Intel CEO Out: It's About Time

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Intel (INTC) CEO Paul Otellini, according to a Monday morning press release, is out. The company says he will "retire" in May.

The PR is the typical Friday afternoon or Thanksgiving week one-pager loaded with euphemisms.

The best one: Delivered the first smartphones and tablets for sale with Intel inside. Yes, Otellini did. About five years too late. They hit the market with a pin-drop-like thud, but, hey, he did it!

What a complete and total embarrassment.

But, give Intel credit. It made the move and blew the guy out.

Microsoft (MSFT) should take notes and Steve Ballmer should send extra large turkeys and fruit baskets to Bill Gates and the rest of the company's board this week.

Onward and upward, though.

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Don't pull a Research in Motion (RIMM).

Instead, be bold (!) like Yahoo! (YHOO), who had the courage to write the future unfolding in front of us whether the rest of tech is willing to accept it or not: Young, aggressive, non-traditional CEOs are the wave.

CEOs need to look more like Marissa Mayer and Facebook's (FB) Mark Zuckerberg. More like Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey. But less like Otellini, Ballmer and Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) Meg Whitman.

Up until, say, five years ago, these guys served their companies well. But, then, they lost it. Of course, Whitman hasn't done a damn thing and likely never will at HP.

Both unfortunate realities have relatively straightforward answers.

Much of the old guard just does not have the capacity to change. Once they realize they need to, it's too late. But, worse than that, they're caught like deer in headlights.

It's a helpless feeling. We've all been there at different points in our lives. We know what needs to get done. We just have zero ability to make it happen.

Intel must go to people such as Jack Dorsey to lead their search for a new CEO. Forget the standard executive headhunter firms. To hell with internal channels. Find out who people like Dorsey respect and make fierce moves on them.

It's these young and/or fresh minds that have what it takes to do what needs to be done: Transform not-so-slowly dying companies such as Intel into shockingly and wholly unrecognizable, but much stronger versions of their previous failed selves.

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Rocco Pendola is TheStreet's Director of Social Media. Pendola's daily contributions to TheStreet frequently appear on CNBC and at various top online properties, such as Forbes.