The Silicon Valley : Dissent and Treachery

The Silicon Valley : Dissent and Treachery

Bangalored, a neologism, which became famous because of Barack Obama’s, (former American president) election address to the Buffalo audience, where he spoke on the dangers of the Buffalo (American) youngsters loosing their jobs to their Bangalore counter parts in India, reminds us of the spin off benefits that the exponential growth of Silicon Valley in San Francisco Bay Area has brought for India.

Silicon Valley is inextricably linked to Innovation and entrepreneurship and it is/was here that the so called ‘geeks’ work passionately in an informal work culture, alongside their unending and night partying- to give birth to the future. The origin of the raise and raise of this new knowledge culture in the Silicon Valley, where disruptive innovation is a norm, goes back to the decades of the 50s, 60s and 70s of the twentieth century, the traditions of which have continued to remain uninterruptible even today. And this culture of creativity, in the Silicon Valley, has spread to far off places across the world including in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurugram in India.

The semiconductor industry was and is the engine that drives the Silicon Valley, which ushered the much heralded Information Revolution, the computers, cell phones, satellites, internet etc. all of which have completely transformed our lives and are collectively leading to the knowledge society and to what is termed the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The history of the Silicon Valley is an interesting management case study, particularly for those in the Information Technology and knowledge industry that thrives on innovation and creativity. Creativity and treading unchartered path are inextricably linked to the Silicon Valley and often times they have come as a result of dissent and treachery, notwithstanding the hierarchy. The mother of all such dissent and “treachery’ by the famous eight, resulted in the formation of the Fair Child Semiconductor company, the torch bearer of most companies in the Silicon Valley.

It was on September 18, 1957, that eight of the brilliant workers (Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Gene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Sheldon Roberts) and would be entrepreneurs at the Shockley Semiconductors, fed up with their eccentric Physics Nobel laureate boss, William Shockley, revolted and walked off the job on this day in Mountain View, California. William Shockley had founded the Shockley Semiconductor company in the hither to unknown west coast and hired the best of minds to work for his semiconductor company. However, when Shockley decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors and continued to ignore the request and counsel of eight of his best minds and also resorted to ill treating them, the eight of them, under the leadership of Robert Noyce, got frustrated and decided to walk out and chart their own new path. These eight best minds — who would become known as "the traitorous eight" — went on to form their own company the Fairchild Semiconductor company, which ushered in unprecedented growth and innovation and laid a strong foundation for the Silicon Valley.

Founded in 1957, Fairchild Semiconductor company, quickly reached heights of influence and prestige including the invention of the integrated circuit (the ubiquitous IC) in 1959. Then beset by inept absentee management woes, it began to hemorrhaging key people who founded new semiconductor companies like Intel, AMD, National LSI Logic and many others. It is estimated by some that more than 400 companies can trace their roots to the Fairchild Semiconductor company, which was formed by those "Fairchild Eight" the most famous being Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, who co-founded Intel Corp. in 1968.

So next time when one of your bright subordinate or a junior disagrees with you, don’t call her a traitor, but encourage her to follow her own wisdom failing which be prepared to loose the best of minds for your company. Happy dissenting to all those genius minds.