Chipping Away at Intel HRM intel

Changes at Intel

Discuss the different changes at Intel over the first 3 years of CEO Barrett's tenure.

CEO Craig Barrett's first three years with Intel were filled with challenge and change. As a leader charged with the task of helping the company transform to meet the technological expectations of the immediate future, Barrett would oversee a number of changes both intended and inevitable. Among those which might be deemed inevitable, the most direct and consequential of changes would be that to the company's bottom line. Indeed, at the time of the case study's authoring, "analysts were predicting that by the end of the year, Intel's share of the PC chip market would be 9% worse than when Barrett had taken over three years earlier." (Palmer et al., p. 72)

This constant and steady downslide would invoke action for further change on the part of Intel, most of this centering on re-organizing the company to poise it for a more competitive stake in its market. Accordingly, Barrett would make a number of cutbacks aimed at creating a more 'nimble' company, less given over to bureaucratic shortcoming. On this point, the case study describes a company in which enormous scale and poor coordination between departments creating product duplication and self-damaging market saturation. Thus, the changes instituted by Barrett would focus on integrating the various departments of Intel around shared procedures and goals. Thus, decentralization and delegation became the two leading characteristics of a structural reorganization.

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An array of environmental and internal pressures would also be present in Barrett's decisions.
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).

The most significant environmental pressure imposing change at Intel is that of declining markets. The recession that has persisted across the last decade has forced some of the most prominent and recognizable firms in the world to make cut-backs. A declining global chip market has imposed these conditions on Intel. According to the case study, there were "weak demand and over-capacity in the semiconducter industry with some researchers expecting a 34% fall in global sales of chips." (Palmer et al., p. 72)

This experience is not unique to Intel. For many technology firms, the challenging state of the economy has been a major determinant of performance. And given that we are now through the early proliferation phase of semiconductor and microprocessor technology, the case study describes a transition in technology fashion, centering specifically on the prioritization of fiber-optic and high-speed internet technology. Based on the relatively thorough penetration of Intel's chip technology and the subsequent explosion in internet access, Intel recognized that product life cycle was coming into play where its Pentium Processors were concerned. At this later stage in the product's life, it would have to…