AMD CEO's Shoddy Record Taints Turnaround

Call it déjà vu, or a flashback, but Hector Ruiz has been here before.

Ten years before the Advanced Micro Devices(AMD Quote) CEO's current effort to keep his company afloat, Ruiz was caught in another strait. As the head of Motorola's(MOT Quote) chip group, then the world's third-largest semiconductor maker, Ruiz was the architect of a massive reorganization that upended Motorola's manufacturing model, transformed its product strategy and resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs.

The goal was to revitalize a moribund organization amid growing competition. In practice, it was a messy affair, marked by continual setbacks and revisions, in which success ultimately proved elusive and rendered Ruiz's legacy controversial. ...