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 On early meetings at Intel: 
 "Grove would say, 'How would you sum up the Intel approach?'  Many hands would go up, and Grove would choose one, and the eager communicant would say: 'At Intel you don't wait for someone else to do it.  You take the ball yourself and you run with it.' And Grove would say, 'Wrong.  At Intel you take the ball yourself and you let the air out and you fold the ball up and put it in your pocket.  Then you take another ball and run with it and when you've crossed the goal you take the second ball out of your pocket and reinflate it and score twelve points instead of six."  -- "The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce: How the Sun Rose on Silicon Valley" by Tom Wolfe in Esquire, December 1983.

 

Intel

 

Intel corporation, situated in Santa Clara, California, is the worldwide leader in manufacturing computer chips for PCs, with revenues of over $21 billion. Intel was founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, when they decided to leave the transistor company they had helped start, Fairchild Semiconductor.  Their colleague Andy Grove didn't originally invest money in Intel, but he is also considered one of the founders. 

Instead of competing with the old company in transistors, Intel began to build memory chips specifically for computers. By 1971, they had a successful business selling chips. That same year, scientists at Intel developed a new kind of chip called a microprocessor which, unlike the fixed circuits on a chip, could be reprogrammed to do calculations.  The microprocessor has become the "brains" inside a computer, the key electronic component that makes a computer work.  Intel's microprocessors have gotten smaller, quicker and cheaper over the last three decades and dominate the world market. 

Robert Noyce had definite ideas about how a company like this should be run.  Other than the fact that the three founders were ultimately in charge, there was very little clear hierarchy.  Noyce, Moore, and Grove did research along with everyone else, and all employees were encouraged to come forth with their ideas. 

Andy Grove is currently the chairman of Intel. 

Resources: 
-- "The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce: How the Sun Rose on the Silicon Valley" by Tom Wolfe.  Esquire December 1983. 
-- Intel
 
 

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