Intel chief lays down law to workers

THE CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, is putting the blame for the company's delays and manufacturing problems firmly on his employees.

In a recent corporate email to staff, Barrett washed his hands of all responsibility for the company's problems, reversing an age old belief that the buck always stops at the top.

According to Reuters, Barrett said he met recently with several of the company's top managers and told them "bluntly and directly" to set higher expectations for the company.

"I wanted senior managers to have no doubt about the need to improve our performance," he told employees in a recent email.

Barrett admitted that actually his employees have done quite well by many performance indicators. These include doubling profits in the last quarter to $1.8bn and pointed to $8.9bn in revenue for the next quarter-an all-time record if reached.

What he was miffed at were production problems and delays, which were creating a raspberry "ripple effect across the industry". This would result in less-satisfied customers and a less-successful Chipzilla he said.

Recent delays include a delay to a future notebook chipset, and the recall of some Grantsdale chipsets. µ

L'INQ
Reuters