Grove Influence Tactics

Influence Tactics

This section will study the use of influence tactics as shown through Grove’s style of managing people at his workplace which has successfully incorporated changes in Intel to become the world’s leading microprocessor maker.   Grove has become a world-known leader as he orchestrated the firm's pivotal shift from memory chips to microprocessors and this organization wide shift in focus could only be possible through influential leaders.

Rational Persuasion (soft 5)

Rational persuasion works through the use of logical and factual information to convince a target strongly in making a change.

Grove style of handling problems in Intel were known to be straightforward, blunt and results-oriented. However, once Grove was heading to Malaysia to help start a new facility and he was advised against bringing his blunt management style in handling the Asians, but to be diplomatic instead. Thus, initially during the meeting with the Malaysian managers, there was a list of problems to be solved, which included the idea of setting up Intel’s first offshore assembly operation in Penang, Malaysia. As there were many controversies, Grove tried to remain polite and passive as well, however realising that after some time, the problems seemed to be going round in circles with no solutions. Finally, Grove exclaimed abruptly that everyone is missing the point and took up a very straightforward and rational presentation of his solutions with figures to indicate that it was much cheaper to product products in Malaysia. This, initially caused the Malaysians to feel taken aback with his straightforwardness, but slowly, each of them joint the discussion through logical and realistic arguments which ended up with feasible solutions at the end. Thus Grove’s use of logical solutions worked in the above situation with managers who were indecisive.

During the period when Grove had intentions to transform the business of Intel from making memory chips to shift its...