Eric..Re..<<<<AMD has done extremely well in the last year, but execution can never be flawless, and it is foolish to not discuss non-optimal choices and how they can affect the future....<<<<<
Eric, I have no objection to that statement, however I do have an objection to someone, who probably has not sat in one AMD planning meeting, has not attended one of the vendor meetings with Via,probably knows little more than you or I about AMD'S 2Q AND 3Q SALES, saying that AMD'S management is incompetent. To me that is the height of arrogance, to know nothing of what management is doing, and declaring yourself smarter than management. I asked him for specific examples, and he couldn't even cite one, but instead repeated his claim AMDS MNGT. was incompetent.
Ive managed my busness for 30 yrs, semi retired now, but
every day we have to make mngt. decisions; some right , some wrong. A lot of decisions can be right at the time of the decision but later events can make the decision look wrong. A good example is the Via decision. When Via was designated as the primary chipset supplier for t-bird and Duron, Via was involved in a lawsuit with Intel, and it looked like Vias pentium business would be limited and P4 was out of the question. Right now there aren't any alternate chipsets suppliers other than amd and Via. If AMD WERE to produce the chipsets, AMD would have to cut back on producing chips. So the logical decision when it was made was to have Via supply. Subsequently, after the decision was made, Intels i8xx chipests failed, Rambus was discredited and Intel settled the lawsuit on Via's terms. Vias chipset sales jumped in 6 months from 20% to almost 50% of world market. Via simply didn't have the manufacturing capacity reseved to make that many chipsets. Chuck is trying to say AMD SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING. I say baloney. The decision to go with Via was the right one at that time. Via has the best chipset for the Athlon right now. Who has a better one. Via wasn't capacity constrained then. Also Via has good relations with the motherboard producers in Taiwan and we need those motherboards. To expect Via to dump Intel chipsets would have meant Via would have had to destroy some of these motherboard makers, who were counting on Via for their Intel based chipsets. As a businessman, would you sever your long term relationships just to produce more chipsets for Amd. As a businessman, I would do just what Via is doing, try to keep everyone miminally supplied until more manufacturing can be reserved. You don't kill the golden goose for a one time deal. You don't piss off all of your customers and vendors because both are equally important to any business. Chuck wants to dump Via. My word of advice is
; don't dump any vendor until you have a replacement. Period!!! Let me say that again; do not replace any vendor until you have a good replacement. Cutting off Via now could ruin AMD right now. And AMD's management shouldn't breath a word of this until a satisfactory supply is obtained or AMD CAN RAMP UP 750 production. The simple fact is AMD cannot bludgeon Via into submission. Amd needs Via more than Via needs AMD right now.
In short AMD'S mngt. made the right decision then, and is making the right decision now by not making waves just yet. When the time is right, then do something. |
