-taking, patience, and innovation ( Reda, and Tonello, 2015) .
Ellison took a risk by dropping out of school to join the corporate world. Irrespective of the uncertainties that entailed working with Ampex Corporation, Ellison was still willing to pursue his dream career in the database industry. He is also hard working as he raised $2,000 in 1977 which he invested in the Software Development Laboratories (SDL) ( Reda, and Tonello, 2015) .
Lawrence is also innovative as seen by his successful development of a relational database which became popular for the mid-range systems. The businessman is patient as proved by his willingness to wait for the Company to grow ( Reda, and Tonello, 2015) . In 1990, the Oracle firm faced financial challenges and retrenched about 10 percent of its workforce. However, Ellison continued to re-invest in the company with the hope that the financial constraints will end ( Reda, and Tonello, 2015) .
Summary of the organizational circumstances that led this leader to be in the news
• Ellison wanted to the Codd’s theory of relational database and the System R of IBM to be compatible. Oracle requested for the partnership with IBM but was denied the System’s R code in 1982 ( Ante and McGregor, 2006) .
• Oracle embraced the upfront marketing strategies that led to enormous loss of revenue. In 1990, the Oracle Company nearly became bankrupt and about 10 percent of its employees were laid off. The company reduced its stated earnings twice that year and also settled the lawsuits that were linked with the previously overestimated income.
• Larry Ellison won the award for the Entrepreneur of the year during his early career at Oracle for maintaining the market share of the relational database in the country.
• Ellison was appointed the Director of Apple Computer in 1997 but later resigned in 2002 due to his busy schedules and commitments at Oracle.
• Oracle dominated the database industry after overtaking Informix and Sybase in the 1990s.
• Due to enormous revenues and profit margins developed by the Oracle Company, Ellison earned a salary of $975,000 and a bonus of $6,500,000 in 2005. In 2008, Ellison earned a gross compensation of $84,598,700 ( Reda, and Tonello, 2015) .
Apply the LFS Framework
Ellison was influenced by the work of database research leaders such as Edgar Codd who developed a relational model of the database that was applicable for large shared data banks. As such, Codd served as the role model and innovation leader for Ellison ( Reda, and Tonello, 2015) .
Ellison followed the research traits of Codd by partnering with him in his research. Lawrence used the idea of a relational database to form the Oracle Corporation.
The early career of Ellison at Ampex Corporation formed the basis for his future career in the database industry ( Reda, and Tonello, 2015).
Advice for the leader
Ellison took a risk by dropping out of school to pursue his passion in the database industry. By following his passion and instincts, Ellison became a successful entrepreneur and also one of the world’s richest people. Therefore, success comes from taking a risk and getting committed to your passion. Hard work, determination, and patience were also some of the values that made Ellison become successful. Ellison was optimistic and sacrificed his time and resources for the company. Lawrence should, however, diversify the business line for the company to include computer hardware products to bolster the organization’s sources of revenue.
References
Ante, S. E., & McGregor, J. (2006). Giving the boss the big picture. Business Week , 48-50.
Burton, J. A., & Weller, C. E. (2005). Supersize This: How CEO pay took off while America’s middle class struggled. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress , 1.
Gibeaut, J. (2003). Stock Responses. ABAJ , 89 , 38.
Kobeski, J. J. (2004). In re Oracle Corporation Derivative Litigation: Has a New Species of Director Independence Been Uncovered. Del. J. Corp. L. , 29 , 849.
Reda, J., & Tonello, M. (2015). The conference board CEO and executive compensation practices 2015 edition key findings.
