ashokbhatia

Most of our accomplishments in life happen due to team work, or, when we follow a ‘We and Us’ approach to problem solving.

How did Intel happen? Here is a brief account of how it came about.

Eight upcoming scientists, including Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove, walked out of Shockley Transistor Laboratories, owned by William Shockley, who had previously won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on transistors. The provocation for ‘the traitorous eight’—as referred to by Shockley—to part company with him was the fact that the latter was as brilliant a scientist as he was a poor leader. He is reported to have been pig-headed in many matters, treating his team members with scant regard. He often behaved as if the eight were trying to undermine him. Surely, doping non-electrical conducting materials with germanium and silicon, thus paving the way for the transistor revolution and the chip revolution, was easier for him than keeping his team members charged up by being a collaborative and humble leader.

When Shockley was ousted from his own company, he joined Stanford as a faculty member. In 1989, he died of prostate cancer, estranged from all his relatives and friends. His children were reported to have learnt of his death through newspapers.

On the other hand, the group of eight who had left him went on to set up Fairchild Conductors and, subsequently, Intel Corporation. Perhaps they made a fortunate transition from an ‘I and Me’ approach to a ‘We and Us’ one.

(The text is an edited excerpt from my latest book ‘Bhagavad Gita and Corporate Dharma’.)

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