If you’ve kept tabs on the technology industry over the last decade, you’ll know all about Charles Phillips.
Co-president and director of Oracle, MD of Morgan Stanley and now CEO of Infor, to say his CV is impressive is a massive understatement.
Unsurprisingly, many coin him as one of the best leaders in the field of technology.
However, rather than looking at his career in general terms, it’s worth breaking it down to see exactly what makes this man, or specifically his businesses, tick.
Infor, and the rest of Phillips’ business affairs are just blessed with success and as we’ve found out with two of his biggest projects – a lot of this is put down to shrewd acquisitions.
It started at Oracle
Being co-president and director of Oracle for seven years is something substantial in itself. When you also look at the figures Charles Phillips tenure at the tech giant becomes all the more impressive; during that period he saw the company’s revenue grow almost 300%.
One of the main reason for this surge in revenue was because of Phillips’ acquisitions. During the seven years, no fewer than 70 companies were acquired. Some of the names included BEA Systems and PeopleSoft – huge brands that just made Oracle an even bigger beast in its marketspace.
Ultimately, it’s one of the reasons why Oracle are rated as being one of the top business software companies in the world.
It then continued into Infor
As coincidence may have it, Oracle actually stand in the way of Phillips now. Now part of Infor, Oracle and SAP are the two companies currently dominating business software – although it would be fair to say that this gap is most certainly closing.
Again, acquisitions have played a huge part in this. After joining Infor in 2010, Infor has proceeded to acquire at least two different companies per year.
Perhaps the most impressive thing is that these companies aren’t just being bought because of their size. Instead, Phillips has orchestrated a completely different approach, delving into various niches in a bid to take the market away from the likes of SAP and Oracle. In other words, there is plenty of thinking behind each of these acquisitions – they are making Infor completely different to their competitors, which could work wonders in the long run.
What’s next for Phillips?
If Phillips’ career is anything to go by, one could assume that he is going to continue acquiring companies for Infor in a bid to make them overtake their two main rivals.
However, there is also a suspicion that he might start to slow down in this area – with the company now planning a marketing offensive which should give them the impetus to begin their assault on the “big two”.
Whatever he does, you wouldn’t bet against him – he’s achieved miraculous results with this industry and if recent interviews are anything to go by, he doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon.