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Having worked at Intel before, I can safely say that it's difficult to boil down Intel's problems to a single issue (e.g. chip manufacturing). Stagnant company

Having worked at Intel before, I can safely say that it's difficult to boil down Intel's problems to a single issue (e.g. chip manufacturing). Stagnant company culture, limited growth opportunities within the company, and a fanatical focus on selling CPUs instead of innovating are all problems that Intel currently faces.

hedgehog 5y ago
The conversation is also muddied by varying definitions of success and failure. Intel isn't going to go broke in any foreseeable future but they may lose the premium margins they used to earn for having the best performing product. To the extent fab advantage drove that advantage (likely a big part) and that advantage is not coming back (because they no longer have a scale advantage) then maybe the premium margins will never come back. That's what investors worry about.
gumby 5y ago
I think Thompson says this (while talking about a series of lackluster CEOs) and says the topic of the "split" is a consequence of that, which has to be fixed (and is merely one of the problems)
anonporridge 5y ago
Limited growth opportunities seems like a big problem that can kill any organization. Specifically if leadership gets ossified and there's no realistic path for ambitious young people to rise into positions of power and responsibility. When this happens, the ambitious young people are more likely to vote with the feet and build a competing organization that they will actually have power running. This is especially problematic when it happens in government. What are young people in America supposed to do when the political conversation can't break out of asking which of near geriatric octogenarian who had a childhood with rotary phones should be our next president? Our culture seems to have lost the very important feature that there comes a time when you've had your turn at the helm, and now you need to step down and support new leadership.

hedgehog 5y ago

The conversation is also muddied by varying definitions of success and failure. Intel isn't going to go broke in any foreseeable future but they may lose the premium margins they used to earn for having the best performing product. To the extent fab advantage drove that advantage (likely a big part) and that advantage is not coming back (because they no longer have a scale advantage) then maybe the premium margins will never come back. That's what investors worry about.

gumby 5y ago

I think Thompson says this (while talking about a series of lackluster CEOs) and says the topic of the "split" is a consequence of that, which has to be fixed (and is merely one of the problems)

anonporridge 5y ago

Limited growth opportunities seems like a big problem that can kill any organization. Specifically if leadership gets ossified and there's no realistic path for ambitious young people to rise into positions of power and responsibility. When this happens, the ambitious young people are more likely to vote with the feet and build a competing organization that they will actually have power running. This is especially problematic when it happens in government. What are young people in America supposed to do when the political conversation can't break out of asking which of near geriatric octogenarian who had a childhood with rotary phones should be our next president? Our culture seems to have lost the very important feature that there comes a time when you've had your turn at the helm, and now you need to step down and support new leadership.