In the old days, we worried about finding the next round of funding for our companies. We focused on the technologies our companies built and the markets they sought to serve. Today, we focus on the company's ability to attract and utilize talent - specifically, where to find skilled workers and how to architect the business to use our scant resources well. We think deeply about how to organize our companies to create these powerful pods and network them together. The truth is, even the most successful businesses today do this on just a partial basis.
Few companies understand the scope of the challenge.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's answer was to heat his own dog food. By implementing the company's own database technology internally, he hoped to gain an extra billion dollars, primarily in productivity gains. While it's a start, Larry fundamentally believes he can solve the problem himself. For Oracle, the solution is unlikely to be as easy as implementing Oracle's 8i. Only as companies, including Oracle, begin to recognize that labor constraints are a permanent part of the landscape will they embrace these trends and rethink how their businesses are structures.