Andrew Grove

A Hungarian immigrant who became the CEO of Intel and one of the best leaders in his generation. During Grove’s era Intel’s market cap increased from $4 billion to $197 billion

Why listen to Andrew Grove ?

Grove was a pioneer in management thinking and implementation. John Doerr calls him the “Father of OKRs” (Objectives and Key Results, a management methodology). His track record at Intel suggests that his methods and thinking were sound.

What to learn from Andrew Grove ?

As a leader it makes sense to read Grove’s classic book High Output Management. Simple, yet fundamental perspectives on how leadership and management should be done. A key thought to start with – a manager’s output is not just his output but his organisation’s output. Thus, it does not make sense for a manager to optimize just for his own output but that of his organisation.

Ideas / Quotes

“The key result has to be measurable. But at the end you can look, and without any arguments: Did I do that or did I not do it? Yes? No? Simple. No judgments in it.”

“A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. Focus has to change. Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation.”

Resources

High Output Management at Amazon