Chipping Away at Intel
1. Discuss the different changes at Intel over the first 3 years of CEO Barrett’s tenure. Craig Barrett made several changes within the first three years of his tenure as the CEO of Intel. In 1999, he created a new wireless unit that combined new acquisition such as DSP Communications Inc. with Intel’s flash memory operations (Palmer, Dunford, and Akins, 2009). In his second year, he created the Architecture Group, which combined development and manufacturing of core processors. In his third year, he reorganized the Architecture Group and created a new unit consisting of a merger of communications and networking operations. For Barrett, these reorganizations were needed to enable decentralization and delegation of decision making all designed to make the company better coordinated and more nimble (Palmer, Dunford, and Akins, 2009).
2. Identify three significant environmental pressures for change faced by Intel under CEO Barrett’s leadership. (fashion, mandates, geopolitical, declining markets, hyper-competition and corporate reputation). Environmental pressures often occurs when an organizations resource base decreases as a result of reduced demand for products and sales, decrease in market and bad investment decisions (Palmer et. al, 2009). There are several environmental pressures for changes such as hyper competition, market decline, and corporate reputation pressures that Barrett faced as the CEO of Intel. Hyper-competition pressures organizations to deliver goods and services more quickly, more customized, and more flexibly (Palmer et. al, 2009). Hyper-competition pressures for change may not always be easy to anticipate. In this case, Intel was not aware of the sudden and unpredictable moves made by Advanced Micro Devices. Intel’s competitor Advanced Micro Devices produced Athlon processor which turned out to be faster than Intel’s Pentium III chip. Second, the declining market for products and services placed Intel under pressure to remain
2. Identify three significant environmental pressures for change faced by Intel under CEO Barrett’s leadership. (fashion, mandates, geopolitical, declining markets, hyper-competition and corporate reputation). Environmental pressures often occurs when an organizations resource base decreases as a result of reduced demand for products and sales, decrease in market and bad investment decisions (Palmer et. al, 2009). There are several environmental pressures for changes such as hyper competition, market decline, and corporate reputation pressures that Barrett faced as the CEO of Intel. Hyper-competition pressures organizations to deliver goods and services more quickly, more customized, and more flexibly (Palmer et. al, 2009). Hyper-competition pressures for change may not always be easy to anticipate. In this case, Intel was not aware of the sudden and unpredictable moves made by Advanced Micro Devices. Intel’s competitor Advanced Micro Devices produced Athlon processor which turned out to be faster than Intel’s Pentium III chip. Second, the declining market for products and services placed Intel under pressure to remain
References: Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2009). Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kotter, J. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.