Only Paranoid Survive!
- Saket Deshmukh
- Mar 10, 2016
- 3 min read
The work of a lifetime, Only the Paranoid Survive is a classic of managerial and leadership skills. Andy Grove, founder and former CEO of Intel shares his strategy for success as he takes the reader deep inside the workings of a major company in Only the Paranoid Survive.
I have listed key points from the book. The beauty of this book is it triggered more question than answers. It helped me in understanding why Intel could survive competition from Japanese manufactures & thrived as a global giant in Computer processors.
Sooner or later something fundamental will change in your business Your product comes with expiry, if you don't, customers will kill it
You need to plan like a fire department, they do not know where & when the fire will break out but they build systems that are capable to respond
Your junior employees will tell you what has changed & you must talk with them to sense it :- meet/talk with junior employees every month at least on phone
Listen to your critics like media, competitors they will tell you what’s changing
Ask junior employees what we should be worried about?
Possibility of solving queue problem by the different solution is the deadliest threat to us (Our business can be done in a better or different way )
How do we know if the business environment has changed?
Don't differentiate without a difference, launch features/products iff it give a substantial advantage to your customer
Never launch product or feature just for the sake of gaining the advantage over the competition
The first mover is the only one who will take advantage of change, grab it!
Go for the volume, making it a commodity then work out a way to make money out of it !
Read the newspaper with 10x lens, ask each time you read any news - will it have a 10x effect on us? Never deny anything without actually trying it
.constantly note & study customer buying behaviour , change in customer behaviour is a sign of 10 x change in industry
will people stop coming to stores?
Leading can be unpleasant, you need to decide & move with the decision
start with your conviction then gather the support of as many as possible
How to decide if a change is Noise or Signal ?
Ask these questions constantly
Is our key competitor about to change ? (To figure out real competitor, ask “who would you kill if you have only one bullet )if your answer, changes or you can't give one single answer then it's a signal of change
Listen to sales People - they are the first one to know about a change
First version trap - you can't judge any product solely on its first version , ask yourself, would it change the business environment if this version is improved 10 x , apply the same for competitors products also
Announce “ I love bad News”- or even better launch an initiative where everyone must share bad news from his area, encourage people to give bad news, never Shoot the messenger
Never get into an acquisition mode before gathering some momentum in that area, also you should not get entangled in the acquisition process
Don't love your Ideas, Strategies, be rational, if it’s not working kill it. Be specific about measuring the impact of your strategies or idea
Don't Close your eyes on problems
When we experiment there will be chaos but you need to do it as a practice, Keep Exploring various option to solve the current problem & then choose when the right time is there
You can only prepare for the storm before it hits, not much can be done once 10 x force is acting against you, Fire enough Bullets !! of course when everything is Normal
Always worry, Fear about change that will catch you off guard, be ready to kill your Product/Model, Listen to threats from junior, outsiders
Most of the times we know what needs to be done, just do it … Do what you are supposed to do!
Figure out what not to do first
Admitting that you need to learn something new is always difficult but you need to do
that irrespective of your liking,
Your schedule will talk more effectively than any speech you can make, the time you allocate to the tasks will represent what you value for {As a leader how you spend time has enormous symbolic value. It will communicate what's important & what’s not far more powerfully than any speech you give }
Focus on action - strategic actions
Be early than late :/ it's better to shift the resources from existing business to newer one when the early business has positive momentum
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