Andrew "Andy" Stephen Grove (born Gróf András István; September 2, 1936 – March 21, 2016) was a Hungarian-American businessman and engineer who worked as the third CEO of Intel Corporation. He left the Hungarian People's Republic during the 1956 revolution when he was 20 years old and moved to the United States, where he completed his education. He joined Intel as its third employee and later became its third CEO, helping the company grow into the world's largest semiconductor company.

His work at Intel, along with his books and professional writings, had a major impact on the global electronics manufacturing industry. He was often described as the person who helped drive the growth of Silicon Valley. In 1997, Time magazine named him "Man of the Year," recognizing him as "the person most responsible for the amazing growth in microchip power and their ability to create new ideas." One source stated that his achievements at Intel alone "deserve a place among the greatest business leaders of the 20th century."

Personal life and education

Grove was born as Gróf András István to a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary. His parents were Mária and György Gróf. At the age of four, he became very sick with scarlet fever, a disease that almost killed him and caused him to lose part of his hearing.

When he was eight years old, the Nazis took control of Hungary and sent nearly 500,000 Jewish people to concentration camps, including Auschwitz. To stay safe, Grove and his mother used fake names and stayed with friends who helped hide them. His father, however, was captured and sent to a labor camp in the East, where he was treated cruelly and forced to work as a slave. His father was reunited with his family only after the war ended.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, when Grove was 20 years old, he left his home and family and fled to Austria across the border. He had no money and could barely speak English. In 1957, he traveled to the United States. Later, he changed his name to Andrew S. Grove, an English version of his original name. Grove described his first twenty years in Hungary in his writings.

After arriving in the United States, Grove worked as a busboy during the summer at a resort in New Hampshire. There, he met Eva Kastan, an Austrian refugee who was working as a waitress while studying at Hunter College. They met in 1957 and married in Queens, New York, in June 1958. They stayed married until Grove’s death and had two daughters, Karen Grove and Robie Livingstone, and eight grandchildren.

Even though he arrived in the United States with little money, Grove kept a strong interest in learning. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the City College of New York in 1960. The New York Times reported that “a refugee became a senior in engineering.” Grove later completed a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1963.

In 2000, Grove was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He supported several foundations that helped fund research for a cure. Grove died at his home on March 21, 2016, at the age of 79. The cause of his death was not made public.

Career

When Andy Grove joined Intel, he felt very nervous. He had left a secure job where he knew what he was doing and started working on research and development for a new business in an area that had not been explored before. This was very challenging for him.

After earning his Ph.D. in 1963, Grove worked at Fairchild Semiconductor as a researcher. By 1967, he became the assistant director of development there. His work helped him learn about the early development of integrated circuits, which would later lead to the "microcomputer revolution" in the 1970s. In 1967, he wrote a college textbook titled Physics and Technology of Semiconductor Devices.

In 1968, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore co-founded Intel after leaving Fairchild Semiconductor. Grove joined Intel on the day it was officially created, even though he was not one of the founders. Leslie L. Vadász, another Hungarian immigrant, was Intel's fourth employee. Grove worked as the company's director of engineering and helped start its early manufacturing operations. In 1983, he wrote a book titled High Output Management, which explained his methods and ideas about manufacturing.

At first, Intel mainly made static memory chips for mainframe computers. However, in the early to mid-1970s, Intel introduced one of the first digital watches, an electronic calculator, and the world's first general-purpose microprocessor, the 4-bit 4004. By 1974, Intel developed the 8-bit 8008 and later the 8080 processor, which became the core of the Altair, the first personal computer. This helped begin the personal computer revolution. Soon after, Intel created the 8086 and 8088 microprocessors. IBM used the 8088 in its IBM PC, which made personal computers widely available. In 1985, Intel produced the 32-bit 80386 microprocessor, starting a series of increasingly powerful microprocessors, including the 80486, the Pentium, and many supporting integrated circuits and computers.

Although Intel had invented many types of memory, including EPROM, by 1985, demand for memory chips dropped because Japanese companies sold them at prices below cost. Grove had to make major changes. He decided to stop making DRAMs and focus on microprocessors instead. Grove and Intel's sales manager to IBM, Earl Whetstone, helped negotiate with IBM to use only Intel microprocessors in all their new personal computers.

Intel's revenue grew from $2,672 in its first year (1968) to $20.8 billion in 1997. Grove became Intel's president in 1979, CEO in 1987, and chairman of the board in 1997. In May 1998, Grove stepped down as CEO to Craig Barrett because he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years earlier. He remained chairman until November 2004. After that, he worked as a senior advisor at Intel and taught at Stanford University. Grove reflected on Intel's growth over the years:

Grove is credited with transforming Intel from a memory chip manufacturer into the world's leading producer of microprocessors for personal computers, servers, and general-purpose computing. During his time as CEO, Intel's market capitalization increased by 4,500%, from $4 billion to $197 billion, making it the world's seventh-largest company with 64,000 employees. Most profits were reinvested in research and development and new facilities to create better and faster microprocessors. (Although Intel relied on sales to PC companies, Grove did not think personal computers were useful or easy to use. He started using them regularly after Intel introduced email in 1989 and Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 1990.)

