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Craig Barrett’s Intel Faux Pas

Intel Corp. is the product of its heritage, actions, and visions not enacted. The roots of its challenges go back more than 20 years, even to the halcyon days of former CEO Craig Barrett. Intel's problems were seeded years ago, so the cure must be as invasive as the depth of the roots.
Craig Barrett’s Intel Faux Pas
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By Bolaji Ojo

The story of Intel Corp. is one of American ingenuity sullied by a stubborn combination of naivety and obtuseness at the top. The company’s troubles didn’t emerge out of nowhere. The coincidence brewed of technology and innovations shifts aren’t at play here. Rather, Intel is in the muck it has sunk into today because it couldn’t escape its shiny legacy.

While Craig Barrett, Intel’s CEO from 1998 to 2005 and chairman through 2009, is often lauded for presiding over strong profits and technological advances, it’s time to confront the inconvenient truth: Barrett cannot wash his hands of the mess that Intel has now become. He helped lay its foundations, missed seismic shifts in the semiconductor industry, and imposed strategic inertia that successive CEOs failed to overcome.

Barrett’s tenure coincided with extraordinary shifts in the global electronics landscape, the very sort that demands radical leadership. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, the rise of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reshaped the competitive terrain, as it steadily built an empire in contract chipmaking (foundry services) for a new wave of fabless semiconductor companies. Meanwhile, the mainstreaming of mobile devices signaled the decline of the personal computer as the centerpiece of consumer electronics.

Yet, instead of steering Intel towards these growing markets, Barrett and his lieutenants doubled down on PC-centric strategies. Intel’s world-class fabrication facilities, which were once envied by rivals for their scale and capability, remained closed off to outsiders. The “Intel Inside” mantra was a badge of pride, but also a mask for missed opportunities. Intel made massive investments in communications businesses, running into billions of dollars, but failed to turn these into outstanding successes or footholds in fast-growing markets.


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