Andy Grove, perhaps more than anyone other than Steve Jobs transformed technology, drove the growth of Silicon Valley and shaped the views of so many of the people that run tech companies today. To say that he was the Godfather of Silicon Valley would not be an understatement. Andy Grove, who passed away yesterday, was one of the founders and CEO of Intel Corporation, where he transformed the role of semiconductors from an obscure part of tech, to almost a consumer product.
He was also at the cutting edge of the computer and Internet revolution. Back in 1996, twenty years ago, Grove wrote a book entitled Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company
. It's still widely read and respected.Upon the publication of that book in 1996, I had the chance to speak with Andy Grove.
At the time, WiFi didn’t exist, Hi Speed Internet was still a dream, and networks were reserved only for the biggest of corporations. But Grove saw that key inflection points were coming. He foresaw the change they would bring about the creative destruction that would result in the change that has swept the world today.
Here is a little of that 1996 conversation with Andy Grove:
