Larry Ellison and the Art of War

(TheStreet) -- As evidenced by his headline-grabbing appearance at Oracle's ORCL recent courtroom battle with SAP SAP, Larry Ellison never misses an opportunity to publicly trash the opposition. The fiery Oracle boss has verbally attacked Hewlett-Packard HPQ and its new CEO Leo Apotheker, who was previously in charge at SAP. Brash and belligerent, with a penchant for sportscars, planes and yachts, Ellison is undoubtedly one of the most colorful figures in Silicon Valley, as tech peers Google GOOG and IBM IBM -- two of his past targets -- can attest. The outspoken, hard-charging 66-year old is even the subject of a biography, The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison. Nonetheless, Ellison is a divisive figure. Some experts have warned that his confrontational style may be counter productive in the long-term, but others say that this is key to both his own and his company's success. Forbes rates Ellison as the sixth-richest person in the world with a fortune of $27 billion. Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University and author of Power: Why Some People Have It -- And Others Don't, told TheStreet that Ellison's approach runs counter to current business thinking, which he describes as the "Kumbaya" theory of leadership. Continue reading the article.