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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hmaly who wrote (17180)	11/2/2000 1:52:42 AM
From: jamok99	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 275872

hmly, <<: [Jerry Sanders] Well, first of all, I can't imagine a single one of our customers having said that. Rob, do you have any idea what this guy could be talking about?>> <<LoL That is hardly my description of rude. I say worse to my wife every day>> I have no doubt that you do. Perhaps you and Jerry share the same 'tin ear' for the importance of not purposefully offending others' sensibilities in a relationship. In your case, your wife has my sympathies, and that's your business. In Jerry's, I would think that the primary goal of a CEO is to promote the interests of his company, rather than dismissing whoever happens to piss him off personally. AMD needs a better relationship with the analytic community, regardless of whose fault or for what reasons that relationship currently sucks. It's the analytic community that gets to tell the street, investors, etc., AMD's story, and to the extent that they get that story wrong, it hurts AMD, and becomes AMD's problem. AMD's current share price is vivid proof of this, as I think almost all on this thread would agree that its current valuation is a problem largely of perception, rather than execution. Sure, there are some analysts (Kumar) who clearly have a vendetta against AMD, and who won't tell a straight story no matter what. But responding by having a vendetta against analysts is self-defeating. In a majority of cases, if an analyst comes up with some FUD, it is so clearly self-evident that to ridicule or dismiss him is shooting onself in the foot, as you've just invited another influential voice to become a confirmed AMD enemy - and that's the last thing this company needs. The best CEO's I've seen (e.g. Mike Ruettgers of EMC) show a good deal of patience and restraint in responding to FUD, whether such FUD is through ignorance or provocation. If through ignorance, such CEOs seem to have the ability to avoid responding as though it's a personal wound, and use it as an opportunity to educate the individual or the community about the facts - a smart tactic, as it opens the possibility of making 'converts' of your skeptics - especially when time after time, they come to see that you can be relied on to tell a 'straight story', and they've been fed bull by other sources. Alienating folks who happen to piss you off for one reason or another simply increases the antagonism - something Jerry often either doesn't get or gets too emotionally/personally involved in to resist. I think epinephrine made an excellent point earlier when he pointed out that Jerry's a mixed picture of strengths and weaknesses - I would go further and say that oftentimes single qualities become a two-edged sword, depending on the context - perhaps his brashness and ego have contributed to his abilities to pursue his 'vision' regardless of criticism - but at the same time, such ego and stubborness seem to blind him to the basic facts that all business is made up of relationships, and disrespecting or dismissing others is bad business, as it puts settling scores above promoting your business, especially when those others are in a postion to significantly help or hurt you. This is different than "sucking up" to analysts - it assumes taking an educative stance, rather than a retalitory one, and keeping one's business interests above one's personal feelings about a situation - a quality I think is both utilitarian and admirable. Hector Ruiz may not have the 'fire' Jerry does, but he doesn't bring this kind of personality problem as a liability either, and I'd rather see him in charge, as it bodes much better IMO for healing the rift with the analytic community to AMD's advantage.