Thomas Rattigan, short-lived Commodore CEO

Summary

On April 23, 1987, Thomas Rattigan drove to work just as he would any other day. But when he arrived at Commodore’s office building in suburban Philadelphia that morning, company guards informed him he’d been fired. They escorted him from the premises, not even giving him a chance to gather his family photos from his desk. It sounded like a cruel April Fool’s joke, but it wasn’t April Fool’s Day. That was the day Commodore promoted him, on April Fool’s Day 1986.Rattigan ended up having the last laugh, although it took a few years.A former Pepsi executiveThomas Rattigan lasted one year and 22 days as Commodore CEO. He didn’t do a bad job. Irving Gould just didn’t like him. He sued Commodore and won.Thomas John Rattigan, born July 20, 1937, in Boston, was Commodore’s second CEO after Jack Tramiel, replacing the enigmatic yet forgettable Marshall Smith.Rattigan earned a Bachelor of Science at Boston College in 1960 and an Master of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in 1962. He joined PepsiCo in 1970 where he rose to the position of CEO of PepsiCo International in 1982.Apple Computer had hired Pepsi president John Sculley in 1983. So when Commodore needed a new executive, it copied Apple and hired Rattigan as COO in April 1985, intending to prepare him to become the next CEO. His salary was $600,000.Thomas Rattigan’s tenure at CommodoreOn April 1, 1986, Rattigan took over as CEO from Smith. He continued the downsizing Smith had initiated, cut unprofitable product lines and initiated the development of two more models of Commodore’s flagship Amiga 1000 computer, the Amiga 500 and 2000. He cut out middle management and cut production, initiating three separate rounds of layoffs, then he increased advertising. As demand increased, he started hiring assembly line workers again. Rattigan described company operations as hand to mouth, producing Commodore 64 and 128 computers about as quickly as he could sell them.He correctly didn’t see the Amiga as a busines...