Silicon Valley
Intel's turnaround: Where fear becomes motivation
Intel President Andy Grove was a dynamic individual and he had true stories of hard work. He was a refugee from Hungary who had fled the Soviets and the Nazis. Timidity and discipline were his main mantras in running a business. In his famous book 'Only the Paranoid Survive', he wrote: "Fear of competition, fear of bankruptcy, and fear of failure - these are powerful motivators for people to move forward."
Semiconductor war with Japan: Silicon Valley's uphill task
AMD CEO Jerry Sanders entered the chip business belligerently, especially against his old rival Intel. But in the 1980s, instead of Intel, Japan became his new and even more formidable rival.
Silicon Valley crisis: Rise of Japan and rivalry with America
America's semiconductor industry, once the pride of Silicon Valley, suddenly found itself in the midst of fierce competition in the 1980s. Japanese companies were surging like an irresistible wave. One silent but important hero in this story was Hewlett-Packard (HP) executive Richard Anderson. He set strict criteria for which memory chips HP would buy. Therefore, the fate of semiconductor vendors depended on his decisions.