Number One

“Number one is a hard time in the making
Number two is the one plane I'm not taking
Number three goes on one knee for a token
Number four is the short straw but it's broken
I'd give my all just to be number one”
—Chaz Jankel, “Number One”

Anyone with success on their minds has, at one point or another, thought (or fantasized) about being “number one:” That top spot in which you are revered and/or respected as a leader in your particular industry. The interesting thing about number one is that of the people that dream about being there, few achieve it.

Take the story of a young Ph.D. graduate of Berkeley: A brilliant young man that any corporate recruiter would offer anything they could to woo the researcher to their firm. In 1963 the firm of choice was the research powerhouse of Bell Labs. Earlier they had invented such things as the transistor, the laser, and some of the most unique and powerful calculators for their time. Certainly this solid state physics researcher would choose this behemoth to embark on what would likely become a brilliant career there. Instead, he took a risk and joined a lesser-known upstart known as Fairchild Semiconductor. Under the tutelage of a famous man by the name of Gordon Moore, the two would join others just five years later to
form Intel.

In 1987 the Berkeley graduate—Andy Grove—would succeed Gordon Moore as CEO of Intel. Instead of using conventional logic in decision making, however, he embarked, once again, on the road less traveled. Anyone who paid any attention to the computer market through the 1990s knows the “Intel Inside” logo. This campaign catapulted name recognition of Intel into a world that had long perceived other hardware manufacturers such as IBM as “movers and shakers” in the industry—even though Intel supplied more than 80 percent of the world’s microprocessors. In significant part to Grove’s conquest to expose the Intel brand to as many households as possible, Intel is a company worth $35 billion USD.

Wharton School of Business, seeing the merit in the success of these traits of unconventional thinking, creativity, and integrity, sought to identify other business leaders for which success manifested and the criteria that played integral roles in their doing so.

1. Create new and profitable ideas. This is the essential first step in the journey. Rarely does a business leader succeed from something that is not profitable. There are rare exceptions (i.e. Mark Schwartz, former K-Mart President, who bankrupted the company then decided to get a “fresh start” by opening a chain of gas station-convenience stores in South Dakota), but don’t

plan on being one.

2. Affect civic, political or some other social change through achievement in the business and/or economic world. There is a quote that a supervisor I once had displayed in his cubicle; the actual quote escaping me, the general idea was that someone truly great in their particular industry revolutionize and change it. This is true from the paradigms that he implemented in his department (which later would help him attain a promotion to operations manager) to the change that happened with Carly Fiorina merging HP with Compaq computer, creating the largest computer company in the world in the process.

3. Create new business opportunities or exploit existing ones more. “Thinking outside the box” means thinking creatively, critically, and paying close attention to the opportunities that exist from moment to moment not only in your immediate environment, but in your particular market or industry.

4. Cause or influence dramatic change in an organization or industry. Carly Fiorina speaks very thoughtfully and significantly about what goes into the process of such change. Deriving context and perspective from diversity and overcoming the destructiveness of change are just two topics that she discusses in the podcast referenced above.

5. Inspire and transform others. The greatest legacies that the most successful industry leaders leave is that which we leave in the inspiration and transformation of others to continue the great change which you have undertaken in the business of your choice.

So, the choice is yours: Take the path well-trodden and reap the easy reward—the “Bell Labs path”—or be the pathfinder and revolutionize ground that few others dare conquer and reap the potentially greater rewards—the “Intel path.”