Only the Paranoid Survive

Zusatztext "Probably the best book on business written by a business person since Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors ." -- Forbes "This terrific book is dangerous...It will make people think." --Peter Drucker "This book is about one super-important concept. You must learn about Strategic Inflection Points! because sooner or later you are going to live through one." --Steve Jobs! CEO! Pixar Animation Studios "Andy explains--with modesty that cannot conceal his brilliance! how he has led Intel through changes and challenges that many companies could not cope with...The country will benefit from his vision." --Reed Hundt! Chairman! Federal Communications Commission Informationen zum Autor Andrew Grove Klappentext Andy Grove, founder and former CEO of Intel shares his strategy for success as he takes the reader deep inside the workings of a major company in Only the Paranoid Survive . Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel became the world's largest chip maker and one of the most admired companies in the world. In Only the Paranoid Survive , Grove reveals his strategy for measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads--when massive change occurs and a company must, virtually overnight, adapt or fall by the wayside--in a new way. Grove calls such a moment a Strategic Inflection Point, which can be set off by almost anything: mega-competition, a change in regulations, or a seemingly modest change in technology. When a Strategic Inflection Point hits, the ordinary rules of business go out the window. Yet, managed right, a Strategic Inflection Point can be an opportunity to win in the marketplace and emerge stronger than ever. Grove underscores his message by examining his own record of success and failure, including how he navigated the events of the Pentium flaw, which threatened Intel's reputation in 1994, and how he has dealt with the explosions in growth of the Internet. The work of a lifetime, Only the Paranoid Survive is a classic of managerial and leadership skills.I'm often credited with the motto, "Only the paranoid survive." I have no idea when I first said this, but the fact remains that, when it comes to business, I believe in the value of paranoia. 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 left. I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people's attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management. The things I tend to be paranoid about vary. I worry about products getting screwed up, and I worry about products getting introduced prematurely. I worry about factories not performing well, and I worry about having too many factories. I worry about hiring the right people, and I worry about morale slacking off. And, of course, I worry about competitors. I worry about other people figuring out how to do what we do better or cheaper, and displacing us with our customers. But these worries pale in comparison to how I feel about what I call strategic inflection points. I'll describe what a strategic inflection point is a bit later in this book. For now, let me just say that a strategic inflection point is a time in the life of a 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. Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change. They can be caused by competitors but they are more than just competition. They are scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting new technology or fighting the competi...

"Probably the best book on business written by a business person since
Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors."
--Forbes

"This terrific book is dangerous...It will make people think."
--Peter Drucker

"This book is about one super-important concept. You must learn about Strategic Inflection Points, because sooner or later you are going to live through one."
--Steve Jobs, CEO, Pixar Animation Studios

"Andy explains--with modesty that cannot conceal his brilliance, how he has led Intel through changes and challenges that many companies could not cope with...The country will benefit from his vision."
--Reed Hundt, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

Autorentext

Andrew Grove

Klappentext

Andy Grove, founder and former CEO of Intel shares his strategy for success as he takes the reader deep inside the workings of a major company in Only the Paranoid Survive.

Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel became the world's largest chip maker and one of the most admired companies in the world. In Only the Paranoid Survive, Grove reveals his strategy for measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads--when massive change occurs and a company must, virtually overnight, adapt or fall by the wayside--in a new way.

Grove calls such a moment a Strategic Inflection Point, which can be set off by almost anything: mega-competition, a change in regulations, or a seemingly modest change in technology. When a Strategic Inflection Point hits, the ordinary rules of business go out the window. Yet, managed right, a Strategic Inflection Point can be an opportunity to win in the marketplace and emerge stronger than ever.

Grove underscores his message by examining his own record of success and failure, including how he navigated the events of the Pentium flaw, which threatened Intel's reputation in 1994, and how he has dealt with the explosions in growth of the Internet. The work of a lifetime, Only the Paranoid Survive is a classic of managerial and leadership skills.

Leseprobe
I'm often credited with the motto, "Only the paranoid survive." I have no idea when I first said this, but the fact remains that, when it comes to business, I believe in the value of paranoia.  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 left.  I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people's attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management.

The things I tend to be paranoid about vary.  I worry about products getting screwed up, and I worry about products getting introduced prematurely.  I worry about factories not performing well, and I worry about having too many factories.  I worry about hiring the right people, and I worry about morale slacking off.

And, of course, I worry about competitors. I worry about other people figuring out how to do what we do better or cheaper, and displacing us with our customers.

But these worries pale in comparison to how I feel about what I call strategic inflection points.

I'll describe what a strategic inflection point is a bit later in this book. For now, let me just say that a strategic inflection point is a time in the life of a 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.

Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change.  They can be caused by competitors but they are more than just competition.  They are scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting new technology or fighting the competition as you used to may be insufficient.  They build up force so insidiously that you may have a hard time even putting a finger on what has c…