As director of operations, manufacturing became Grove's main focus. His management style was based on his management concepts. As Intel grew and he became chairman, Grove focused more on strategic decisions, such as creating markets for new products, coordinating manufacturing, and forming partnerships with smaller companies.

Grove helped create the Intel Architecture Laboratory (IAL) in Oregon to ensure software was developed in time to use new microprocessors. He said, "You are making decisions about what the information technology world will want five years into the future."

Business success can lead to its own downfall. Success causes complacency, and complacency causes failure. Only the paranoid survive.

As CEO, Grove encouraged managers to experiment and prepare for changes, promoting the value of being "paranoid" in business. He became known for his motto, "Only the paranoid survive," and wrote a book with the same title in 1996. He urged leaders to test new techniques, products, sales methods, and customers to be ready for unexpected changes. This idea influenced leaders like Jeff Bezos, Satya Nadella, and Reed Hastings.

Biographer Jeremy Byman noted that Grove was the one person at Intel who refused to let the company become complacent. Grove explained his reasoning:

Grove popularized the idea of a "strategic inflection point," a time when major changes in strategy are needed because of shifts in the business environment. A company's growth depends on recognizing and navigating these changes.

Strategic inflection points create a mismatch between a company's current strategies and changes in the industry, which Grove called "strategic dissonance." To solve this, companies must align their strategies with the new reality, requiring leaders to adapt and adjust strategies to keep up with changes.

Grove believed that people who raise warnings about potential problems, called "Helpful Cassandras," are important for identifying and addressing risks before they grow. He emphasized the need for organizations to listen to these warnings and take action, rather than ignoring them, to handle strategic inflection points.

Grove had a strong competitive mindset, seeing competition as the main driver of innovation and progress. He encouraged companies to aim for leadership in their industries and constantly improve their products, processes, and operations. He compared himself to a coach, believing the manager's role was to motivate employees to excel. He thought "good fear" could be productive.

Grove promoted a culture of open communication where employees were encouraged to speak their minds using a "constructive confrontation" approach. "People here aren't afraid to speak up and debate with Andy," said Intel Senior VP Ron Whittier. Grove's successor, Craig Barrett, said, "It's give and take, and anyone in the company can yell at him. He's not above it." Grove believed people should be demanding of each other, creating an environment of "ruthless intelligence." Business author Ken Goldstein wrote, "You bought into it or got your walking papers."

Grove believed knowledge power is more important than positional power. He made this philosophy a part of Intel's workplace culture.

Honors and awards

• Grove was given honorary degrees by the City College of New York (1985), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1989), and Harvard University (2000).
• Grove was named Time Person of the Year in 1997.
• In 2004, the Wharton School of Business honored him as the "Most Influential Business Person of the Last 25 Years."
• In 1995, Grove received the 1st Annual Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy, and Employment. The award recognized him for showing a story "as old as America: the story of a young immigrant rising to great success." The donors also said Grove "has played perhaps the most important role in the development and popularization of the twentieth century's most remarkable innovation – the personal computer."
• On August 25, 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that Grove would be one of 13 California Hall of Fame inductees in The California Museum’s yearlong exhibit. The induction ceremony took place on December 1, 2009, in Sacramento, California.
• Strategic Management Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2001)
• IEEE Medal of Honor (2000)
• Time magazine’s Man of the Year (1997)
• IndustryWeek Technology Leader of the Year (1997)
• Chief Executive’s CEO of the Year (1997)
• Medal of Achievement from the American Electronics Association (1993)
• IEEE Engineering Leadership Recognition Award (1987)
• Franklin Institute Certificate of Merit (1975)

Books

• A. S. Grove (1967). Physics and Technology of Semiconductor Devices. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-32998-3.
• A. S. Grove (1988). One on One With Andy Grove. Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-010935-8.
• A. S. Grove (1995). High Output Management. Random House. ISBN 0-679-76288-4. (first published in 1983)
• A. S. Grove (1996). Only the Paranoid Survive. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-48258-2.
• A. S. Grove (2001). Swimming Across: A Memoir. Grand Central. ISBN 0-446-67970-4.
• Robert Burgelman and A. S. Grove (2001). Strategy Is Destiny: How Strategy-Making Shapes a Company's Future. Free Press. ISBN 0-684-85554-2.
• Robert A. Burgelman, Andrew S. Grove, and Philip E. Meza (2005). Strategic Dynamics: Concepts and Cases. McGraw-Hill/Irwin. ISBN 0-07-312265-3.