Only the paranoid survive
Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel has become the world's largest chipmaker, the fifth-most-admired company in America, and the seventh-most-profitable company among the Fortune 500. You don't achieve rankings like these unless you have mastered a rare understanding of the art of business and an unusual way with its practice. Few CEOs can claim this level of consistent record-breaking success. Grove attributes much of this success to the philosophy and strategy he reveals in Only the Paranoid Survive - a book that is unique in leadership annals for offering a bold new business measure, and for taking the reader deep inside the workings of a major corporation. Grove's contribution to business thinking concerns a new way of measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads - the moment when massive change occurs and all bets are off. The success you had the day before is gone, destroyed by unforeseen changes that hit like a stage-six rapid. Grove calls such moments Strategic Inflection Points, and he has lived through several. When SIPs hit, all rules of business shift fast, furiously, and forever. SIPs can be set off by almost anything: mega-competition, an arcane change in regulations, or a seemingly modest change in technology. Yet in the watchful leader's hand, SIPs can be an ace. Managed right, a company can turn a SIP into a positive force to win in the marketplace and emerge stronger than ever.
Stats for nerds
30recommend
86mentions
74people
2007–2026years
41% recommend59% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you want to go even deeper, I recommend Andy Grove’s books “High output management” and “Only the paranoid survive”.
- Could we say this is the "Manhattan or Apollo 11 Project for Chips"? For its articulation.
BTW, about this topic, I always recall "A View To Kill" James Bond's (1985) movie [1]. The top hit in the soundtrack from Duran Duran [2] is also recommended and playing in radios even today. Seems like Intel passed the torch long time ago but don't forget to read the mantra book: "Only the Paranoid Survive" [3].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_View_to_a_Kill
[2] https://open.spotify.com/track/6I4snLrVOrJsLdd43isc27?si=7ba...
- The author missed the Fred Wilson's MBA Mondays Archive [1] which personally was a great resource in the quest for my "business success" (whatever it means). There is a more organized and illustrated edition here [2]. BTW, I always return to some articles such as "Commission Plans" for Sales [3].
Regarding books: - Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew Grove (Intel) [4]. It is always in my "pocket". It is real experience with pain points from a top CEO, not an academic exercise.
- Other books that are not focused on business but are more "epistemological". For example, "How Life Imitates Chess" by Garry Kasparov [5]. I don't know who created this title for the book though. Many autobiographies, in general, or good business biographies such as "Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire" [6].
[1] https://avc.com/category/mba-mondays/
[2] https://mba-mondays-illustrated.com/
[3] https://avc.com/2010/08/commission-plans/
[4] https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challen...
[5] https://www.amazon.com/How-Life-Imitates-Chess-Boardroom/dp/...
[6] https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Drive-Making-Microsoft-Empire/dp...
- Well it is true and there's a book which goes into the details, Andy Grove's "Only the Paranoid Survive", and it's a fantastic page turner.
- Hi, both "High Output Management" and "Only the Paranoid Survive" by Andrew S. Grove detail how he managed and succeeded through the radical changes in the industry. Highly recommended reads.
- It is always the time to read again the book "Only the Paranoid Survive" [1] where Andy Grove, CEO of Intel at the book time, has a specific chapter about RISC/CISC.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove#Only_the_Paranoid...
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