the old AMD (3-4 years ago) was successful because of it's great engineering talent and the sheer strength of will and pride the teams took in solving problems together to make things happen. Things got done because terrific people made it happen.
Unfortunately, due to the decline in the PC market, and difficulty in implementing the strategy to grow in other segments, continual layoffs have drained the company of many of it's top engineers and fantastic "boots on the ground" managers, while insulating much of it's "behind the front lines" senior management, who continue to jockey for position/power/salary.
Senior managers are able to get promoted by showing that they are aggressive in their goals and being able to beat up engineering and other teams, despite not having good decisions and strategy based on logic and analysis. Somehow showing aggressiveness and a willingness to "punish" others and teams who don't deliver, you are seen as good management material vs. actually having innovative ideas and fostering collaboration and growth and driving mutual success. It's sort of an old school way of thinking and doing business...where it's best to do what your told and not challenge those above you, and prove your worth/loyalty by making those below you do what your boss wants.
Corporate culture keeps asking for engineers/teams to speak up, ask questions, come up with more ideas...while the real, internal culture silently tells you, you better stay quiet and just do what you're told. It's like the executive team read about what does Google look like, and then focused on AMD "looking" like that too, without actually changing the culture from within...just merely trying to look like that from the outside.
AMD reminds me of a place, where perhaps a 100 years ago, kerosene managers were fighting to climb the corporate ladder at their company, after Edison invented the lightbulb. They were so focused on their own self interest and their political positions internally, that they lost sight of the real danger, and eventually became extinct. For AMD there's not much time given the cash balance and burn rate, and the increased competition who have much larger budgets and engineering talent.
