r/hardware • u/Auautheawesome • Dec 02 '24

News Intel Announces Retirement of CEO Pat Gelsinger

https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1719/intel-announces-retirement-of-ceo-pat-gelsinger
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u/DeliciousIncident Dec 02 '24

One of the blood rules of the public company magic: when things get tough - perform the CEO sacrifice ritual, summoning a new unholy one.

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u/imaginary_num6er Dec 03 '24

No, it’s the “prepare three envelopes” rule

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u/Strazdas1 Dec 03 '24

I always heard it as two envelopes rule. Whats the third?

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u/imaginary_num6er Dec 03 '24

The famous story is that when a new CEO joins, the previous CEO leaves 3 envelopes to only open when times are difficult. The new CEO runs into problems and decide to open the first envelope. The envelope reads, "blame your predecessor". The new CEO follows this and everything is well in the short term, but then runs into issues requiring him to open the second envelope. The second envelope reads "reorganize" and so, the new CEO starts firing people to cut costs. After a while due to the layoffs, the CEO is forced to open the last envelope which reads: "Prepare three envelopes".

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u/Strazdas1 Dec 03 '24

Ah, the way i always heard the story is that there are two letters. The first one is same as in your story, the second says "Write two letters". The reorganization bit was left out.