Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 509 Grove's Ambition
……

"This is the decision of the meeting I attended just now." Andy Grove subconsciously touched his ear while explaining to Tang Huan.

When he was four years old, scarlet fever broke out in Budapest, Hungary, and Andy Grove was also infected. Although he did not die, he also suffered hearing loss and had to rely on hearing aids on weekdays.

He was afraid that Tang Huan would speak too fast in his anger and miss important information.

"Intel's morality is simply broken." Tang Huan shook his head with a sarcastic smile on his face.

Although he was unavoidably annoyed, it was not to the point of losing his composure like a thunderbolt. Isn't this the way to fight in the game in Shang Hai?

Moreover, the tricks released by IBM can be regarded as an upright conspiracy, and it has not lost the airs of the blue giant.

Besides, Tang Huan had already prepared a backup plan, and he would never put all his eggs in one basket.

Moreover, this kind of competition, like the group army battle on the plain battlefield, is open and closed, very enjoyable, and brings a different kind of excitement to the world's richest man.

However, Tang Huan was quite disdainful of Intel, a soft-spoken wallflower who just followed the wind, but he felt relieved after thinking about it.

Intel is currently just a successful but mediocre semiconductor supplier, and it has no energy to consolidate its position in the industry by creating a myth.

Silicon Valley where elites gather, heroes gather together, and heroes emerge in large numbers, but there are very few people who can obtain wealth, prestige, and achievements at the same time, and reach the state of the Trinity Dzogchen. Not even Tang Huan, his wealth and prestige are enough. But there is still an obvious shortcoming in terms of achievement.

If one had to be singled out to meet such criteria, it would be Robert Noyce, who has achieved excellence in both science and business.

In 1966, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce were awarded the Ballantine Medal by the Franklin Institute at the same time, the most coveted American scientific and technological personnel.

Jack Kilby is known as the "inventor of the first integrated circuit", while Robert Noyce is known as the person who "proposed the theory of integrated circuits suitable for industrial production."

In 1969, the U.S. federal court finally legally recognized the integrated circuit as a "simultaneous invention."

In addition to this scientific achievement, Robert Noyce also participated in the creation of two companies with very special status in Silicon Valley, namely Fairchild, the cradle of the semiconductor industry, and Intel, which led the successful industrialization of semiconductor memory.

In terms of wealth, Robert Noyce's net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars is certainly not as good as Tang Huan's tens of billions of dollars, but in terms of reputation and achievements, Robert Noyce has a much deeper background than Tang Huan.

It is a pity that the golden body of Robert Noyce, the "saint", was broken by the extramarital affair scandal that he fell into as a man with 1970 flowers in the early 41s.

During the divorce, the California court ruled that Robert Noyce's huge property should be divided into half of his ex-wife. The negative impact on Intel can be imagined. Robert Noyce quickly passed on Gordon Moore. relation.

Just because Robert Noyce's achievements are too brilliant, and based on the unspoken social and ecological rules that big people will be tolerated as informal even if their personal morals are bad, relevant parties have carried out selective amnesia.

Since Intel at this stage cannot simply rely on the founder's personal charm to bless itself with a godhead, it is not surprising that it is forced to make a living and be sent by others.

Andy Grove, of course, knows his family better. He pretended not to hear Tang Huan's sarcasm, and explained frankly: "IBM owns 20.00% of Intel's shares, so some decisions seem unbelievable. But it actually makes sense.”

"Really?" Tang Huan laughed meaningfully, "But why do you always issue such offending notices, instead of Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore? Could it be that they are the only ones who care about reputation? , but you don't care?"

"Of course this kind of official work is done by me." Andy Grove was a little confused in dealing with Tang Huan's heart-wrenching words to sow discord, because he was also complaining in his heart, "What the hell is this?" What’s going on!”
In fact, Andy Grove has a long history of scapegoating in the workplace.

After fleeing to the United States from Hungary in the 1950s, Andy Grove was deeply attracted by the United States of the Eisenhower era, but it was not so easy to integrate into the mainstream American society.

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Paramount boss Charles Bludorn who died this year, Andy Grove's unique Hungarian English accent often attracts ridicule from the outside world.

It can be said that under the pressure of "hungry" survival, Andy Grove gradually obtained his bachelor's degree and doctorate, thus gaining a pass to enter mainstream American society.

After entering Fairchild Semiconductor, Andy Grove's main task was to develop product prototypes and establish production processes.As a process developer, he has to pick out those unsafe designs and prototype products that seem to be impossible to reproduce.

During this period, Andy Grove was completely unknown. Only when the R&D department could not produce actual products and investigated the reasons, others would notice him and become the target of venting their anger.

After such repeated training, Andy Grove's psychological quality of taking the blame has naturally grown extremely strong.

Tang Huan saw that Andy Grove was happy with the task of taking the blame, so he changed the topic and said, "I heard that there are a lot of criticisms about your management style within Intel. Don't you feel like you're being blamed on both sides?"

"There is no such thing." Andy Grove blushed immediately and denied it thickly.

After Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel, they turned Andy Grove into the third employee, which is definitely a treasure.

Even in 1968, Andy Grove had not completed his goal of transforming himself into a standard American.

The incomprehensible English accent, a pair of hearing aids on the head... It looks clumsy and clumsy, and it can be judged as a "product made in Eastern Europe" at first glance.

In order to survive in the workplace, Andy Grove not only has the same enthusiasm for work as a Russian miner, but also has an increasingly persistent and tough style.

Robert Noyce is Intel's diplomat and industry hero, and Gordon Moore is a genius in Intel's technology research. Management ability and persistent and rigorous work style.

Hit when you need to fight, and scold when you need to scold. This is the management principle that any large company will adopt. Andy Grove can just play the role of this black-faced hardliner.

