Michael Gregoire grew up in the small Canadian city of Thorold, just 12 miles north of the U. S. border near Niagara Falls. Though its population was about 14,000 at the time, the town had three ice rinks, where Gregoire would spend his days playing merciless hockey.
It was an upbringing that Gregoire believes well prepared him for his recent tour-of-duty at PeopleSoft, Inc., where on any given day you may find yourself slammed against the boards by such unforgiving competitors as Oracle Corp. You need only to assess the indefatigable nature of Oracle's takeover bid for PeopleSoft to measure the unwavering resolve of PeopleSoft's lead forechecker.
Throughout 2003, his game face intact, Gregoire led PeopleSoft Global Services to 20 percent year-over-year revenue growth and a 95 percent customer satisfaction rate, the highest in PeopleSoft's history. All this, while integrating 1,300 consultants from recently acquired J.D. Edwards and three lines of business into his organization.
"When you behave in a very straightforward manner, that ripples throughout the rest of the organization," he explains. Gregoire set the tone for the integration early on by replacing two leaders from Edwards with two PeopleSoft employees after looking at their qualifications "through a very objective view and complete meritocracy."
"If people think that they are going through a fair, just process, and that we are all striving toward one well-articulated goal," then an integration will be successful, Gregoire says. "If they had felt that this process wasn't just, that their contributions made in the past weren't going to be taken into account, I don't think that this would've gone nearly as well."
Paring down staff proved to be Gregoire's toughest job. About 300 people lost jobs in the acquisition, nearly a third of them PeopleSoft employees he had worked with since joining the firm in 1999. "You have to separate your personal feelings from the interests of the company. Those are difficult moments," he says.
Gregoire faced another tough challenge when Oracle launched its hostile takeover attempt for J.D. Edwards. He spent many days convincing employees that PeopleSoft was the place to be. "You have to be very articulate about your convictions, but there's a fine line between being objective and being emotional. Without passion, how can you possibly convince people to do the right thing? And smart people will not follow you if you're not following a rational process."
With the integration mostly behind him, Gregoire now spends three weeks each month on the road keeping "hands on" with clients — but he wouldn't hesitate to go through another acquisition, or knock Oracle back against the boards. — S.C.
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