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.

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

"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 his 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 show more 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 leaders' 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.
To achieve that level of mastery over change, you must know its properties inside and out. Grove addresses questions such as these: What are the stages of these tidal waves? What sources do you turn to in order to foresee dangers before trouble announces itself? When threats abound, how do you deal with your emotions, your calendar, your career -- as well as with your most loyal managers and customers, who may cling to tradition?
No stranger to risk, Grove examines his own record of success and failure, including the drama of how he navigated the events of the Pentium flaw, which threatened Intel in a major way, and how he is dealing with the SIP brought on by the Internet. The work of a lifetime of reflection, Only The Paranoid Survive is a contemporary classic of leadership skills." show less

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.