November 9, 1994: Gil Amelio, a businessman with a reputation as a talented turnaround artist, joins Apple’s board.
Coming off his impressive revitalization of two other tech companies, National Semiconductor and Rockwell International, Amelio’s appointment at Apple sparks widespread celebration. Many Apple watchers think his arrival means the company’s dark days are over. Sadly, Amelio’s turnaround tricks won’t work in Cupertino.
Gil Amelio: Turnaround artist?
There was no shortage of innovation at Apple during the “bad old days” of the early 1990s. But the company desperately needed good leadership. It lacked the ability to not just create fantastic new products, but to pick the right fantastic new products to create.
This is where Amelio impressed. As National Semiconductor’s CEO, he returned a company that lost $320 million over four years to profitability.
Unlike operations-led Apple CEOs (John Sculley and Tim Cook spring to mind), Amelio possessed a strong engineering background. While a Ph.D. student, he helped invent the charge-coupled device, or CCD, which formed the basis for future scanners and digital cameras.
The National Semiconductor-Apple connection
Amelio’s connection to Cupertino resulted from National Semiconductor’s role as a big Apple supplier. Amelio continued at National Semiconductor until he assumed Apple’s CEO role in 1996. But nobody considered it a conflict of interest for him to join Apple’s board while simultaneously heading a company that did business with Cupertino.
The most memorable thing from Amelio’s eventual 500-day stint running Apple as CEO — aside from overseeing Apple’s biggest-ever losses — was the fact that Apple bought NeXT while under his leadership. That ultimately brought back Steve Jobs to steer the Apple ship.
Oh, and possibly Amelio’s infamous nautical-themed blooper, as related by Jobs in the video below. Amelio supposedly compared Apple to a ship with a gaping hole in its hull, then said his job was to ensure it sailed in the right direction.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
One response to “Today in Apple history: Turnaround artist Gil Amelio joins Apple’s board”
This does not do Amelio justice at all.
Firstly, he pulled a small financial miracle in raising capital for Apple when they were in trouble, and even Jobs has publically praised him for that.
Secondly, he brought back Steve Jobs, as this article does note;
and thirdly, he had laid the groundwork for and set out the path that Steve Jobs would follow over the next few years – a healthier relationship with Microsoft, a new OS based on Next Step, and as your article eludes to by acknowledging the need for apple to pick the right products – a shift in focus to just a few really good products, leading to compelling propositions like the iMac in ’98. Steve went further with acquisitions of Logic and Final Cut, the introduction of Firewire/DV, and then iTunes, iPod and iPad. But the turn around from disaster was Amelio and Jobs together, even if in quick succession, ^_^ – they each played their part. That joke about pointing the ship in the right direction though is great, and must have been what it felt like at times, given how crazy things were, =). A great slice of history. Thanks for the reminder!