Different Drummer

"I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one.

It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. (Thoreau, 1854)

 

Modern management is based around the planning, the controlling, the organizing, and the leading function (Daft, 2007), but innovation and having a first-move strategy often goes against those functions.; management has to make a conscious effort to nurture innovation for those who hear Thoreau's different drum.

 

Intel created the first CPU, 4004 processor; this chip was created in violation of the planning, controlling, organizing function of management. The engineers at Intel were told to design a multiple chips set but they designed a set with few chips and one was a CPU(Gardiner, ). This violation of the planning function would be Intel's core business for next 35 years as they moved away from making memory chips and focused on CPUs.

 

I worked at Intel in the 1990s and they fostered innovation through creating a strong culture of innovation. Culture has many components: heroes, and stories are two of them (Daft, 2007). The Intel Hero of 4004 PCU effort was Ted Hoff. Company literature focused on his part in the 4004, even though others were involved. He was given an Intel Fellow position, which translates into a job for life. This Hero story enforced Intel support for going against planning, controlling, organizing when you had a better idea.

 

Another method a manager to use in creating a strong culture is stories. I worked at the Intel plant in New Mexico, and that plant had epic about innovation. A plumber, who supported the ultra-clean water supply for computer chip manufacturing, devised a plan to recycle factory water. The plan would save Intel over $100,000 and he received 10% of those savings. This story was repeated ever year when the cost saving contest was launched. This story shows Intel's commitment to innovation through a generous payout.

 

Organizations need to innovate but we also need control. The solution, I think, is be very selective about what part of the business we control and what part we allow innovation on. When I was at Intel, we always knew chips were "production" and which were "engineering experiments." We stuck to the standard process on production chips and we never experimented. If someone heard a different drum beat, they knew they could work with engineering and try to prove that beat.

 

References

Daft, R. (2007). Management (8th ed.). Boston: Thomson Southwestern.

Gardiner, B. Intel 4004 microprocessor turns 35 - news and analysis by PC magazine. Retrieved 11/19/2007, 2007, from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2059163,00.asp

Thoreau, D. H. (1854). Walden. Retrieved January 28, 2007, from http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext95/waldn10.txt