Word: intel
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...merits of that no-b.s. culture became clear as the world around Intel began to crack. Starting in 1976, the firm sailed into one iceberg after another: weak demand for memory chips, factory problems, ruthless Japanese "dumping." In 1981, when Intel steamed into yet another exhausting chip slowdown, Grove decided that instead of laying off employees he'd order Intel's staff to work 25% harder--two hours a day, every day, for free. The "125% solution" turned Santa Clara into a sweatshop (a few particularly dyspeptic engineers took to wearing sweatbands to highlight the point), but Grove...
...biggest iceberg came in 1994, when Intel released millions of flawed Pentium chips. The problem was small, an internal routing glitch that caused a mathematical error. Intel took solace from the fact that this occurred so infrequently that most users could leave their PCs on for years without running into a problem. Intel's hyper-rational, Grove-trained engineers told concerned callers not to worry unless they were planning to sweat some advanced astrophysics problems that weekend. The callers hung up and dialed CNN. And the New York Times. And the Wall Street Journal. Grove, who was on a Christmas...
After a weekend conferring with his top advisers, Grove decided to switch courses, and on Monday, with typical Intel discipline, he turned the company around. By the middle of the next week, Intel had agreed to spend $475 million to replace Pentiums. The company even offered in-home service. It was, says Grove, "a difficult education." It also turned, perhaps, into a bonanza. Intel's name became better known than ever. And once the firm agreed to replace any chips, customers began to appreciate its commitment to getting things right...
...real message was simpler: confronted with another disaster, Intel had survived. Again. It was as if Grove's personality and the characteristics that had served him best over the years--courage in the face of fear, passion in the face of discomfort--had been transmitted like tiny electrons into the substrate of Intel's tens of thousands of employees. Grove had saved the chip. Next it was time to save himself...
...Andy Grove is so smart and technology companies so hot, why are Intel and just about every other tech stock falling off a cliff? Wasn't it only four months ago that our Man of the Year's company proudly sported a $100 stock? Now it's at about $70. Click on that, new-era geeks. The stock market may be chaotic and irrational from day to day, but over longer periods it's a pretty fair measuring stick for what's coming. The message here is that no boom lasts forever, and the one that Grove and tech...