Siebel, Thomas 1952–

International Directory of Business Biographies, (2005) by Josh Lauer

Thomas Siebel 1952–

President, Siebel Systems

Nationality: American.

Born: November 20, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois.

Education: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, BA, 1975; MBA, 1983; MS, 1983.

Family: Son of Arthur F. (lawyer) and Ruth Siebel (homemaker); married Stacy (former Oracle sales representative; maiden name unknown); children: four.

Career: Oracle, 1984–1990, sales representative and marketer; Gain Technology, 1991–1993, chief executive officer; Siebel Systems, 1993–2004, chief executive officer; 1993–, chairman.

Awards: One of the Top 25 Managers in the World, Business Week , 2000, 2001; CEO of the Year, Industry Week , 2002; David Packard Award, Business Executives for National Security, 2002.

Publications: Virtual Selling: Going Beyond the Automated Sales Force to Achieve Total Sales Quality (with Michael S. Malone), 1996; Cyber Rules: Strategies for Excelling at E-Business (with Pat House), 1999; Taking Care of eBusiness: How Today's Market Leaders are Increasing Revenue, Productivity, and Customer Satisfaction, 2001.

Address: Siebel Systems, 2207 Bridgepointe Parkway, San Mateo, California 94404; http://www.siebel.com.

■ During the early 1990s Thomas Siebel pioneered the development of customer relationship management (CRM), a revolutionary approach to sales that involved the use of computer software to automate sales and customer service activities. As CEO of Siebel Systems, founded in 1993, Siebel presided over one of the fastest growing and most consistently profitable companies in the information technology sector. Siebel's CRM software and related marketing strategy spawned an entire industry, earning Siebel recognition as a visionary entrepreneur.

Thomas Siebel. AP/Wide World Photos .

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Siebel was born in Chicago, the sixth of seven children in an upper-middle-class family. He was reared in Wilmette, Illinois, an exclusive suburb on Chicago's north shore. His father, a Harvard-educated corporate attorney, sent Siebel to Shattuck Military Academy (later Shattuck–St. Mary's) in Fairbaut, Minnesota, when he was 15. Siebel disliked the strict regulations that governed the school but stayed to appease his father. He grew to appreciate the self-dependence that the experience forced upon him.

ORACLE

In 1984 Siebel was hired by Oracle Corporation, then an upstart distributor of relational database software that had 40 employees. Beginning as a presales representative in Oracle's Chicago office, Siebel was responsible for setting up database demonstrations for Oracle sales representatives and their prospective clients. However, he was quickly recognized as a superior salesman in his own right. Within a year Siebel earned distinction as Oracle's top salesman, outperforming his coworkers largely on the strength of his technical knowledge and ability to translate complex computer jargon for nonspecialist clients.

Siebel's success attracted the attention of the Oracle cofounder and CEO Lawrence Ellison, who moved the rising star into the company's upper ranks. During the next several years Siebel held various marketing positions and contributed toward Oracle's growth as a leading provider of management software. In 1987, while heading Oracle's direct-marketing division, Siebel noticed that his sales reps were wasting time and effort as a result of poorly coordinated customer information. Seeking to eliminate the inefficiencies, Siebel developed a program that streamlined communication within Oracle's sales. The results were impressive. In 1989 Siebel suggested to Ellison that the program, called Oasis (Oracle automated sales information system), could be marketed externally. Ellison, failing to see the program's commercial potential, was not interested. Siebel took a leave of absence from Oracle in 1990 and never returned. He cashed in his company shares soon thereafter, a fortunate move that netted him millions just ahead of a major accounting scandal that caused Oracle's market value to plummet.

SIEBEL SYSTEMS

In 1991 Siebel was hired as CEO of Cayenne Systems, a small, privately owned multimedia software company that was renamed Gain Technology and sold by Siebel to Sybase, for $110 million in 1992. Flush with the $10 million he received in the deal, Siebel returned to his earlier idea of marketing Oasis. In 1993 he founded Siebel Systems with Patricia House, a former Oracle marketer. Siebel personally provided the lion's share of the company's seed money, but he accepted start-up investments from a few close associates, including the brokerage mogul Charles Schwab, who received a seat on the Siebel Systems board of directors in return.

From the beginning, Seibel demonstrated a personal commitment to customer satisfaction that would define his company and become a hallmark of CRM. Rather than rushing to develop a product, Siebel and House spent months consulting with companies about their individual business operations and software needs before even beginning the design phase. The resulting product, Siebel Sales Enterprise, was a highly customizable computer program that automated sales activity and, in subsequent versions, integrated sales, customer service, and marketing functions. In essence, Siebel's sophisticated software served as a central database capable of distributing customer information among its sales representatives and call centers. Use of the software prevented duplicated efforts and provided a powerful tool for monitoring accounts, tracking purchase decisions, and gauging customer preferences in the interest of developing client-tailored marketing.