How Charles Phillips Quit Oracle To Run The “World’s Largest Startup”

What do you do after being president of a globally renowned software company? Of course, you become the CEO of the world’s largest startup. Just ask Charles Phillips. He’s made the transition from leading at Oracle, resigning from his position and going on to helm Infor, a leading business software startup experiencing disruptive growth. Today, we will cover how CEO Phillips made his way to the cutting edge of business software solutions.

Success During Oracle Tenure

Working over seven years with Oracle, Phillips’ leadership tripled the company’s size while making key acquisitions within the industry. In fact, his Wall Street investment background contributed to over 70 acquisitions. This successful string of tech acquisitions spurred growth, driving results and revenues for the software enterprise. Certainly, Phillips had a clear proven track record as a corporate executive.

Emergence As Infor CEO

Next, Phillips would go on to take over as CEO at Infor. Just 16 weeks after leaving Oracle, he succeeded Jim Schaper to lead the release of the company’s next generation of business applications. At the time, the company was worth about $2 Billion and ready to continue acquiring smaller vendors for growth. Of course, Phillips’ experience in acquisitions, software and growth made him an attractive fit for the Infor Board of Directors.

Competing With Oracle & SAP

Compared to a hardware and software driven approach, Phillips led Infor with a cloud driven strategy to compete with major software companies. He used a similar acquisition strategy over the span of 18 month segments to grow Infor solutions to rival those of SAP and Oracle. Their primary solution started with ERP and HR software. Consistently, he grew the company to offer more niche solutions that can be tailored to many types of businesses. The approach has led to steady customer growth, taking business from the competition.

Bolstering Financial Leverage

By 2016, Phillips negotiated a deal to sell Infor equity to Koch Industries. The $2.5 Billion investment valued Infor at $10 billion. In just six years of leadership, the Infor value nearly quintupled with this new investment. Additionally, Phillips’ relationships gave Infor the financial leverage needed to further take on the main software rivals. It marks a major shift of Phillips leadership, making Infor one of the largest startups in the world.

Massive Innovation

To date, Charles Phillips is the CEO of Infor and continues to lead the Infor startup into innovative territory. The company meets and seeks out rigorous feedback from customers. Under Phillips’ direction, Infor integrates a social element with beautiful design to set itself apart from the competition. His commitment to innovation through collaboration and bold changes to hour businesses interface with their data. A fine example of CEO leadership, he takes bold changes to push the industry forward.

While most executives might dream of becoming a president of a global software company like Oracle, Charles Phillips quit his job. As the CEO of Infor, he has grown the company from $2 billion to over $10 billion in value. But, he’s not done yet. Continuing to drive innovation and growth, Phillips shows why leaving a company like Oracle might be next step to running a globally disrupting startup.

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