I spent most of the summer reporting and writing a feature story about Safra Catz, the enigmatic co-president of Oracle¹ (ORCL). I talked to oodles of people about Catz's ambitions, her value to the company, the likelihood of her becoming CEO, and her relationship with Charles Phillips, Oracle's other co-president.

我用了几乎整个夏天的时间来报道和撰写关于萨弗拉·卡兹(Safra Catz)，这位谜一样的甲骨文公司(Oracle)联席总裁的文章。我采访了很多人，讨论了卡兹的雄心，她对公司的价值观，她成为总裁的可能性以及她和甲骨文另一位联席总裁查尔斯·菲利普(Charles Philips)的关系。

All this is in the article, published in the current issue of Fortune. The conclusion is that Catz is a complicated, competent, intelligent pile-driver of an executive who makes Oracle hum.

所有这些都已成文，出版在当期发行的《财富》杂志里。文章的结论是卡兹是一部能够让甲骨文轰鸣前行的复杂但却充满智慧和能力的发动机。

Left explicitly² unsaid in the quest to find out as much as possible about Safra Catz is just how successful her boss, Larry Ellison, has been as CEO of Oracle. This was my single greatest takeaway from my reporting.

但有一点没被清晰地指出，那就是在尽可能了解卡茨的过程，也是发现她老板拉里·埃利森(Larry Ellison)原来如此成功的一次经历，这也是我的报道中独有的最大成果。

There was a period, years ago, when Ellison became disengaged from actively³ running the company. Because his extracurricular activities get so much attention — the America's Cup battles, the yachts, the homes, the marriages, and so on — the world that watches Oracle from afar doesn't quite get that Ellison's era of disengagement ended a long time ago.

几年前，有这样一段时期，埃利森变得很少积极推动公司运作。因为他的“业余活动”吸引了太多注意力：美国杯帆船赛，游艇，房产，婚姻等等。远观甲骨文发展的外界并不知道，其实埃利森的这一段时期早就结束了。