Management wisdom from Larry Ellison

By Justin Fox | November 23, 2009 | +

We were at a cocktail party, and [former Apple CEO] Gil Amelio was explaining Apple’s predicament to us, and he said: “Apple is a boat. There’s a hole in the boat, and it’s taking on water. But there’s also a treasure on board. And the problem is, everyone on board is rowing in different directions, so the boat is just standing still. My job is to get everyone rowing in the same direction so we can save the treasure.”After he turned away, I looked at the person next to me and asked, “But what about the hole?” —Larry Ellison

I don’t have much to add to this lovely demonstration of the dangers of management metaphors. It refers to a party back in 1997, when Apple appeared to be toast, and I got it from a Brent Schlender analysis of Yahoo! and Apple on BNET.

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