Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company

Great read on the history of Intel. The insights into the transition from vertical to horizontal industry are interesting, although his assessment of Apple seems to have been proven wrong in the end.

Grove achieves the rare feat of tying grand strategic principles into practical, understandable examples. The greatest testament to this book is that it is just as significant in a post-Bubble world as when it was written in 1996. An outstanding example of strategy from a practitioners' perspective.

Not as applicable if you aren't a CEO or at least a middle manager, but the ending chapter about career was helpful. Also seeing the author's predictions about the Internet and how accurate he ended up being was very cool.

A magnificent book about strategic analysis and action in fast changing environments. There are lots of ways to fail (hence the paranoia) which he discusses in a straightforward way. He emphasises the vital importance of information gathering and the need for an adaptive organization to hold the contradictory abilities of fluidity (in adaption phases) and rigidity (in implementaion phases).

This was an interesting book telling of the rise of Intel and how Intel was able to survive in a very fast-moving industry.

The book was written in 1996. Many business books can quickly date themselves. However, Grove's analysis of where the internet was going proves to be quite accurate. I thought that is was no wonder he did so well guiding Intel.

Interesting with hindsight as a historical document. Not a lot of substance outside of that. The summary is probably better and more condensed reading.

This book provides an interesting look into the rise of Intel up until 1996. Obviously a lot has changed since but the lessons that Andrw Grove brings to light still remain, mostly, valid. If you're wanting to learn a little bit about how Intel got to be where it is today and the business decisions behind it, this is a good book to start with. The "management speak" can get a bit heavy at times though but fortunately it's a short book.

From the back cover - Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel has become the world's largest computer chipmaker, the 5th most admired company in America, and the 7th most profitable among Fortune 500.

Grove attributes his success to the philosophy and strategy he has learned the hard way as he has steered show more Intel through a series of potential major disasters he calls strategic inflection points (SIPs) - the moments in any business when massive change occurs. show less