A Tribute to Andy Grove

It can be stated that almost every person alive today has been touched by the contribution of this great American. His company, INTEL, which he co-founded and was CEO, was instrumental in the growth and success of the personal computer business. The IBM PC, from its inception in 1982, has at its core the INTEL processor or CPU. Combined with the software of Bill Gates, and Microsoft, became the most successful product for consumers.

- July 2019

Andy was named Man of the Year in 1997. He was the CEO of the INTEL Corp.

One of his legacy is the Grove School of Engineering at CCNY. Here is what he said when he donated $26 million to the school in 2005, his alma mater.

"This institution is a veritable American-dream machine. I hope to help keep it that way."

This is the embodiment of the spirit of giving back, paying forward and making a difference.

Andy Grove was not only a great businessman, he was a philosopher. Here are a few quotes from his many words of wisdom.

In a Harvard Business Review survey, only 55% of middle managers can name one of their company’s top five priorities. When the leaders charged with explaining strategy to their people are given five chances to list their company’s strategic objectives, nearly half fail to get one right. Andrew Grove first wrote about Objectives and Key Results (OKR) in his book High Output Management (1983) stating “A successful MBO system needs only to answer two questions:

Where do I want to go? How will I pace myself to see if I’m getting there?”

Grove was actually referring to OKR, when he referenced MBO (Management By Objectives) in his book. That said, knowing where you want to go will provide the Objective. How you will pace yourself to see if you are getting there gives you milestones, or Key Results.

This is still very relevant today. Good management practices are timeless.

Andy Grove is one of my heros. He is a role model for all future graduates of our beloved school. His impact on our society is tremendous.

In the tradition of Townsend Harris and Adolph Lewisohn, Andy Grove is the man that helped CCNY to be one of the top Engineering school in the country.

In this 100 anniversary of the engineering school, we honor and pay our respect and offer our gratitude to Andy Grove. God bless you. May you smile down upon us from where you sit in heaven.

Andy Grove wrote several books on management. The best is the “Only the Paranoid Survive” book published in 1996. His wisdom and knowledge and teachings are timeless. I often wonder what if IBM executives had adopted some of this thinking. Would IBM be in the sad state that it found itself in 2019?

He talks about these major inflection points. IBM has certainly been through some. One particular was the computer servers replacing mainframe computers. The other was its battle with Microsoft in the Operating System space. The failure to deal with Bill Gates and Windows replacing OS/2 as the premier OS for desktop and PC. The internet and search engine such as Google and browsers such as Internet Explorer were also key to the downfall of the mighty IBM.

This book contains some basic principles that is not new. In fact, IBM chairman and founder Thomas J. Watson said some of the same things a generation ago. One particular quote that I remembered was “walked the halls”. He encouraged all senior managers to walk the halls of the factory floor and speak to the workers on the line. That is more valuable then attend meetings after meetings. The other motto was “THINK”.

It is funny how life repeats and we discover something or rather rediscover something that was timeless.