Revenge is a response to a perceived injustice or what psychologists call narcissistic injury, known to you and me as a wounded ego. This reaction is often acute in entrepreneurs or members of family businesses, whose sense of self-worth is bound to their businesses. "For a founder whose identity is wrapped up in his company, there's no end to the revenge that one could want to exact on those who threaten to take it away," says Kenneth Eisold, a New York psychoanalyst who counsels business executives.

In the case of an executive whose throne isn't just threatened, but taken away, nothing may be more fulfilling than being able to reclaim it. Steve Jobs, who was forced out of Apple Computer Inc. in 1985 only to return in 1997, isn't the only one who has achieved this unlikely feat. Take Malcolm Walker, a British entrepreneur who founded Iceland, a grocery chain specializing in frozen foods that's now among Britain's largest private companies. Back in December, 2000, when Iceland was still a public company and Walker was looking forward to his pending retirement, he controversially sold $19.8 million of his equity stake just weeks before his successor, Bill Grimsey, who took over on Jan. 2, 2001, issued a profit warning amid slumping sales. Shares went into a free fall.

It quickly became clear Walker had to resign immediately. Britain's Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), a government agency, launched a probe into the stock sale. "When I left, I was no longer the guy who had built a successful business," he says now. "I was remembered as the dodgy guy who was being investigated for insider dealing." Later, Walker recalled: "I had a tremendous cloud hanging over me." Despite the dark days, Walker didn't waste time before firing back. Within months, he opened a rival shop, which he joked would be called "Frozen Out." (What was that again about retirement?) The store was actually named Cooltrader, and before long, Walker expanded to 20 outlets. Trapped on the sidelines of Iceland, he plotted his return. "I had something to prove," says Walker, who was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

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In late 2004, Walker joined up with retail investment firm Baugur Group to buy back the grocery chain and, on Feb. 11, 2005, his birthday, returned to run his company. While he has busied himself with retrofitting stores and simplifying inventories, he has also been settling a few old scores. He renamed the years he was away the "Dark Ages" on Iceland's Web site, where he has cobbled together a list of Grimsey's turnaround forecasts in the press, mocking the oft-promised recovery. ("It's my Web site, isn't it?") He has sent a dossier of his own to the DTI, questioning Iceland's finances during his absence. (Grimsey told BusinessWeek: "I take no notice of Malcolm Walker. I've moved on with my life.") Today, according to Walker, Iceland's sales are growing again at double-digit rates. "Everything I'm telling you now enables me to feel totally vindicated."

High-profile departures or firings are hardly the only circumstances that can spur people to want to get even. From vendettas against co-workers who shoot down ideas to grudge matches between middle managers vying for a senior job, payback plays a role in the more mundane scenarios in corporate life, too.

Indeed, in business, revenge often takes on passive forms. "You rarely see someone with a knife in their back" in a business context, says Richard Olivier, an Englishman who runs workshops that use Shakespeare's plays to help leaders unravel motivations such as revenge, ambition, and power. Rather, "you see lots of people who are dying the death of a thousand small cuts," says Olivier, the son of actor Laurence Olivier.

Yet another business scenario that incites its share of retribution is the passed-over executive. "It's not as visible," says Yale's Sonnenfeld, "but there's a seething sense of resentment in people who've spent a lifetime thinking they've earned something only to have it snatched away at the 11th hour." Consider Joseph Galli Jr., who in 1999 was president of the power tools and accessories group at Black & Decker Corp. At 41, he was pushing his boss, CEO Nolan D. Archibald, who had been in the job for 15 years, to step down and give him his moment in the sun. When Archibald resisted, a frustrated Galli quit.

Those who know Galli say he is still driven by not getting the top job. His fondness for the tool business never waned, either: In his brief, one-year term as COO of Amazon.com Inc., he introduced tool sales to the online retailer before other categories, such as toys and office products, that most analysts said made more sense. And in 2001 he joined Newell Rubbermaid, drawn by the offer to be CEO and the chance to expand Newell's tool line into a force that could eventually challenge Black & Decker's market share. That never happened: In late 2005, after four years of unmet earnings targets, Galli resigned.

His newest post, as chief of Techtronic Industries Co.'s global floor-care division, appears to be a stepping-stone to running the entire Hong-Kong-based company, which includes tool brands such as Ryobi. Galli, a fiercely competitive former college wrestler, is widely expected to be named CEO of Techtronic when his noncompete clause in the tool category ends in late 2007. "He is utterly driven by the thought of passing Black & Decker, so much so that he took a divisional job after being CEO of a whole company in order to line up the stars," says one former Techtronic executive. Galli, still bound by his noncompete, says he can't comment on the tool business.

Noncompete or nonsolicit arrangements, designed to prevent people from hiring former colleagues, can stand in the way of executives turning their revenge fantasies into reality. They may be barred from battling their former companies if they want severance pay. Still, recruiters say they often see spurned execs try to get around such agreements by using a headhunter, who would first conduct an exhaustive search, as a shield. Mark Jaffe, a Minneapolis search consultant, says clients can be pretty explicit with him, both when responding to rivals' poachings or when, as departed executives who become newly employed, they try to exact damage upon the company they've left behind. "This is not typically something that's very veiled [to the recruiter]," he says.

Indeed, says Brian M. Sullivan, CEO of New York search firm Christian & Timbers, some companies have offered premiums for recruiting people from a competitor that has stolen one of their own. "They'll put a bounty on them," he says. And when the poaching is personal, watch out. Jaffe says he recently got a request from the division president of a major company. She had just had one of her top people stolen away by a friend who worked at a rival. In filling the now vacant job, Jaffe says, she urged him to focus heavily on the competitor. "Let's see how much damage we can do in filling that position," she told Jaffe, who nonetheless didn't find anyone at the firm.

Which brings us back to Garnett. Since getting sacked by Ellison, he has channeled his anger into investing in and building up companies that compete head-to-head with Oracle or Ellison projects. The most recent of these is Ingres, a low-cost, open-source software startup that Garnett hopes will poke a hole in Oracle's high-price database business. Garnett has targeted Ellison's team for several engineers and managers. He has also hired a small army of former Oracle folks to help him torpedo the old mother ship: Of Ingres' 250-member staff, 50 are ex-Oracle, including several top executives and key technologists. Many directors have the Oracle pedigree, too. "The simplest way to create a culture is to pick an enemy," says Garnett. "We have an enemy: It's Oracle."

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