One of the things I like about Hector is he's a manager in the truest sense of the word. I've got nothing against Jerry, he did a great job keeping AMD alive and getting AMD to the point where it finally had a chance to get off life support. But Jerry had a fatal weakness in that he viewed AMD as a family and he never wanted to let anyone go. For someone that could be as mercurial as Jerry could be it seemed an odd contrast to see him unable to make the hard decisions. Hector, on the other hand, had no qualms about doing what was needed to save the body. Hector took over at a time when the continued existence of AMD was in serious doubt. There's no doubt in my mind that the quick and appropriate actions he took has been as much responsible for the AMD turn around as Jerry’s hiring of Alpha guys and the "bet the farm on Athlon" initiatives.
Now contrast the above leaders to the Barret and Otellini freak show going on at INTC. These guys have taken a gold mine with a license to steal and turned it into an asylum. If I were an INTC investor I would want both of them breaded and boiled in oil and then mounted on sticks like corn dogs.
The very definition of upper management’s responsibility is to set the tone and direction for a company. What we have seen over the last 5 years is a company adrift where one problem is immediately followed by another. Where decisions are made by marketing and disparate groups conflict with each other.
As long as INTC had monopoly power almost any problem could be swept under the rug of profitability. However now with AMD having taken both the high grounds of design and production, INTC profitability is going to be under the sort of intense pressure INTC hasn't seen since the memory days. In short the warts on the INTC hag are going to become a lot more obvious as the year progresses and it's going to take a lot more that some mascara to hide what has become a truly ugly picture.
I've been through this before and the amount of time it takes for reforms to be initiated in a company is directly in proportion to the hubris and arrogance of management as well as the success the company has had in the past. I figure we've got at least a year before the problems become obvious to the world, and probably 2 years before anything is done about it. Make no mistake about it INTC upper management is the problem and a replacement crew is the only cure.
AI
