The book "Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive" details MH strategy. There is a short chapter on a manager who cuts costs, works people overtime with out pay and runs production with out down time for preventative maintenance. This guy increases productivity like crazy and costs drop. The fantastic results are noted, he gets promoted and moves up out of the old job. The next guy steps in and people quit and the machines are broken, costs go up and productivity drops. Management says "Wow we have never seen such a clear case of leadership."
So basically you can burn through the life blood of a company, equipment and people and then jump ship before you have to reap the downside of all the short cuts you take. Look at what happened to HP, now look at will happen to Oracle.
When MH joined Oracle his first move was to set the Sales bonus based on 30% growth. That's twice what the top performing regions would do. Most places were on fire with 18% growth and its healthy. What this did was hide a serious pay cut to the sales team (cut costs) and get people to work over time on the sales side with out additional pay. Sound familiar?
Oracle had a fantastic sales team and a premier product on the database side. MH was able to ride this wave for over 6 years. But now the organization has been more than decimated, we have lost the majority of the star performers. The oracle machine is broken. Sales has dropped dramatically across the board. And things that cost money to produce like hardware are eating into profits. Its a no brainier to see what happens next in hardware sales and support. Hardware is as good as dead and the layoffs will be at each quarter. One SVP was begging for his team to close 2 million by the end of the QTR as he said "I don't have to tell you what will happen." He sounded as if he were about to cry.
Sales and Support are getting hit, and as these fall customers stop buying. MH is sitting in the shoes of what should be the next guy. Which is why he will leave. He is supposed to be the star that cut costs and pumped up revenue, not the guy who takes the fall.
As sales goes down, hardware will be totally destroyed. Next will be Oracle Consulting now new purchases means no need for consulting work. And it goes with out saying.. the sales team will be further cut. As the people leave they are replaced with cheaper labor, and you get what you pay for.
Mark my words MH will depart Oracle in short order, right before Oracle collapses. The only thing propping up Oracle revenue is the 20% support revenue stream on sales from the past. This is why Oracle is in containment status at all customers while they think of creative ways to get off Oracle products. New Companies like MongoDB and other noSQL vendeors are eating up the traditional market.
The companies that Oracle bought have ceased to innovate. Oracle is now just a great pool of older technology in an every shrinking market space. The reaper has come. FY2018 will be a very interesting year. The market is good. Now is the time to leave. Don't be the last one out the door.