Andrew S. Grove
Andrew Stephen ("Andy") Grove (born 2 September 1936), is a Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer, and author. He is a science pioneer in the semiconductor industry. He escaped from Communist-controlled Hungary at the age of 20 and moved to the United States where he finished his education. He later became CEO of Intel Corporation and helped transform the company into the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductors.
In 1968, As a result of his work at Intel, and from his books and professional articles, Grove had a considerable influence on the management of modern electronics manufacturing industries worldwide. He has been called the "guy who drove the growth phase" of Silicon Valley.Steve Jobs, when he was considering returning to be Apple's CEO, called Grove, who was someone he "idolized," for his personal advice. One source notes that by his accomplishments at Intel alone, he "merits a place alongside the great business leaders of the 20th century."
“if you're wrong, you will die. But most companies don't die because they are wrong; most die because they don't commit themselves. They fritter away their valuable resources while attempting to make a decision. The greatest danger is in Standing still”
“strategic changes doesn't just start at the top. It starts with your calender”
“The implication was that either the people in the room needed to change their areas of knowledge and expertise or people themselves needed to be changed”
“How can you motivate yourself to continue to follow a leader when he appears to be going around in circles?”
“When people in the company start asking questions like @But how can we say "X" when we do "Y"? more than anything else this is a tip-off that a strategic inflection point may very well be in the making”
“People in the trenches are usually in touch with impending changes early”
“While the story is unique to Intel, the lessons, I believe, are universal”
“The person who is the star of previous era is often the last one to adapt to change, the last one to yield to logic of a strategic inflection point and tends to fall harder than most.”
“Businesses fail either because they leave their customers or because their customer leave them !”
“It's harder to be the best of class in several fields than in just one”
“Compaqs, Dells and Novells each of which emerged from practically nothing to become major corporations. What's the common among these companies is that they all instinctively followed the rules for success in a horizontal industry.”
“if you base your business on the volume leader, you will be going after a larger business yourself”
“In fact , we might as well say "proprietary", which ,in fact, was the byword of the old computer industry.”
“The strategic inflection point is the time to wake up an listen”
“As we throw ourselves into raw actions, our senses and instincts will rapidly be honed again”
“The Lesson is, we all need to expose ourselves to the winds of change”
“The ability to recognize that the winds have shifted and to take appropriate action before you wreck your boat in crucial to the future of an enterprise”
“In Technology, whatever can be done will be done”
“In short, strategic inflection points are about fundamental change in any business, technological or not”
“You can be the subject of a strategic inflection point but you can also be the cause of one”
“a strategic inflection point is a time in the life of business when its fundamentals are about to change. that change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end”
“Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more Successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing”
“Selectivity - the determination to choose what we will attempt to getdone and what we won't - is the only way out of the panic thatexcessive demands on our time can create.”