It took me nearly a year, but I finally finished reading On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple, by Gil Amelio with William Simon (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1998). The length of time it took me to read it should in no way reflect the quality of the book. It was a very interesting study that provided a unique insight into a major corporation from the level of the CEO. The fact that the corporation is Apple Computer makes it all the more interesting.

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CEOs Come and Go

Most people know that Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Most people also know that Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple in the mid-Eighties, to be replaced by CEO John Sculley. Sculley's term at Apple was notable for the introduction of the Newton, a hand-held computer that in many ways was ahead of its time. It seems particularly ironic that the Newton was canceled by Apple last year, given the current success of the Palm Pilot.

John Sculley was replaced by Michael Spindler, who was also forced out of the company by the Board, to be replaced by Gil Amelio. As reported in SIGPC, Gil Amelio lasted almost a year and a half before resigning nearly two years ago. The book describes Amelio's trials and tribulations during his 500-day tenure at Apple .

A Steve-trum is a tantrum thrown by Steve Jobs.

Since July 1997, Apple has had Steve Jobs as "interim" CEO. Rather a long time for an interim position one would think. But then again, the second coming of Steve Jobs is a hard act to follow.

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From National Semiconductor to Apple Computer

Before becoming CEO of Apple, Dr. Gilbert F. Amelio was CEO of National Semiconductor. He has a Ph.D. in solid-state physics from Georgia Tech and understands both the technology side and the business side of running a large organization.

However, as he soon found out, Apple was rather unlike National Semiconductor in many respects. Whereas National was a more conservative and conventional organization, Apple had a tradition of being open to new ideas and a "do your own thing" mentality. In the book, Dr. Amelio recounts how he felt when, soon after arriving at Apple, he had a conversation in the hallway with a young engineer who was sporting a three-day beard. And wearing a dress.

One of the more interesting aspects of the book is reading what it's like to move from the head of one company to become the head of another. For example, what salary level was needed to lure Dr. Amelio from National? He agreed to a 30% increase, from roughly $770,000 to $900,000 a year. Plus a $5 million sign-on bonus. And a very generous severance agreement. Or so he thought.

1-Gil, 2-Gils, 3-Gils and so on are terms used by Steve Jobs to ridicule an Apple person who says something he considered stupid.

This sounds like a tremendous amount of money. However, according to Dr. Amelio's recounting of events, he did not leave Apple with the $9.2 million severance reported by the press, but with a net negative amount of about $500,000 (due to personal loans he made to Apple). He says he was also promised 500,000 shares, but received 130,960 shares instead when he left.

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A Job for Jobs

Steve Jobs seems to have made out much better than Gil Amelio. One of the first tasks for Dr. Amelio was to deal with the offer from Sun Microsystems to buy Apple at $23 a share. This was deemed to be too low and the offer was refused. Not very long before this, it was rumored that IBM was looking to buy Apple for about $45 a share, but this too was considered too low at the time.

Just a few months after the Sun offer was turned down, Apple stock was trading below $14 a share. Coincidentally, $14 is the price for which Steve Jobs sold his 1.5 million shares of Apple stock that he received as partial payment for selling NeXT to Apple. (Three months later the stock was trading at $28 a share.) He also received $120 million in cash. He held onto one share of Apple stock, to be kept on the mailing lists.

Soon after Apple completed its acquisition of NeXT, and hired Steve Jobs as a strategic advisor, things began to unravel even faster for CEO Gil Amelio. Rumors began to circulate that Oracle was looking to buy Apple, or at least part of Apple. Steve Jobs convinced Gil Amelio to bring on most of the senior people from NeXT and place them in key positions at Apple. This included lead engineers such as Avi Tevanian.

It wasn't long after this incursion of NeXT people into Apple, coupled with the steady outflow of Apple personnel (some being laid off, some leaving on their own accord), that the coup was complete. Gil Amelio was out, and Steve Jobs was back at the helm of Apple.

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Current Status

By the time Dr. Amelio left Apple, all the senior management had changed from when he took over. Shortly after his departure, most of the new executives who he had hired were replaced by Steve Jobs. Given the religious fervor that some people seem to have for Steve Jobs and Apple, it seems particularly ironic when one reads in the book that he used an IBM PC clone -- not a Macintosh -- in his Apple office.

Gil Amelio says he had a three-year plan to return Apple to profitability. It seems like a reasonably accurate estimate, since Apple is currently doing quite well, riding the success of their iMac computers. However, recent news has Apple lagging behind in production for their PowerBooks and other models. An all-too-familiar story for Apple.

In a way, the book represents a catharsis for Gil Amelio. He took a bite from Apple, and found it to be sour. Perhaps telling others of his bitter experiences at Apple helped to get the bad taste out of his mouth. Since this article is going out on July 4th, Independence Day, I hope Dr. Amelio is enjoying the freedom of his new roles as (in his own words) new-age venture capitalist, futurist, and public policy advisor.

In any event, one can't help wondering who will be the next CEO at Apple. Perhaps some company will just wait for Apple to fall and ripen on its own before picking it up and taking a bite.

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