Overview
Andy Grove is a cofounder and chairman of the Intel Corporation,
which supplies over 90 percent of the microprocessors used in the
world’s computers. Under his guidance, the company switched from being a
supplier of memory chips in the early 1980s to the powerhouse builder
of computer “brains.” This decision made Intel one of the major players
in ushering in the Information Age that has transformed almost every
field of endeavor around the globe.
Personal Life
Andrew S. Grove was born Andras Grof in Budapest, Hungary, on
September 2, 1936. His father, George Grof, was a self-taught man who
owned a dairy business, and his mother, Maria Grof, was a bookkeeper. As
a child, Grove almost died from scarlet fever and suffered a middle-ear
infection which damaged his hearing, but he later was able to undergo
surgery to correct the problem. In 1944 during World War II, Grove’s
father was sent to a labor camp, where he endured typhoid fever and
pneumonia, while Grove and his mother obtained false papers and hid with
a Christian family. He had to remember a new name (Andras Malesevics)
and be careful to give it, instead of his real name, if asked.
Grove’s father survived the camp and the family was reunited.
However, post-war conditions in Europe were difficult. Communists took
over Hungary, food and fuel were scarce, and Grove was under scrutiny
for being Jewish and the son of a business owner. But he studied hard,
determined to make it to college. He joined a youth newspaper at age 14
and was passionate about journalism, but was cast out when one of his
relatives was imprisoned without a trial. Grove decided that writing was
too subjective and politically tainted, so he switched to the pursuit
of science.
Grove went on to college and excelled at chemistry. In 1956, however
the Soviet Union’s Red Army invaded Budapest to squash a brewing
revolution and prop up a puppet regime. Grove, as a university student,
was worried that he would be arrested, so he and a friend fled to
Austria. Because the Red Army was moving in the same direction, they
paid a smuggler to move them along the back trails to the border.
Grove later boarded a refugee ship bound for the United States with
only $20 in his pocket when he arrived in New York City. He changed his
name to Andrew Grove and lived with his aunt and uncle in Brooklyn.
Enrolling at the City College of New York, he studied engineering and
concentrated on learning English thoroughly—looking up unfamiliar words
each night in the dictionary. In 1960, only three years after arriving,
he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. Grove
went on to obtain his doctorate in chemical engineering at the
University of California at Berkeley, finishing in just three years.
Grove met his wife, Eva Kastan (also a Hungarian refugee), during a
summer job while they were both waiting tables at a resort. They married
on June 8, 1958, and have two daughters. Grove became a naturalized
American citizen in 1962. The five-foot, nine-inch Grove pulled through a
bout with prostate cancer in 1996 and stays fit. He works out each
morning and enjoys biking, skiing, jogging, kayaking, swimming, and
dancing; he also has maintained a lifelong passion for opera. In
addition to his duties at Intel, he teaches a popular business course at
Stanford University and is known for his nervous energy, his embrace of
change, and his relentless drive.
Grove has received numerous awards throughout his distinguished
career. Some of his honors include a medal from the American Institute
of Chemists (1960); two medals from the City College of New York (1980
and 1995); the Enterprise Award from the Professional Advertising
Association (1987); and the George Washington Award from the American
Hungarian Foundation (1990). In addition, in 1993 Grove was given the
Achievement Medal from the American Electronics Association and named
Executive of the Year by the University of Arizona. He was named a
Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994, and the following
year was awarded the Heinz Family Foundation Award for Technology and
the Economy and the John von Neumann medal from the American Hungarian
Association. Grove was presented the Statesman of the Year Award from
Harvard Business School in 1996, and he was
Time ‘s Man of the Year and
CEO Magazine ’s
CEO of the Year in 1997.
Career Details
Because Grove had been such a standout while pursuing his Ph.D., he
had many job offers upon his graduation in 1963. He was hired at
Fairchild Camera and Instrument, which would later be renamed Fairchild
Semiconductor, becoming assistant director of research and development
in 1967. There he worked with Robert Noyce, the inventor of the
integrated circuit, which was a breakthrough in computer chip design.
Gordon E. Moore was also on board as head of research and development.
At Fairchild, Grove developed a reputation for his research and
technical work as well as for his business skills of communication,
organization, and leadership. It was no surprise when he was asked to be
part of an exciting new venture.
In July of 1968, Grove, Noyce, and Moore founded Intel Corporation
(short for integrated electronics) in California’s Silicon Valley. The
company produced memory chips for the large mainframe computers of the
time. Grove was originally supposed to head up the engineering
department, but the small size of the firm made it necessary for him to
act as chief of operations as well. Workers often were at the office
until midnight, and Grove became known as a demanding, tough-minded
manager. Before surgery corrected his hearing problem, Grove was also
known to claim that his hearing aid failed him when he disliked the
subject of conversation, or he would take the device off altogether to
indicate that he was no longer in the mood to listen. He did not
tolerate tardiness, and once sent out a notice that employees were
required to work a full day on Christmas Eve. The “Scrooge memo,” as it
was known, caused hostility among workers, one of whom, according to
Current Biography, returned the memo with the comment, “May you eat yellow snow.”
