Andy Grove
1936 – 2016

One of the great business leaders of the 20th century; the man who transformed Intel into one of the most profitable technology companies ever.

RADAR THINKER

Ranked #41 in 2005.

Previous positions:

#26 (2003), #24 (2001).

FAST FACT ​

Time Person of the Year 1997. 

FAST FACT​

ChiefExecutive CEO of the Year 1997. 

Ideas

One of Grove’s key contributions to business thinking is his “only the paranoid survive” management philosophy. In his book of the same name, he argues that a company in pursuit of a stronger competitive advantage never rests and coined the term strategic inflection point, describing it as “an event that changes the way we think and act” – the moment when a business must adapt quickly to massive change, or fail. In the mid-1980s, Grove gambled Intel on microprocessors over memory chips, at a time when the PC industry was in its infancy.

Named “the father of OKR (Objectives and Key Results)” by John Doerr in 2018, a management methodology that became central to the culture at Google, Grove also helped create the Intel Architecture Laboratory, realising the importance innovation and developing software in time to take advantage of the new microprocessors.

Bio

Growing up as a Jew in Nazi-occupied Hungary, Grove learnt the art of survival early. He fled to America after the 1956 Hungarian uprising, gaining a PhD from the University of Berkeley, California. In 1968, he joined Intel, on its day of incorporation. Credited with rescuing Intel by switching its focus from memory chips to microprocessors, Grove became the company president in 1979, CEO in 1987 and chairman in 1997. He is the recipient of many accolades including IndustryWeek Technology Leader of the Year 1997 and Most Influential Business Person of the Last 25 Years by Wharton School of Business in 2004. 
 

Content

Physics and Technology of Semiconductor Devices (Wiley, 1967); High Output Management (Random House, 1983); One on One with Andy Grove (Penguin Putnam, 1988); Only the Paranoid Survive (Doubleday, 1996); Strategy is Destiny: How Strategy-Making Shapes a Company’s Future (with Robert A Burgelman, New York Free Press, 2001); Strategic Dynamics: Concepts and Cases (with Robert A Burgelman and Philip E Meza, McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2005).

NATIONALITY: Hungarian-American

Media picks

Verdict

“Andy made the impossible happen, time and again, and inspired generations of technologists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.”

Stuart Crainer & Des Dearlove, Thinkers50

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