High Output Management

By Andrew S. Grove

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About the book

Intel chief executive Andrew S. Grove, a former chairman and the company's third employee, argues that the core skill of building and running a business comes down to one word: managing. His 1983 book draws on the methods he used at Intel, including management by objective, the approach now known as objectives and key results, or OKR. It covers measurable processes, performance reviews and training, along with ways to build productive teams and motivate people. Grove addresses CEOs and founders but also sales managers, accountants, consultants and teachers. Absent from best seller lists through the 1980s and 1990s, it later became a cult classic in Silicon Valley.

Mark Zuckerberg endorsed it as a big influence on his management style, and Shopify's Tobi Lütke described it as close to a how-to manual that breaks business down to first principles. Brian Chesky was reported to rely on it as his main source on management technique.

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This book has 9 recommendations

Julie Zhuo (VP Product Design/Facebook)

I picked up the book after Grove passed away this year and I found it so succinct, so clear, and so packed with easy-to-understand analogies. It really gets to the heart of what good management is.

Brian Chesky (Co-Founder/AirBnB)

For Chesky, a source may come in the form of a biography of a business hero such as Steve Jobs or Walt Disney. His primary book source on management technique is Andy Grove’s High Output Management.

Dan Reich (Co-founder/Troops)

I'm a really big fan of High Output Management by Andy Grove, who is the former CEO of Intel. He talks about how he thinks about management and systems thinking in general and what he did to build Intel into the company that it is today. And I think there's just a lot of great lessons for not only management and managers, but people that report into managers, people that are managers, and also how to think about creating leverage for you in a company. And there's just not many people better than Andy Grove to outline what that looks like.

Emi Gal (CEO/Teads Studio)

I like to think that all the books I’ve read have helped me in some way. High Output Management in particular has really helped me become a better manager.

Garrett Moon (CEO & Co-Founder/CoSchedule)

High Output Management by Andy Grove: My second recommendation for new leaders.

Jason Kottke (Blogger & Designer)

I will always be a total space nerd and this is a great history of the Apollo program.

Tobi Lütke (Founder & CEO/Shopify)

Andy’s book is unapologetically almost a how to manual, but kind of deconstructs the world of business into first principles. It’s like, “Here’s what matters. Here’s how to think about it. No one needs a degree. There’s a little bit of circumstantial contextual understanding that you just have to have.” But basically, at the end of the day, making business is an engineering exercise, which is brilliant for me because that actually made the whole thing about becoming CEO significantly less scary to me because engineering I understand.

Mark Zuckerberg (Founder/Facebook)

[Andy’s] book played a big role in shaping my management style.

Marc Andreessen (Investor, Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz)

If you pick one person who built Silicon Valley, it was Andy. Andy exemplifies the best of Silicon Valley.

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