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When
Andrew S. Grove, Chairman
of the Board of Intel
Corporation famously
asserted that paranoia was
the only way forward, he
engraved this sound-bite
into our collective
conscious. Considering
what Intel went through,
Mr. Grove’s reaction is
perfectly understandable.
By the time Intel realized
it was in trouble, tough
choices were all they had.
It was a fight for
survival.
There
is an old saying, ”A cat
that sits on a hot stove
won’t do it again”.
Will you say it is an
extreme reaction? By
choosing never to sit on a
stove again it denies itself a cozy,
comfortable sleep and
condemns itself to cold,
uncomfortable nights for
the rest of its’ life.
A
better option for the cat,
before sitting, might be
to check how hot the stove
is and decide?
Perhaps
Mr. Grove reacted the same
way? Seemingly out of the
blue he found that
competition had
chipped away at Intel’s
lead. And threatened the
very existence of the
company he had helped
build from scratch. On
suddenly discovering that
the competition had
made the stove he was
sitting on too hot for
comfort; He deduced stoves
are dangerous. And decided
to never sit on one again.
Perhaps Mr. Grove chose to
blame the effect rather
than the cause?
What
led to the stove getting
uncomfortably hot in the
first place? Were the
changes very sudden? As
Mr. Grove mentions fairly
often in his book, people
in the company knew. The
ones in touch with
customers knew. But Mr.
Grove didn’t. Neither
did others in the senior
management.
So,
the key issue is that
Mr. Grove, along with his
colleagues, had lost touch
with reality. When it
did barge in through the
door of the executive
suite, quick fixes were
not feasible. Till then,
there was a fairly large
disconnect between how Mr.
Grove and his team
perceived the marketplace
and how it actually was.
As
I wrote in an earlier
article,
‘There are two
ways of looking at life.
The way it is; Or the way
we will like to believe it
is' (“Why
You Must Shoot the
Messenger?“).
In the case of Intel
senior management of
80’s, theirs was perhaps
the latter approach.
Unfortunately, it is
always the senior
management that is the
last to accept reality.
Intel was no different.
The
most important lesson from
this experience is about
staying in touch with
reality, not about getting
paranoid.
Being
paranoid implies you are
driven by fear. ”The
world is out to get me”.
Given Mr. Grove’s
experience,
understandable. Most of us
when faced with such a
situation will probably
react similarly. It is
also possible that many of
us will freeze, some will
go into denial &
others might try to do
“more-of-the-same-that-made-us-successful”.
Ask
any company which has slid
down to mediocrity. It
will chant this mantra
too. It fits their
context.
But is it valid for
all businesses, all
situations? Had he and his
team stayed in touch with
reality, will they have
been overwhelmed? Will he
still believe paranoia
guarantees survival? Most
likely not.
His
way says, ”I need to be
better than you”.
Perhaps another way is,
trying to be better than
oneself? Interestingly,
both involve the same
thing; trying to be
better. Same thing, Done
differently.
One is about fear.
The other about hope. Hope
energizes. Fear enervates.
Fear destroys.
Hope creates.
Bad
times forced Intel to
change. The tough times
force most companies
to move out of their
comfort zone. They change
themselves to survive in
the present, driven
by fear. How many stay in
touch with reality? Try
changing themselves while
the going is good, to
prepare for the future,
led by hope? Fear is
not the key, hope is.
Dictionary.com
defines Paranoia as: 'A
psychotic disorder
characterized by delusions
of persecution with or
without grandeur, often
strenuously defended with
apparent logic and reason'.
Another definition is; Extreme,
irrational distrust of
others.
Will
You like to work with this
kind of an organization?
Or, work with this kind of
a person?
If
you stay in touch with
customer realities,
competitor realities and
your organizational
realities, to name a few;
Keep course-correcting;
Experimenting; Trying to
be better. Are you
as likely to get to the
stage where you don’t
know what hit you?
Paranoia, after all, is a
disease. Not a strategy.
But
the most important
question is, is your stove
also going to get
unbearably hot one day?
©2004, All rights reserved with
Anoova Consulting
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