Grove was promoted to company president in 1979. Despite his often
gruff tactics, employees respected Grove for his intellect,
problem-solving skills, and encouragement. He rejected special
treatment, working in the same eight-by-nine foot cubicle as the rest of
the company, taking lunch in the cafeteria, and insisting that people
call him Andy.
Newsmakers quoted a summary of his management style given in the
Los Angeles Times:
“He combines a professorial love of intellectual exchange with an
insistence on discipline and a take-no-prisoners attitude toward the
competition.” In addition to over 40 technical papers and a 1967
textbook called
Physics and the Technology of Semiconductor Devices, Grove in 1983 wrote
High Output Management, which has been translated into 11 languages. He also wrote
Only the Paranoid Survive in 1996.
Grove’s contribution to the growth of personal computers is enormous.
Originally Intel had focused on producing memory chips, but in the
early 1980s began to suffer at the hands of Japanese competitors. In
1985 Grove proposed that Intel switch its core business to
microprocessors and laid off 6,000 workers. It began making faster and
faster chips; after the early and slow 286 chips, it made the 386,
386SX, 486, and then the Pentium and Pentium II chips that were accepted
as the industry standard. The motto “Intel Inside” was noted on all
computers with its chips. Grove was named chief executive officer (
CEO) of Intel in 1987 and became chairman and
CEO in 1997.
Just over a decade after Grove became
CEO, company revenue had increased tenfold, to more than $25 billion. In May of 1998, he stepped down as
CEO, and company president Craig Barrett took the position, but Grove remained chairman. He told
Business Week,
“I was ready to change my routine. I’ll have more leeway in my
schedule.” He said he planned to investigate the future of networking,
as well as the use of computers in business, marketing, information, and
entertainment.
Social and Economic Impact
Almost every aspect of modern life has been affected by computer
technology. Grove, as head of the Intel Corporation, has played an
integral role in the resulting massive restructuring of the global
economy and daily lives in both developed and developing countries.
Chronology: Andrew S. Grove
1936: Born.
1956: Moved to United States from Hungary.
1963: Received Ph.D. in chemical engineering.
1967: Became assistant director of research and development at Fairchild Semiconductor.
1968: Helped found Intel.
1983: Wrote
High Output Management.
1987: Became
CEO of Intel.
1997: Became chairman and
CEO of Intel.
1997: Named
Time ’s Man of the Year.
1998: Stepped down as
CEO of Intel; continued as chairman.
In the 1960s, some businesses used mainframe computers, which often
took up an entire room or more and operated on binary punch cards.
Today, it is difficult to find any business that does not use at least
one computer for some aspect of its operations, and it is impossible to
precisely measure the immense boost in productivity. What used to take
days, such as searching for a piece of research, may now take minutes or
seconds. Home lives are different as well. In 1997 Grove estimated in
Billboard,
“There are probably 40 to 60 million multimedia computers in people’s
homes. And the number is growing by 25 to 30 million a year.” And the
technology has become more and more powerful. In the early days of
personal computers in the 1980s, simple orange or blue text on a dark
screen was an amazing feat. During the next decade, machines were able
to store and play music, three-dimensional graphics, and fully animated
video images. Running the World Wide Web and e-mail are now a must, and
even home users can print out photo-quality full-color pictures.
Alhough in 1994 Intel came under heavy fire when it was discovered
that its Pentium chip had a bug that caused some mathematical
calculations to fail, the company quickly recovered. In March of 1997
David S. Jackson reported in
Time, “Intel
CEO
Andy Grove is already providing computer chips for 80 percent of the
world’s personal computers. This year he’s aiming for the remaining 20
percent.” Sure enough, by April of 1998,
U.S. News & World Report claimed that Intel was up to 90 percent of the market share. However, Intel began suffering some setbacks. In June of 1998 the
FTC
began pursuing possible antitrust actions against Intel, while software
giant Microsoft was in the midst of a government antitrust suit as
well. Since the two firms so thoroughly dominated the computer industry,
they were often referred to collectively as “Wintel.” Also, due to a
lag in demand for new computers, Intel announced in April of 1998 that
it would lay off 3,000 workers. If Grove’s tough-as-nails attitude
remains a part of Intel, it will be prepared to weather the economic and
legal bumps and remain a major force in the technological and economic
future, continuing to produce the tiny chips that change lives.
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