Rating: 
Summary: Use this book for your personal career!!
Review: Even though it says "and Careers" in the title of this book, the words are largely about Intel. I think that "and Careers" could have come first because of the importance of this book to individuals. Each of us is truly a corporation, our careers are our product, and we must make decisions about direction, allocate resources to meet unexpected demands, plan for acquisitions (like a spouse or children). Each of us has our SIPs (strategic inflection points) just as Intel did. And very much the same methods are appropriate; get information, explore possibilities, and finally establish a course of action. Much of the pain of change can be turned into pleasure!! Recommended for all!
Rating: 
Summary: Rambling platitudes
Review: Grove certainly has plenty to be paranoid about these days as his CPU chip is quickly becoming a commodity product with rapidly eroding profit margins and dwindling market share. The largest segment of homes that have yet to buy a PC want a turnkey solution and they appear to be finding that in Apple's iMac with Motorola inside. Lately Compaq has produced more adverising touting fast low cost PCs using an AMD CPU chip. National Semiconductor will add a lot of push to the Cyrix CPU chips. And now Intel reenters the biggest commodity chip market of all, DRAM chips. The future certainly looks paranoid for Intel. The performance capabilities of today's CPUs greatly exceed the needs of the vast majority of users who yearn for bandwidth. The future is in connectivity and this bodes ill for the built-in obsolescence Wintel model of the past. It doesn't appear to this reader that Grove anticipated this strategic inflection point. The only thing Grove ever wrote worth reading is his 1967 text "Physics and Technology of Semiconductor Devices." A much better story of Intel is told by Tim Jackson in "Inside Intel" and by present and former employees at FACE Intel on the web.
Rating:
Summary: A Perspective From the Inside
Review: Having personally worked (and plan on working for after I graduate from college) for Intel, Corp. Mr. Grove offers some of the insights to the success of Intel. Strategic Inflection Points (SIP) are applicable in any business, but in a high tech world, SIP's tend to occur more often.Mr. Grove, currently also teaching at Stanford Business School, offers examples of SIP's and how he, and Intel, has dealt with these market changing pressures. In addition, through his book, he also gives insight to the type of company, and corporate culture that is present at Intel, and how only through this type of verticle cooperation can a Santa Clara start-up become the techology giant it is today.I recommend this book to anyone who has ever heard of the name "Intel" and discover what it really means to be "Intel Inside"
Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: I am a doctoral student in Turkey, I read the translation of the book. I think Andrew S.Grove analyses the strategic points that a firm can meet perfectly. This book is extremely important for both practitioners and academicians who deals with concepts such as competition, strategy and change.
Rating: 
Summary: Not another paradigm shift book
Review: I enjoyed the inside perspective on Intel that Andy provides and agree with the basic premise of the book. But its the same old paradigm shift stuff just repackaged under a different name - strategic inflection point.If you haven't read much on paradigm shifts then you should read this book. But if you have, you'll probably find it boring.
Rating:
Summary: Very superficial, expected more from the Master
Review: I have great admiration for Andy Grove. His book gave an honest account of how Intel dealt with difficult situations. How they too can be indecisive at times and hedge their bets. However, I expected the Master to share with us his experience in a lot more depth. Many of the examples he gave can be obtained free from the web! Now that he is not full time Intel employee, he can perhaps give more explicit insight on his experience, dealing and thoughts about his peers, competitors, suppliers and customers. He was kind of reserve in the examples he gave, restricting only to bashing the Japanese. I look forward to the next book from Andy Grove
Rating: 
Summary: It is a development history book of Intel
Review: I think the book is good because you can be familiar with the development history of Intel. But if you think that you can learn many critical management techniques from this book, I think that you will feel disappointed. Overall, this book is valuable to read.
Rating:
Summary: Reactions to this Book Tell You a Lot About the Reader
Review: I was on the last chapter when I experienced something of an epiphany, namely that most people's reaction to this book is probably diametric to my own. The book is a wonderful stimulus for contemplation; it is a lousy source of recipes. In fact, one of the major points of the book is that fundamental changes occur regularly and that such fundamental changes invalidate almost all recipes (especially the really good recipes). The other major point of the book seems to be that these fundamental changes should be the primary preoccupation of upper management. Engineering and computer science professionals old enough to have experienced some of the case histories may react emotionally to some of the narrative. Yet the book is neither apologetics nor a historical accounting of Intel's success, and it is unfair to evaluate it in these terms. In my opinion the most damming cretinism of the book is that it is somewhat imprecise about some of the key concepts it espouses! . For example "Strategic Inflection Points" should probably be called "Strategic Singularities". Extrapolation across inflection points can be quite accurate with the aid of higher order analysis; extrapolation across singularities is simply not possible. The later kind of event seems to be the topic of the book. The author knows enough math to understand the difference, he is merely struggling with the packaging of his ideas. This struggle extends to a few of the examples. This is still a great book. It is no doubt being mined for it's gems by others who will repackage it's key ideas to make their own books.
Rating:
Summary: Want to be a great manager - Go to West Point
Review: I was very dissapointed by this book as a lesson in management. The lessons learned are basic management and military strategy that every CEO should now. i.e. Basic lessons from the book: include understanding the nature of the battlefield (6 forces that affect business), recognizing change (strategic intelligence), listening to the troops in the field, making sure you're not insulated from the bad news, seperate the noise from real intelligence, have the courage to make changes, issue clear orders, re-evaluate and adjust as conditions change, be prepared to replace the top management (not for incompetence, but to get fresh perspectives (change the old guard and the old ways of doing things), Realize that your company runs on the quality of middle management (i,e NCO and junior officers in the military). Give them clear goals and empower them to act. I have a lot of respect for Andy Grove, and the insights into his business was great, but if you want a good management book, read a military strategy manual. There's nothing new here.
Rating:
Summary: Don't expect too much
Review: If you are looking for a nice story, it could be a good choice. But, if you looking for a good book about change management, I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody.
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