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Staff post about: Gordon Moore Robert Noyce Become an Author

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“It’s important to remember one thing that is essential for any entrepreneurial organization,” says Moore. “Do what you do well. Look at other things as incremental opportunities, but don’t change the basis of what you do well.” Moore and Noyce might have had many failed products over the years at Intel – arguably more than most successful companies – but they never strayed from their original idea as to what they wanted their company to be about. Indeed, it was by focusing on a single vision and doing that well that they increased their circle of influence and climbed to the top of the industry.

In making a speech to students graduating from his alma mater, Caltech, Moore says that the school’s specialty was in training the best scientists and engineers in the world. “My advice to Caltech is this,” says Moore. “Help students a bit if they want to move in entrepreneurial directions, but don’t change the basic nature of Caltech education.” It was that same attitude that guided the business strategies of Intel. From digital watches to the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) business, Intel had its share of failures. But, all kept within the framework of Intel’s specialization.

When Intel was first founded, the depth of its business plan was simply getting by the survival point, claims Moore. “We recognized that there were existing semiconductor companies that would probably come into our area if we were successful.” Once the field opened up, Moore and Noyce knew that few companies would still be around five years down the road. To that end, they decided to focus their efforts on making Intel the best at what it did. “We wanted to get big enough before they got turned around, to make it so they couldn’t put us out of business,” says Moore. “We moved from that point to the point where we have a major influence on, really, the electronics industry worldwide, particularly everything associated with computing.”

Moore and Noyce were operating in a tricky industry, where everything was principally technologically driven. They never went out to customers to ask, “What would you like to have?” and then go back to the lab to design a product that had it. “We’ve much more often said, ‘Here’s a product we can make – wouldn’t you like to have it?” says Moore. Because their products weren’t the result of focus groups or market surveys, Moore and Noyce had to be all the more sure that their products were the best in their field. They had to convince consumers that yes, they did in fact need these products and that yes, Intel was the company to buy them from.

“I think what keeps a lot of us going in this business is the opportunity to compete,” says Moore. “You know, to gain. You don’t have to be in good physical shape. So it’s exciting. It really gets people’s juices flowing.” By constantly acknowledging that they were in a competition, and by refusing to settle for second place, Intel was able to become the best at what it set out to do.

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