When the world is peaceful, Andy Grove gives people the impression that he is more annoying, but when the world is in chaos, he can show his value to the entire company.

For example, in the current semiconductor war between Japan and the United States, in order to deal with the difficulties encountered by Intel, Andy Grove launched the "1982% solution" in 125, which required employees to exert higher efficiency in order to defeat the aggressive Japanese. .

The famous "late registration form" started at this time. The company stipulated that employees had to work 10 hours a day, and all those who came to work after 8:10 in the morning had to sign their names.

A reporter from the "New York Times" came here to interview and saw that Andy Grove had also signed his name that morning.

It is undeniable that the "125% solution" made Intel a sweatshop, so some engineers vented their dissatisfaction by tying cloth strips around their heads.

"Everyone lives on an acre of land in Silicon Valley. There are some things that can't be denied. Otherwise, why would Intel's chief scientist, Ted Hoff, leave Intel and go to Atari?" Tang Huan said unhurriedly talking.

Seeing Tang Huan bring up this example, Andy Grove was suddenly speechless, because the two important contributors to the successful development of Intel 4004 - Ted Hoff and Federico Fagin, left Intel successively. Go, it does have something to do with him.

At the beginning, Federico Fagin was dissatisfied with Andy Grove's one-size-fits-all authoritarian style of management, and his patent was registered by the department head in the name of Intel Corporation, so he submitted his resignation and left angrily.

After Andy Grove's persuasion failed, he became angry and yelled at Federico Feigin, "If you leave Intel, what else can you do? You will not leave any inheritance to your children, and your name will be If people forget, you will achieve nothing.”

As a result, Federico Feigin turned around and founded Zilog Company, which developed the Z8, the king of performance among 80-bit microprocessors. It defeated the instruction-compatible Intel 8080 and was unable to fight back. It almost killed Andy. Grover's face was swollen.

Ted Hoff has been at ease at Intel, and in 1980 was appointed to the company's highest technical position - chief scientist.But he finally chose to leave Intel last year and switch to Atari.

It is a pity that Atari was severely injured by the collapse of the North American home video game market, and it was precarious, and it could no longer continue to invest resources in the field of personal computers.

When Tang Huan was helping Steve Ross deal with Atari, which was a deadlock for Warner, he recruited Ted Hoff, who was useless, into Zheru R&D without taking any legal risks and moral accusations. center.

Tang Huan cited this example mainly to sow discord between Andy Grove and other high-level Intel executives, so he did not mention Ted Hoff's current whereabouts to avoid counterproductive effects.

There is no doubt that the departure of Ted Hoff and Federico Fagin is the biggest negation of Andy Grove's management style, and Andy Grove can only mutter to himself to find a way for himself, " Intel is a memory company, and they have a different vision for the development of processors, but they can't implement it within the company's structure, so of course they had to choose to leave."

Tang Huan smiled slightly, and didn't point out Andy Grove's excuse for making himself a step up. He followed the other party's words and said, "I agree with you. The memory business is already a weak point for Intel. The processor business is worthless. That's the future of Intel."

Upon hearing this, Andy Grove couldn't help but perked up, "I hope this incident will not affect the cooperation with Intel iAPX 432."

"Don't worry, I can still keep my word and I will try my best to help Intel iAPX 432 optimize the Ada language compiler." Tang Huan snorted.

It is true that Andy Grove is a tyrant within Intel, but in front of Tang Huan, he can only obediently listen to cynicism.

"Since the two sides are working together, I hope that Intel will send two people to participate." Tang Huan said to himself, "Their names are Craig Barrett and Paul Otellini."

Andy Grove recalled the information of the two people in his mind, and asked suspiciously, "Why did you choose them?"

"During normal business dealings, my subordinates speak highly of Craig Barrett and Paul Otellini. In addition, they are both from San Francisco. One has a technical background and the other has an operational background. They are highly complementary, and they can cooperate well. Be tacit."

Tang Huan explained calmly, but sneered in his heart. In order to make Intel more obedient, I don't mind helping to train the fourth and fifth CEOs.

But this is only a long-term prospect. In order to teach Intel a lesson, it will continue to destroy its internal power structure.

"Andy, do you think Charles Simeone is doing well with me?" Tang Huan intentionally mentioned Andy Grove's Hungarian fellow in Silicon Valley.

"Sure." Andy Grove said enviously: "He has only left PARC for a few years, and now he has a net worth of tens of millions of dollars. He is a formidable young man."

"What about you? You are a scapegoat in Intel, playing a bad face, and the processor business that you attach great importance to is obviously the best choice for Intel to get out of the predicament, but you don't get the support of the board of directors?" Tang Huan asked with a smile: "Especially you Intel's '125% solution' has caused complaints within Intel, but it will not help resist the attack of Japanese memory manufacturers at all, it is nothing more than lingering for a while."

Seeing Tang Huan always provoking himself so unceremoniously, Andy Grove finally couldn't help it, and asked with a sullen face: "Since Tang is so concerned about Intel's internal affairs, then you can give me a suggestion."

"It's very simple. By developing the processor business, you can achieve your dream of making great achievements." Tang Huan emphasized, "The processor business is the achievement of Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. Nothing to do. What the two of them are thinking at the moment may not be in your interest, and the same is true for Intel."

Tang Huantu's words made Andy Grove's face change immediately, and his heart began to be overwhelmed.

After Andy Grove regained his composure, Tang Huan asked casually, "By the way, who was present at your meeting just now?"

Andy Grove hesitated for a moment, and finally replied: "In addition to Arthur Locke, the major shareholder, there is also Don Estridge of IBM."

"Arthur Locke?" Tang Huan frowned slightly.

(End of this chapter)