Gil made the Fateful decision to buy NeXT and bring back Apple. So he was the right CEO at the right time and it was a ballzy decision to take that gamble. So in the end he did save Apple.
...but...his plan was too restore and make Apple successful again...and if bringing back Steve Jobs was apart of his plan....then I guess good ole' Gil lived up to his word.
People give Gil Amelio a bad rap. He was literally given a huge bucket of shit after Spindler, and he was at least as responsible as Jobs for developing the iMac, for which he gets no credit whatsoever. And he had the sense to bring Jobs and NextStep back into the fold. He deserves credit for these things. Of course, Jobs took what he was given and built the Apple of today to a 2 trillion dollar company - which far surpasses anything Gil accomplished. But to simply paint Amelio as a complete bozo is unfair. He wasn't, and he did do good things to right the ship and position it so that Jobs could make it work.
@makkertje You guys should all read iCon and get the story straight: 1) Amelio was well along in eliminating 80% of waste in development before Steve took over, 2) he was the one who shifted to targeting consumers with a low-end computer designed with Ellen Hancock, and within 3 weeks of it being finished Steve came in and named it the iMac, 3) he improved Apple's cashflow by slashing inventory down to 400M, and Steve continued that effort getting it down to 75M (but got all the credit).
I think that the further history goes will show that Gil turned Apple around. Jobs gets the credit due but it was Gil who first realized that Nextstep was the way to go to create the future of Macs. From my perspective Apple was making and refining inventive products during this period Newton 2000, EMate, 20th Anniversary Mac, PowerBook 3500 g3. .
Gil had the sense to cut the cruft and tidy apple into a lean machine, and start development on a consumer mac, he then also had the sense to see that next was more capable in an Internet era than failed copeland, and he had sense enough to know apple needed a visionary, and helped set up finance and Steve jobs return
Get your facts straight, gil was brought into apple after steve was fired then ASKED HIM to come back, steve didn't fire him. Therefore gil saved apple, then brought back steve, your welcome
After Michael Spindler was fired. I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but Spindler was truly incompetent. It’s a testament that Gil Amelio could turn that around to be honest.
You know, Apple is like a ship, that ship is loaded with treasure, but there's a hole in the ship. And my job is to get everyone to row in the same direction.
I know you guys can't help it, but Gil is my grandpa, and I love him dearly. The negative comments are extremely unnecessary, be careful what you post. Thank you.
Thank you Ally! I'm a huge fan of Dr. Amelio. I think he played a pivotal role in Apple moving in the right direction (he killed Copland, bought NeXT, etc) Also pretty cool he has Dubois family ;)
People have good and true things to say, even if they are not perfect. Gil is a good example of that. He may not be well liked as CEO, but I liked his speech, which I take some inspiration from.
Gil Amelio is vilified far too often unnecessarily. While he wasn't a "product guy", he did shore up Apple's financial situation in early 1996, and cancelled Copland when it was evident it would never ship. Ellen Hancock, who was a good advisor to Gil Amelio (and was hired by Amelio), also had Apple buy NeXT when it was clear that Apple could not develop a successor to the classic MacOS on its own. Also, MacOS 8 was launched under his helm, which was an immediate sales success and helped bring greater hope to those that had been loyal to Apple. For anyone to turn around Apple financially after Michael Spindler's reign is a definite feat.
I agree - he certainly doesn't deserve the way he's portrayed. He made some really good decisions, which he's not given credit for. He sholdl be judged for the good decisions he made to reduce the bleeding. To be fair, he wasn't the innovator Steve Jobs was, but he certainly played the foundation for Jobs did by streamlining the company, and of course bringing Jobs back into the fold.
This guy brought the now second most valuable company In the world, down to its knees, him and John Sculley were the two that really brought apple down and had Jobs not come to save it we'd all be in Microsoft/Android hell
TheStuntGuys123 Unfortunately you have no idea what you're talking about. Michael Spindler brought Apple down. Scully was very essential in Apple's early growth and Gil was key to get Apple through the years 1996/1997 after Spindler brought the company down to the brink of bankruptcy.
What an inept speaker. "greater perceived customer value... improve the value proposition..." how uninspiring and tepid. "Our message is: that we're going to be here...." Great.
