When the Mismanagerial Class Destroys Great Companies

In 2005, Paul Otellini became the new CEO of Intel, America’s premier semiconductor designer and manufacturer. He was the first CEO of the company not to have a background in engineering. Sometime shortly thereafter, Otellini entered discussions with Steve Jobs on whether Intel would manufacture the chips needed for Apple’s secretive, potentially revolutionary new project: the iPhone. Ultimately, Otellini declined. He thought the initial costs would be too high and the resulting sales too low. Since then, Apple has sold 2.3 billion iPhones. Intel flatly missed out on the mobile computing revolution ushered in by Apple, which put Intel’s competitors in various domains—including companies like Samsung, TSMC, and most significantly Arm—squarely in the leading position that Intel once had.