According to Joseph Campbell’s much acclaimed work “The Hero with a thousand faces”, a mythological hero is often displaced from his land of birth, forced to take an journey to an unknown destination, pushed into battles galore and only then, does he make a mark in his new world.

Often such hero heralds a world of new order.

Andy Grove would sure fit the bill of a mythological hero.

And, Richard Tedlow’s book “Andy Grove: The life and times of an Amercian” traces Andy Grove’s momentous rise from a Hungarian immigrant to global business leader, a leader who carved a niche of its own.

The first part of the book is devoted to the roots of Andy Grove, the second to his rise as a business leader and the third to human frailities(physical) and Andy’s battle to overcome them.

The book succeeds to some extent to unravel the mystery as the athor mentions at the beginning of the book. Quote: Part of the mystery of Andy Grove derives from the fact that he is two people–the person and the persona. The persona was managed for the advancement of Intel. Unquote

Overall, the book makes it a good read, giving us an insight how Andy Grove approached a problem.

Here are the 5 steps of Grove’s problem solving approach which could be considered the major take away from the book.
1) Face facts.
2) Double-check the facts.
3) Collect all the supporting data
4) Analyse the facts
5) Abstract from the situation and view it objectively

Related links
Amazon.com