Some folks believe that it's better to be lucky than smart.
But like nearly everything during his feckless tenure, Amelio had little idea what he was getting into. Truth be told, few people had an idea how this soap opera was going to conclude. The good ship Apple was listing at 40 degrees and heading down fast. Wracked by management turmoil and mass layoffs, Apple was getting trounced by Mac clone makers and PC manufacturers alike. Into this mess came Jobs, who mesmerized Apple's board with a grand scheme on how NeXT's software could be modified to run on the Macintosh.