Former Intel CEO Paul S. Otellini Dies at Age 66

We just read the news that former CEO Paul Otellini passed away in his sleep Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, at the age of 66. For those of us who served with him at Intel Corp. before his retirement, we received the news with great sadness since Paul Otelini 's tenure at Intel Corp. was mostly marked with growth and prosperity for most company employees.

According to the official Intel Corp. press release, Otellini was born in San Francisco on Oct. 12, 1950, and remained a fan of the city all his life. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of San Francisco in 1972 and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1974. He joined Intel in 1974 and served in a number of positions, including general manager of Intel's Peripheral Components Operation and the Folsom Microcomputer Division, and in 1989 as then-CEO Andy Grove's chief of staff.

From 1990 to 2002, he held various positions at Intel, including executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, responsible for the company's microprocessor and chipset businesses and strategies for desktop, mobile and enterprise computing, as well as executive vice president and general manager of the Sales (CRM) and Marketing Group. Otellini also served as chief operating officer from 2002 to 2005.

Paul and his wife, Sandy, were married for 30 years. He is survived by his wife; his son, Patrick; and his daughter, Alexis. Since he retired in 2013, Otellini dedicated time to mentoring young people and being involved with several philanthropic and charitable organizations, including the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco General Hospital Foundation.

Our warm condolences to his family and his close friends.

--Dr. Flywheel

Swan Lake or 1812 Overture?

In response to Mike Rogoway's article:
 Intel's CFO: 'We hate layoffs,' but 'we're trying to deal with reality here' 
 in Silicon Forest:

if your choice in Tchaikovsky's work is "Swan Lake", mine is the "1812 Overture", a major musical piece, signifying the disastrous defeat of Napoleon's army during the Russian winter battle of 1812. This defeat, marked the beginning of the end for the French empire under Napoleon and ended up with Napoleon's removal from the thrown and political life.

Painting of Napoleon in 1806
(click on image to enlarge)

Bombastic PR declarations by Swan (newly appointed Intel Corp. CFO) do not bring music to my ears, neither do they bring nirvana or change the reality for Intel Corp. for the coming years. Neither can these statements bring about a significant prospect of business growth to the company following the aftermath of Intel Corp. CEO's Napoleonic style of management, which accelerated the internal crumbling of a once great company.

Ever since BK took over the helm at Intel, the number of vice presidents has increased and the execution failure rate continued to accelerate. I attribute this to the stupid way in which the company laid off older and experienced people from its ranks. This typical organizational crumbling syndrome becomes routine in large companies where members of the "agent class" (of VPs and above),  are  too busy infighting and protecting their annual bonuses while never reading their email, overriding and/or ignoring their own technical/professional staff's advice, and focus their time mostly around PR campaigns.

If the picture is not clear, a well functioning company is built like a brick wall. While each individual brick carries part of the load, all the bricks function together to stabilize the structure and fulfill the utilitarian function of the building. However, bricks are not enough to keep the wall stable over time. A binding agent like mortar, attaches the bricks together and combine the individual properties of all the bricks, forming a large and resilient structure.

Experienced (and therefor older) workers are like the mortar in the wall. They know where things came from and where they should go. They have a better ability to distinguish false positives and chose mitigation actions when less than predictable events are encountered. Through experience they are able to identify problems quickly and improvise, if necessary, adding a large degree of operational resilience to a sometimes too stiff an organization.

By removing such workers from its ranks, Intel Corp. may have saved the occasional buck; however, it clearly lost significant operational capabilities and a critical built-in self-healing potential that relies on human experience.

Damage to the port side is visible as the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain
(click on image to enlarge)

After a number of U.S. Navy destroyers collided with merchant ships in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Navy fired the commander of the Seventh Fleet, Admiral Joseph Aucoin (https://news.usni.org/2017/08/22/u-s-7th-fleet-head-vice-adm-joseph-aucoin-removed-command-early-following-mccain-collision). This firing is an appropriate action for an organization that is intent on seeking positive ans swift improvement of its ability to function in an uncertain world. With so many operational failures, at Intel Corp. why is it that the Board of Directors does not fire its Napoleon? Are they waiting for the Siberian Winter?

--Dr. Flywheel

Long Held Conspiracy Theory - Confirmed !

H1B Visa Conspiracy is No Longer Just for Breakfast

Many of us have witnessed the growing number of H1B workers joining our ranks in the technology companies where we work. Over the last decade it became clear to most of us that there is a systemic reason behind companies firing veteran tech workers who are 40+ and replacing them with imported cheaper workers. While tech companies continued to cry wolf, about shortage of qualified employees, they did not hesitate to get rid of a growing number of such employees out of their ranks and replace them with foreign workers who were willing to accept low compensation. Though this practice is perfectly legal under the current laws of the U.S., the ethical aspects of this practice are highly questionable. In addition the economic effect of sending qualified older workers into the street, have contributed to the ongoing decimation of the middle class in the U.S.

Until now, all of the above was common knowledge; however, besides bitching around the water cooler, not much has been done in terms of exposing all the facts in this matter. Bringing about a policy correction, regarding importation of foreign workers into the high tech sector was out of reach for U.S. workers because the corporate lobbies were able to get their way, by bribing our elected representatives, through political contributions.

However, recently more information is being brought to public attention, exposing the true nature of the H1B corporate conspiracy.  The information that is used to track H1B Visa transactions comes from U.S. Government sources, primarily the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and is open to the public

The Economic Policy Institute, an independent organization that kept track of H1B transactions over more than a decade, published a report that clearly demonstrates the fact that the H1B program was utilized by various participating companies for exploitation of cheap workforce, rather than for filling the void created by shortage of qualified American workers. You can read the report on the EPI web site at this link: Top 10 H-1B employers are all IT offshore outsourcing firms, costing U.S. workers tens of thousands of jobs.

