To: Jim McMannis who wrote (40729 ) 11/20/1997 8:09:00 AM From: Xpiderman Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 186894
Grove has advice for Asia Embrace technology or 'go deeper into trouble'Published: Nov. 20, 1997 BY MICHAEL DORGAN Mercury News Staff Writer Intel CEO Andy Grove Information technology is revolutionizing the way people live and work -- at least in places where people can afford to use it widely. Business and government leaders gathering at the Asia-Pacific Information Technology Summit, which opens today in San Francisco, will discuss how it can contribute to economic growth and regional integration. Among those participating in the two-day program at the Fairmont and Mark Hopkins hotels will be the chief executive officers of Intel Corp., Oracle Corp., Netscape Communications Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. Philippine President Fidel Ramos and high-ranking government and industry officials from the region will also attend. The information technology conference is sponsored by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, a business-based organization that helps formulate policy initiatives for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. APEC itself begins its annual meeting Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia. Intel CEO Andrew Grove, who is chairman of this week's Information Technology Summit, spoke with Mercury News Staff Reporter Michael Dorgan on the eve of the meeting. Here are excerpts of that conversation: Q: What impact do you think the current financial problems in Asia will have on the chip industry in specific and the information technology industry in general? A: If these economies try to revert back to the good old ways, like six months ago or a year ago, they will go deeper into trouble. My whole thesis is that the equivalent of the new way, the new product, is an aggressive embracement of information technology. This is because information technology will turn out to be the solution -- or a part of the solution -- of every major problem, and the illustration I'm going to give is health care, education and commerce. When you have a society with heavy use of a tool that makes sellers more efficient and buyers more knowledgeable, that is a very effective, very important economic infrastructure. So if you for the moment compare the lead the United States has in exploring and exploiting Internet-based commerce -- expenditures in the United States are three times the percent of GDP basis of these Asian economies -- you're going to have a growing divergence between the economic power of the region compared to the economic power of the United States. So the formula for recovery cannot be to allow that gap to remain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: But will greater investments in information technology be a practical solution for Asian countries if there is an economic slowdown? A: Practical solutions are a function of the will of a society to deal with them. Almost any problem we have in our society or any other society faces the issue, ''We cannot do that because of the status quo.'' If there is enough will, we can change the status quo of what is practical. Not without cost, which is why it requires will. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: Some countries in Asia have made significant investments in information technology and others have not. When you look at the region overall, is there that kind of will? A: Singapore just reported a very strong third-quarter growth, and Singapore happens to be the most aggressive state in that region in terms of information-technology investment. When it comes to will, yesterday I read a wire service report that Malaysia is giving tax rebates to people who buy personal computers, so somebody there is thinking very much along the lines that I'm thinking. These, on the face of it, support my point. But the reality is these investments don't bring returns the next quarter. You have to have a conviction about the shape of the other side of the valley. There are 650 million people illiterate in that region. How will that become a productive economy 10 or 20 years from now? If you are not going to (invest in information technology for educational and other uses) what are you going to do to keep yourself from falling further and further behind a moving target? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: What do you see as the greatest impediment to utilization of these technologies? The costs? A: The decision-makers are typically people of my generation, and their values and grasp and understanding are shaped by this. The people who are against (information technology) are a generation more used to a different world. They don't understand the possibilities of it and, on the most trivial grounds, decide against it. (But) technology is penetrating very rapidly from a younger generation upward. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: So the biggest impediment you see is the attitudes of the decision-makers? A: Yes. I hate to put it this way, but it's a belief that technology can be a solution as compared to a belief that technology is a luxury. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: What do you hope will come out of the summit? A: I have learned that the best you can expect out of these things is to put a few concepts or thoughts into the public debate and move the ball forward by inches. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: Are there specific policies you will encourage or promote at the conference? A: I am advocating one policy: Embrace information technology because your future depends upon it. My message is very simple, and I recognize that it is self-serving, but they asked me to give a speech and I'm going to give the speech about something I know. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: You said you see the U.S. lead in the use of information technology accelerating. But do you think it's possible, over the long term, for the United States to prosper independently? A: No. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q: Why not? A: Think of something with which I'm most familiar -- the personal computer. Intel sells the microprocessor. Memory comes predominantly out of Asia. The hard disc may come from the United States, but the floppy disc or the CD drive has got to come from Asia. The monitor has got to come from Asia. The very act of (making) a personal computer is a technological United Nations. We market to each other, we do business with each other, we depend upon each other. So in the intermediate term, it's advantageous for us to be ahead. Long term, we are very heavily reliant on each other.