There’s an implicit assumption in the article that, because Gelsinger was technically competent, he was going to be a great CEO of given enough time.
Personally, I’ve heard nothing but bad things from Intel during Gelsinger’s tenure. He had some lofty ideas, but he clearly wasn’t executing well with Intel’s bread and butter business.
Also, I’m not sure good engineers always make good managers. Management is all about delegation. The skillset is really about identifying talent and trusting them to do things competently so you don’t have to worry about the details. That’s pretty much the antithesis of engineering, where you like thinking through the specific details of how things will work. And of course, engineering is only one part of brining products to market.
Personally, I’ve heard nothing but bad things from Intel during Gelsinger’s tenure. He had some lofty ideas, but he clearly wasn’t executing well with Intel’s bread and butter business.
Also, I’m not sure good engineers always make good managers. Management is all about delegation. The skillset is really about identifying talent and trusting them to do things competently so you don’t have to worry about the details. That’s pretty much the antithesis of engineering, where you like thinking through the specific details of how things will work. And of course, engineering is only one part of brining products to market.