4 ms·

This might be a stupid question, but are there any amazing turnaround stories in the world of large tech companies? If not, is that due to the relative youth of

This might be a stupid question, but are there any amazing turnaround stories in the world of large tech companies? If not, is that due to the relative youth of the sector, or something fundamental? I can think of a ton of companies that have faltered, but really none that have made a dramatic turnaround.

smacktoward 14y ago
Apple kind of leaps to mind. This is where they were the year Jobs returned, remember: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/wired+cover.jpg http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/wired+cover.jpg
- spaghetti 14y ago
  Apple is a good example. Keep in mind that Apple was "turned around" by one of the founders. That's an example of re-aligning the company with it's original vision rather than altering the vision. I think the latter is much harder but I've never tried.
- ryanwaggoner 14y ago
  Wow, I feel stupid now. Maybe I didn't think of Apple because it was an original founder returning and fixing things?
  - smacktoward 14y ago
    Don't feel stupid! It doesn't happen very often, really. Certainly the examples are few and far between. Turnarounds can happen, they just usually don't.
    - ams6110 14y ago
      Interesting observation. Most startups fail, and most turnaround efforts fail. Makes success something you really want to hang on to when you find it.
jot 14y ago
Apple
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nileshtrivedi 14y ago
Apple?
herval 14y ago
Apple passed through a pretty dramatic shift on the Sculley/Spindler years... AOL is another example, if I'm not mistaken.
zem 14y ago
give "who says elephants can't dance" a read. it deals with the turnaround of ibm, a company with tremendous institutional inertia. http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnaround/dp/0060523794 http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnar...
taylorbuley 14y ago
Intuit hit a period of relative stagnation that Brad Smith has been working to plow through for a while, a period of change marked by the acquisition of Mint and an expansion in the online product suite SanDisk went in the relative dumper following the memory glut in ~2009 but seems to have been recovering under Mehrotra for about a year now And a great turn around (and around) story is Seagate, who tanked, went private around 2000, came out and soared mid-2000 and is sort of tanking again even under chairman Stephen Luczo's leadership
Sayter 14y ago
Apple from the mid-1990's to present. CEO John Sculley had been instructed in 1993 to sell the company (unsuccessfully, to AT&T, IBM, etc.), before getting fired. He refers to the time as Apple's "near-death experience." In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to the company via NeXT and Microsoft invested a severely needed $150 million. Without those two events happening, it is highly possible that Apple would not still exist today (let alone being the most valued technology company in the world). That's about as radical of turnaround as possible.
adventureful 14y ago
IBM under Lou Gerstner is one of the greatest turn around stories in business history. "How Lou Gerstner Got IBM To Dance" http://www.forbes.com/2002/11/11/cx_ld_1112gerstner.html http://www.forbes.com/2002/11/11/cx_ld_1112gerstner.html Also, Michael Dell returning to his company has been a solid turn around in regards to profitability and improvement in product quality, both of which had languished under the former chief. It doesn't show in the stock valuation because of substantial PE compression, but Michael Dell has taken the company from losing money briefly and having some accounting scandals, to a solid level of profitability in the last few years.
cschmidt 14y ago
Lou Gerstner's turnaround of IBM, in addition to the obvious Apple comparison.
cschmidt 14y ago
Lou Gerstner's turnaround of IBM, in addition to the obvious Apple comparison.
petercooper 14y ago
Bit borderline on being a 'tech' company by modern standards (though historically it's about as tech as it gets), General Electric under Jack Welch. He pulled off a Jobsian effort in the 80s. GE went from $27bn revenues to $130bn under his watch and a market cap of $14bn up to $410bn.
- boyter 14y ago
  As I recall most of that was due to the US economy turning around and picking up defense contracts. I think it would be impossible to not make money in that situation.
  - jpadkins 14y ago
    I think there is a big difference between "impossible to not make money in that situation" and growing revenues by 100B under your leadership. A lot of companies in that era did not grow revenues by 100 billion dollars.
gcb 14y ago
The microsoft controlled board already made sure the founders have no voice in the company anymore.
halo 14y ago
Nintendo.
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smacktoward 14y ago

