GOOD BYE GIL AND THANKS!
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Copyright 1997 by Bill Fox

Last Updated: July 12, 1997

Apple CEO Gil Amelio and CTO Ellen Hancock resigned late Tuesday (7/8/97)! This is an unexpected development to me. I thought Amelio had made all the tough decisions to get Apple on its feet. The Board wants someone with a customer focus to move Apple to the next stage of recovery--maybe I should apply?

The reverberations of former Apple CEO Gil Amelio's and CTO Ellen Hancock's resignations continue and one can read about them on most of the Mac and non-Mac news sites around the web. As I stated Thursday (7/10/97), this event came as a shock to me. My opinion is that Dr. Amelio did the dirty work that needed doing, even if one doesn't agree with every detail, to set Apple on the right course. So what happened? I agree with David Every (MacKiDo) that Don Crabb's widely circulated rendition doesn't seem to ring true--Dr. Amelio's candid interview clearly indicates a canning (one that he says he agrees with process-wise) rather than a resignation to pursue political ambitions. There may be something else, perhaps a major difference of opinion between Dr. Amelio and the Board over something that's not evident yet like the current buyout/takeover speculation. Or perhaps something even more basic like the strategic direction to be taken from here--where to go with hardware, licensing or marketing. Or perhaps, the Board thought that someone with more public charisma should step in right as Apple is poised to take off on the road to recovery, someone who could inspire a faster and higher climb. This is the perfect time to make such a switch so that many bitter memories can be shoved out the door along with Dr. Amelio--it happens all the time. But whom could this new leader be? We'll soon see. One thing is certain, though, doing the dirty work of a turnaround is always a thankless task. It will be someone else cruising to victory and grabbing the laurels. As a computing-life long fan of Apple Computer's Macintosh, Dr. Amelio has my thanks and best wishes.

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Copyright © 1997 by Bill Fox.
All rights reserved--no commercial use permitted without my expressed permission.

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