While there’s been plenty written about Andy Grove, longtime chairman and CEO of computer chip-maker Intel, no one has ever chronicled his business acumen and personal attributes more thoroughly than author Richard S. Tedlow in Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American. Tedlow managed to talk to virtually anyone and everyone who has ever worked with, met or confronted Grove, and their opinions run the gamut from admiration to resentment, though no one questions his basic business savvy and strategic brilliance.
Grove’s past (he was a Holocaust survivor who came to America as penniless immigrant at 20) made him excel at sizing up both friends and enemies. He turned the fledgling Intel into a phenomenal enterprise, survived problems with chips and machinery, and ultimately made his company a model for success in Silicon Valley. Tedlow shows how Grove anticipated the growing demand for information and access in the Internet age, and how he helped transform the personal computer from a luxury item to an almost mandatory purchase. The book also includes a wealth of fascinating side stories, from Grove’s relationship with Bill Gates to how he maneuvered through tricky relationships with Intel cofounders Gordon Moore and Bob Noyce. Andy Grove is part business primer, part profile and part technology history work, as Tedlow uses Grove as the lens through which he examines the evolution of the computer era and the shifting role of the CEO in a constantly changing marketplace.
