Introduction 

The success, growth, and development of companies and businesses require effective and sustainable strategies. In most cases, developing sustainable strategies requires that companies reorganize their corporate strategy, goals, and objective in line with the changing economic trends, advanced technologies, and globalization, among others. Sustainability and development require companies to be adaptable to the internal and external forces and environments. In that case, the paper focuses on a significant strategy shift of Intel Corporation that led to the development of the New Platform Strategy. In realization of a detailed case study analysis, the paper discusses the role played by the IDC as the Centre of the competence, forces that gave rise to the Banias process project, and the roadmap of the core microprocessor, an imperative product for the company. Finally, the paper identifies both positive and negative implications of the new strategy for Intel Corporation and recommends possible changes that could lead to increased success and sustainability of the platform strategy.  

Role of IDC

The Israel Development Center plays imperative roles and unction in the realization, birth, and development of the new platform strategy for Intel Corporation. The success and existence of the Centrino are incomplete without mentioning the presence of IDC. Primarily, the birth of Centrino took place in two important locations, namely Santa Clara and the IDC. This aspect shows the important role of the Centre as a peripheral Centre of competence in the company (Cavalcanti, 2014). The IDC was established in 1974 and housed the major computer specialists. The Centre provided an arena or platform for these computer specialists from the most prestigious universities to facilitate technological development. The IDC engineers and computer specialists developed many projects in the Centre, such as the Timna and the Banias chip design projects. More importantly, these computer specialists facilitated the development of Centrino. Concisely, the IDC housed the computer specialists and engineers who facilitated technological development for Intel Corporation.

The IDC was a source of knowledge on many of the projects undertaken by the company. The IDC provided adequate expertise on the hear generation problem in the fast processor. The Centre was the source of Intel’s success through the development of the company’s products. The specialists and groups used this Centre to implement and develop projects and products for Intel Corporation, which makes it the ‘factory’ of the company (Cavalcanti, 2014). The IDC can be described as the innovation and production chamber where nonexistent products came to life; the company’s products were improved and made more efficient. It is due to this Centre that Intel Corporation shifted its focus to the overall performance of the product, quality, and product differentiation rather than just its speed.

Concisely, the IDC was a source of knowledge, enabled research concerning projects and products such as the Banias project, led to the birth of various products at Intel Corporation such as Centrino and the Pentium 3. In addition, the IDC contributed to the shift of competitive advantage for the company, showed the relevance of products such as microprocessor production for the corporation, and provided an arena to facilitate all these technological developments.

External and Internal Forces giving Rise to the Banias Project

The Banias process project was a project undertaken in Israel that resulted in the development and production of the microprocessors in Intel Corporation. The Banias ships were designed to increase their performance while consuming less power. The rise of the Banias process project resulted from both internal and external forces. Externally, forces such as environmental CSR, the availability of ready market, increased competition, and increased customer needs and demand contributed to the development of the project (Cavalcanti, 2014). The increase in global warming required that the products to be energy efficient; hence, the chips were needed to perform highly but consumer lesser power. Moreover, there was an increased demand and customer’s need for the microprocessors, which resulted in a ready market. The industry was also characterized by stiff competition whereby other companies produced products with better performance. Intel thus used this opportunity to develop a product with unique features that had maximized overall performance and required less power.

Internally, Intel Corporation had the technology to create Banias, had ownership of the idea as it developed from project Timna. Since Intel had developed the idea before with the Timna project, they had the knowledge, experience, architecture, and technology to create Banias. The Timna project acted as a basis and guideline for a better product (Banias). Previously, Timna project required a similar architecture, which was the p6 (Cavalcanti, 2014). Thus, since the computer specialists had the experience, they were able to create the Banias project easily. In the Timna project, Intel had used a translator hub, which led to its defect, thus, when developing the Banias project, Intel decided to purchase the RDRAM despite being costly for a useful product.  

Roles of Intel’s Management in Determining the Strategic Context

The development of projects Banias and Centrino were successful due to the roles played by not only the computer specialist and IDC engineers but also from the management executives in the corporation. These executives included operational managers, senior managers, and top executives. 

Management levels	Names	Roles played
Operational managers	Mooly Eden	Coordination of activities necessary in the innovation of Banias Ensured all activities and operations run smoothly in the achievement of Centrino’s goals and objectives Had engineer experience that led to developing the codename for the chipset
	Guchman	Helped in the development of the mobile segment that was powerful than the Pentium 4 processor Ensured all activities and operations run smoothly in the achievement of Centrino’s goals and objectives
Senior manager	Chandrasekher	Controlled the planning and marketing teams Chairing meetings meant to develop ideas on how the product would meet the customers’ expectations
Top executives	Barrett	Instrumental in clarifying the differentiating wireless features of Centrino Instructing the mobile team as well as Johnson Decision-making and prioritizing on goals and activities of the projects Budget approval for launching the Centrino project Employee motivation through meetings, recognition, and project scheduling
	Otellini	Budget approval for launching the Centrino project Employee motivation through meetings, recognition, and project scheduling

The Change of Intel’s Core Microprocessor Road Map

The Banias project played an imperative role in changing the roadmap and overall focus of the company’s strategy. Previously, Intel’s roadmaps were focused on developing microprocessors with high performance but ineffective in terms of energy consumption. However, through the Banias project, this roadmap was changed drastically as it integrated energy efficiency elements in addition to high and improved performance. Secondly, Intel Corporation’s focus on product development was on speed. However, the Banias project changed this focus for the company to focus on environment CSR and improved performance (Cavalcanti, 2014). It is through this project that the company’s brand name Intel Centrino developed and the innovations resulted in the other products such as mobile phones and desktops. Thus, the Banias project played an imperative role in changing the initial roadmap of the corporation to an expanded platform strategy focusing on energy efficiency, high performance, consumer, and market need.

Implications of Pursuing the “Platform Strategy”

Pursuing the platform strategy will have both positive and negative implications to all stakeholders of the company. Primarily, the strategy will solve many practical problems affecting the company as well as the interactions among employees that hinder the success of the company. The strategy improves the internal systems of the company, as they were differentiated in three distinct groups that would improve employee interaction and efficiency in the company (Cavalcanti, 2014). On the negative side, the realization of the improved efficiency and employee interactions, employees required to adjust to the new strategy, which could have been faced with resistance and inadequate training and understanding.

Proposed Changes for Successful Platform Strategy 

The success of any strategy requires adaptability and flexibility to ensure it aligns and incorporates the changing economic trends and events such as technological advancement and globalization. Thus, for the company to successfully pursue the platform strategy, significant changes must be made in its communication systems, strong and effective leadership must be practiced, and awareness must be created in addition to improving interactions among the differentiated groups. The platform strategy is based on integration of different groups and levels of the company. Thus, information sharing and timely communication are imperative. In addition, effective communication systems will ensure that reliable, safe, and adequate information is shared timely among these groups. This will improve employee and group interaction and easy idea sharing. Effective leadership must be implemented in the company, as leaders play an imperative role in facilitating development, making effective decisions, and guiding the employees on what to do. Finally, communicating and creating awareness of Intel’s goals and objectives to all stakeholders will increase the chances of a successful strategy. All stakeholders will understand their role, input, and what the company’s mission and vision requirements.

 

Reference

Cavalcanti, J. C. (2014). Chapter 5: Conclusion: Innovation Challanges in Established Firms. In Effects of IT on Enterprise Architecture, Governance, and Growth (pp. 1139-1169). Business Science Reference.