Apple's next CEO: Chainsaw Al
By Charles Cooper
January 15, 1998
ZDNN
Apple Computer's crack headhunters have spent seven months scouring the earth for a new chief executive. My spies in Cupertino say the latest offer includes free granola bars, all the popcorn you can eat, and quality time with Silicon Valley's lovable Bobbsey Twins, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison.
Unfortunately, Apple hasn't found anyone dumb enough to sign on the dotted line. So, in the absence of a permanent leader, "acting" CEO Jobs has kept Apple's Moonies at bay by offering up a recycled diet of feel-good mantras and yuppie smugness that says, yes, we are better than them.
Maybe Jobs likes the job so much he's planning to stay a lot longer. When reporter Bruce Francis of CNBC last week asked him for an update on the CEO search, Jobs abruptly walked out of the interview.
But in keeping with the holiday spirit, I'm going to do Apple a big favor: If anyone's willing to listen, I'm going to serve up the dream candidate -- no finder's fee required -- on a silver platter: "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap.
You mean the slice-and-dice, ex-paratrooper; the guy dismissed by critics as a self-promoting Rambo who parachutes into troubled companies, fires thousands of workers and then reaps financial bonanzas when he walks away a couple of years later?
The same.
After the dismal performance turned in by "Dr." Gil Amelio, the self-styled turnaround expert who was turned out the door last July, does Apple really need another scorched-earth specialist? After all, the company Wednesday eked out a respectable $47 million profit, and officials are talking confidently of sustaining profitability in 1998.
But Apple turned a profit in no small part because it cut expenses by about $200 million in the last year. Jobs is again talking the talk, but the Zen of the Mac -- the "ain't we cool" routine -- is sadly retro. If Apple's going to reverse gear and gain market share, it's going to need to live up to its "Think Different" advertising motto.
And unlike the empty suits who have rented the executive suite in Cupertino over the years, Dunlap has a demonstrated talent for thinking differently.
Fresh from engineering successful rescues at Lily-Tulip, Crown Zellerbach, and Scott Paper (where he fired 11,200 workers before selling the company to Kimberly Clark Corp. for $7 billion in 1995), he took over 18 months ago at Sunbeam, a once-mighty brand that had all but turned into another basket case en route to oblivion.
It wasn't pretty. Dunlap closed 16 factories and all but one headquarters building while ordering the dismissal of 6,000 employees. But unlike the prolonged agony at Apple -- measured in years -- Dunlap put away the ax after seven months and has already put the company back on track.
Sunbeam's stock, which was $12.50 when Dunlap began, now trades at around $40. The company, which has broken into 20 new overseas markets, now expects to double operating earnings by next year.
OK, so he's not Albert Schweitzer, and I don't think I'd enjoy working for this guy. But Apple needs a lot more than tough love. When IBM hired a new CEO, it looked outside the computer industry to Lou Gerstner, a marketing whiz (RJR Nabisco, American Express, McKinsey & Co.) with a proven track record.
A lot of ink has been spilled about how blue-chip candidates wouldn't feel comfortable working in Jobs' shadow. No problemo: I'm certain Dunlap has more than enough steel in his shorts to keep potentially meddling soft bellies on the board from gumming up the works.
I can hear him now: "Steve, get the hell outta my face or I'm going to jam this PowerBook up your wazoo!"
One thing is certain: You wouldn't catch Dunlap pulling stupid stunts -- such as walking out of live television interviews because he was afraid to answer a simple question. |
