“Only the paranoid survive” (internet adage)
“Only the paranoid survive” was the motto of Andrew Grove (1936-2016), founder of Intel Corporation. Grove believed that Intel should stay “paranoid” and never get complacent. “Only the paranoid survive”—a variation of “only the strong survive”—became popular throughout Silicon Valley.
“Only the paranoid survive” has been cited in print since at least March 1990. Grove authored a book he titled Only the Paranoid Survive: How to exploit the crisis points that challenge every company and career (1996).
Wikipedia: Andrew Grove
Andrew Stephen “Andy” Grove (born András István Gróf, Hungarian: Gróf András István; 2 September 1936 – 21 March 2016) was a Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer, author and a science pioneer in the semiconductor industry. He escaped from Communist-controlled Hungary at the age of 20 and moved to the United States where he finished his education. He was one of the founders and the CEO of Intel Corporation, helping transform the company into the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductors.
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According to Grove, “Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction,” explaining that “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” As a result, he urges senior executives to allow people to test new techniques, new products, new sales channels, and new customers, to be ready for unexpected shifts in business or technology. Grove biographer Jeremy Byman observes that Grove “was the one person at Intel who refused to let the company rest on its laurels.”
18 March 1990, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Competition on the horizon for Intel semiconductor chips” by Valerie Rice (Knight-Ridder Newspapers), sec. 7, pg. 11F< col. 1:
SAN JOSE, Calif.—Intel Corp.‘s Andrew Grove is often heard telling his employees, “Only the paranoid survive.”
As a corporate philosophy, it has worked well for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which for the last four years has had a monopoly on one of the most lucrative segments of the semiconductor business: microprocessors.
20 November 1992, Washington (DC) Post, “U.S. Again Leads in Computer Chips; American Firms Recapture Global Sales Share From Japanese” by T. R. Reid, pg. A1:
At the campus-like semiconductor companies that dot the hills south of San Francisco, the industry watchword is a famous dictum of Intel Chairman Andrew Grove: “Only the paranoid survive.”
10 June 1994, Austin (TX) American-Statesman, “Intel, Hewlett-Packard join to challenge PowerPC” by Kirk Ladendorf, pg. F1:
“We think we have a good answer for the competition in the near term,” (Intel spokesman Howard—ed.)High said. “This is something that is a little longer term. We have a saying: Only the paranoid survive. We look at everything and say, `How can we position ourselves so that we don’t lose?”’
OCLC WorldCat record
Only the paranoid survive : how to exploit the crisis points that challenge every company and career
Author: Andrew S Grove
Publisher: New York : Currency Doubleday, 1996.
Edition/Format: Print book : English : 1st edView all editions and formats
Database: WorldCat
Summary:
“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.”
Live Mint
Last Modified: Tue, Aug 16 2016. 08 54 AM IST
ntel’s new mission is to find fresh uses for its famous paranoia
Intel is scrambling for a place in sensors, wireless networking and autonomous vehicles, as computing spreads to nearly every machine
Quentin Hardy
Andy Grove, the renowned chief executive of Intel, who died in March, coined a phrase beloved in Silicon Valley: “Only the paranoid survive.”
That sounds cool, if you like your capitalism fierce. That idea, however, turns out to have some significant downsides.