Craig R. Barrett: Intel's Ironman
CRAIG R. BARRETT stepped into the chief executive's job at Intel Corp. last May--at exactly the wrong time. With sales soft and rival chipmakers gaining market share, Intel was heading for its first annual profit decline in a decade. By June, when the Federal Trade Commission sued Intel, alleging monopolistic behavior, investors had lopped 32% off the stock's February peak. But Barrett, 59, kept his head, and in the past six months he has spurred Intel to a strong yearend surge. The stock rebounded to an all-time high in December. And analysts predict record results in 1999.
How did Barrett pull it off? Endurance plays a part: Barrett is known for his brutal travel schedule, packed with dawn-to-midnight meetings. His maniacal attention to operations helped, as well. Barrett's manufacturing background has made him a stickler for efficiency--he insists that every Intel factory be virtually identical. His rise to CEO, after 25 years with Intel, was partly due to that flair for operations. But the biggest boost this year came from Barrett's strategy--hatched with Chairman Andrew S. Grove--to bolster profits by expanding Intel's product line at both the top end and bottom. Selling very high-end chips at record prices, and introducing successful cheap chips, carried Intel through a tough year.
The combination of Grove, who spins Intel's vision, and Barrett, who executes with cool precision, seems unbeatable. Although 1998 sales are only expected to have grown 4%, the new chief executive is looking for future growth outside Intel's core chip business. He has expanded Intel's networking enterprise, launched a consumer-PC support operation, and bought rights to a hot new processor for digital handheld devices. The chip industry sagged 11% in 1998. But thanks to Barrett, Intel rode out the slump, and now the chipmaker is poised to roar ahead.
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