Quartz India published another article on this same subject, entitled: New data on H-1B visas prove that IT outsourcers hire a lot but pay very little. This article dissects the USCIS data covering the H1B program transactions for 2016. The article presents a conclusive evidence that the H1B remained and is still functioning as a tool for employee exploitation in the high-tech sector.

With many politicians, including president Trump, proclaiming that it is time for our government to work for Americans, it is curious that no material changes for eliminating fraud and employee exploitation are seriously dealt with in the U.S. Congress and Senate. Apparently, the power of money on politics still prevails over the good and prosperity of the citizenry. Yet again, executive bonuses drive the motivation behind corporate policies and the middle class is left to carry the load.

--Dr.Flywheel

News to Chew OnIs It Time To Replace the Intel Corp. CEO?

Apparently, the PR stunts by Intel Corp. executive management, orchestrated and led by Brian Krzanich, did not impress investors in a positive way. Beginning in May 2017, stock market capitalization of TSMC of Taiwan, surpassed that of Intel Corp, as the attached chart demonstrates.

(click on chart to enlarge)

It is now clear more than ever that executive management was not able to deliver the promised goods, including mass shipment of 10nm silicon products and that there is no end in sight to the execution problems that the company faces.

I have no doubt that the root of the company ailments have to do with executive incompetence, as well as the side effects of laying off a very large number of experienced employees during the 2015-2016 period. During this time executive managers continued to rip fat salaries and bonuses, however, the workforce became diluted of industry veterans who could have saved the day, with their wide knowledge and experience. The short-term gain that the company received through the massive layoffs paid back inversely, gutting the organization from the human capital that once kept the execution chains ticking 24/7/365. By replacing knowledgeable and experienced employees with much cheaper newbies, Intel Corp. executive management, sealed off all safety exits and set fire to the engine room. Highly speculative and very expensive external business acquisitions will not make up for the current Intel Corp. executive team's lack of ability to run a profitable business for the long run and therefore, successfully perform their duties to INTC stock holders.

Is Intel Corp. board acting as a rubber stamp, led by the nose by BK's daily whims? Perhaps they should wake up and find a CEO who is more into creating a functioning organization, rather than setting the stage for endless and mindless dog and pony shows that hardly phase the investors low opinion of the company's future.

Interestingly, Ashraf Eassa, who frequently writes commentary covering Intel Corp. is seeing the case for replacing BK, along lines similar to mine.
(see:   3 Signs Intel Corporation Needs New Management)

--Dr. Flywheel

7/30/2017 updates:

• S. Korea's export of chips all-time high in Q2
• AMD unveils high-end Ryzen Threadripper CPUs and Vega GPUs

Manager Training and memories of MTP (Managing Thru People)

July 2017

Long ago and far away, I and others had Intel front-line manager (FLM) training.

Courses: There were online and internal training courses that led to Mgr. paths.  Most were good, some not.  The best thing about the in-person courses was always meeting others as managers and discussing the situations that arose, and getting feedback and new perspectives on your own situations too.

MTP: A bunch of us wanna-be's and actuals went away for a week (to a place with great food!) and worked on how to be a better manager.  This was called "Managing Thru People" (don't snicker! That's the title. I still have the pin and lanyard.)  It really was about how not be an Individual Contributor, and how to do those skills of managing people.  It was a fun and challenging course, especially the project on the last day. The skills are different from being an engineer, and I've always respected those I worked with who were able to pull those off (shout out to you, DanD!)

But then MTP vanished.  And apparently some of the other manager training did too or was curtailed.  I was made aware of that by some recent anonymous posts by an Intel FLM (see references below). Seems like development paths for managers had taken a back seat.

IOPEC unfortunately that vanished a long time back in the early 90's. (IOPEC=Sr. VPs would go once or twice a year and give a 2-3 hour discussion and lecture in person, on how Intel works from their perspective.  AWE-some events for those who could attend them.)

So it was with some interest that I learned of Google's Project Oxygen back in 2009.  It started with the premise that, to paraphrase, "We don't need no stinkin' managers!"

But the actual conclusion they came to was kind of the opposite.  "We do need managers. And what if everyone had a Great Manager?"




Project Oxygen came up with 8 Rules and an upward feedback survey and much more, but I don't know how much they really still use it.  It would be interesting to hear that from inside Google.

The re:Work teams' copies of the Google Guides are a good place to start to get more details, and as a course of self-study.

•  https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/managers-develop-and-support-managers/steps/review-googles-new-manager-training/

If you want more, well I guess you can Google it! (-:    It's now part of Silicon Valley lore.

• https://www.google.com/search?q=google+project+oxygen

Bottom line: Managing is a different set of skills than you may have been trained for as a technical specialist.  (Chemist, Engineer, Programmer, Machinist, etc.)  Learn to recognize those who are great managers and maybe if they have helped you, and you can learn to help them too.  And if you choose at some point a management path, well get some of those skills solidly under your belt.   Heck, get them under your belt even if you DON'T follow a management career.  They can help you no matter what.  Learning to "Manage Up" is always a useful skill no matter what org you are in.

Cheers, 

--Richard Vireday 

References

• "Rehabilitation" - https://www.thelayoff.com/t/NZoSFt7 - An anonymous FLM's view of his situation in June 2017.