Looking to douse the flickering fires of resentment among its European satellites, Oracle Corp top brass including chief executive Larry Ellison, head of worldwide operations Ray Lane and senior vice-president of server technologies Jerry Held went on a tour of five European cities in five days a couple of weeks back (CI No 2,934). The so-called Oracle Future Tour was the aftermath of a reorganization of the European ranks around lines of business, in which sales directors and consulting, support and education division managers in each country now report directly to California rather than to a country boss or European chief. Oracle top brass argues European management was top-heavy, costly and inconsistent across national boundaries. The idea, according to Jerry Held, is to develop a common market message, product delivery mechanisms, reporting structure and pricing. The European reorganization is a result of a world-wide reorganization that began four years ago, he said. The message from Held is that there is more to come, presumably after the company does the maths on its those year-end results on Thursday (CI No 2,940); he says Europe can expect another shake-up within a couple of months. Disgruntled European executives claim the business lines model ignores the complexity and variety of the European market. Reorganization casualties include senior vice-president for Europe Loek van den Boog, who will be replaced by a European product and sales manager and Franz Niedermaier head of Oracle Germany. Oracle UK managing director Mike Harrison had already jumped ship to rival Informix Inc. Oracle Europe was previously organized into 25-odd regional subsidiaries, each with its own managng director overseeing sales, support, consulting and education. At last year’s Oracle User Conference US executives showed how Europe was only growing at 30% against 45% in the US.