Apple kind of leaps to mind. This is where they were the year Jobs returned, remember: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/wired+cover.jpg http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/wired+cover.jpg

spaghetti 14y ago
Apple is a good example. Keep in mind that Apple was "turned around" by one of the founders. That's an example of re-aligning the company with it's original vision rather than altering the vision. I think the latter is much harder but I've never tried.
ryanwaggoner 14y ago
Wow, I feel stupid now. Maybe I didn't think of Apple because it was an original founder returning and fixing things?
- smacktoward 14y ago
  Don't feel stupid! It doesn't happen very often, really. Certainly the examples are few and far between. Turnarounds can happen, they just usually don't.
  - ams6110 14y ago
    Interesting observation. Most startups fail, and most turnaround efforts fail. Makes success something you really want to hang on to when you find it.

jot 14y ago

Apple

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

nileshtrivedi 14y ago

Apple?

herval 14y ago

Apple passed through a pretty dramatic shift on the Sculley/Spindler years... AOL is another example, if I'm not mistaken.

zem 14y ago

give "who says elephants can't dance" a read. it deals with the turnaround of ibm, a company with tremendous institutional inertia. http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnaround/dp/0060523794 http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnar...

taylorbuley 14y ago

Intuit hit a period of relative stagnation that Brad Smith has been working to plow through for a while, a period of change marked by the acquisition of Mint and an expansion in the online product suite SanDisk went in the relative dumper following the memory glut in ~2009 but seems to have been recovering under Mehrotra for about a year now And a great turn around (and around) story is Seagate, who tanked, went private around 2000, came out and soared mid-2000 and is sort of tanking again even under chairman Stephen Luczo's leadership

Sayter 14y ago

Apple from the mid-1990's to present. CEO John Sculley had been instructed in 1993 to sell the company (unsuccessfully, to AT&T, IBM, etc.), before getting fired. He refers to the time as Apple's "near-death experience." In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to the company via NeXT and Microsoft invested a severely needed $150 million. Without those two events happening, it is highly possible that Apple would not still exist today (let alone being the most valued technology company in the world). That's about as radical of turnaround as possible.

adventureful 14y ago

IBM under Lou Gerstner is one of the greatest turn around stories in business history. "How Lou Gerstner Got IBM To Dance" http://www.forbes.com/2002/11/11/cx_ld_1112gerstner.html http://www.forbes.com/2002/11/11/cx_ld_1112gerstner.html Also, Michael Dell returning to his company has been a solid turn around in regards to profitability and improvement in product quality, both of which had languished under the former chief. It doesn't show in the stock valuation because of substantial PE compression, but Michael Dell has taken the company from losing money briefly and having some accounting scandals, to a solid level of profitability in the last few years.

cschmidt 14y ago

Lou Gerstner's turnaround of IBM, in addition to the obvious Apple comparison.

cschmidt 14y ago

Lou Gerstner's turnaround of IBM, in addition to the obvious Apple comparison.

petercooper 14y ago

Bit borderline on being a 'tech' company by modern standards (though historically it's about as tech as it gets), General Electric under Jack Welch. He pulled off a Jobsian effort in the 80s. GE went from $27bn revenues to $130bn under his watch and a market cap of $14bn up to $410bn.

boyter 14y ago
As I recall most of that was due to the US economy turning around and picking up defense contracts. I think it would be impossible to not make money in that situation.
- jpadkins 14y ago
  I think there is a big difference between "impossible to not make money in that situation" and growing revenues by 100B under your leadership. A lot of companies in that era did not grow revenues by 100 billion dollars.

gcb 14y ago

The microsoft controlled board already made sure the founders have no voice in the company anymore.

halo 14y ago

Nintendo.

deleted 14y ago

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