Steve Jobs' ship pointing in the right direction joke

Anyone understands it?

Never heard that one before.

Deserved a laugh if you were nearby.

I think he's saying that his position in his company has less to do with the company's success and more about its direction.

He was quoting his predecessor who gave that answer when he was asked about the current state of Apple, which went into massive decline after Jobs was forced out and Amelio took over.

Amelio answered that Apple is a ship with a hole in the bottom leaking water and my job is to....


You would expect him to say 'plug the hole', but instead he says 'point it in the right direction' which makes absolutely no sense given his setup to the metaphor. How would pointing a ship in any given direction help to fix a hole in the bottom which is causing it to sink?

The reason it's so funny is because it's a classic example of how inept Amelio was as CEO, that even when giving some clever metaphor about how he's going to save the company he basically says he's going to do completely the wrong thing and end up sinking the ship/tanking the company.

To me it seems like he's saying that he felt they where always going to be losing money, and his job was to make sure the path they followed would be the one that lost them the least amount.

@Ninja-Hippo: Just looked that quote up. That's hilarious. I'd like to think everyone in that room, including Bill Gates, got the joke.

@Ninja-Hippo: Loved your reply man. I knew the context of the joke long time ago, but really never understood it until now. Thanks!