Rik Kirkland writes on LinkedIn about the time when he was Fortune deputy editor and Intel CEO Andy Grove challenged young business journalist Bethany McLean.
Kirkland writes, “In May 1996, when I was deputy editor, Andy wrote a cover story for FORTUNE, ‘Taking on Prostate Cancer,’ in which he clinically examined the choices he had confronted when diagnosed with the disease. One exhibit included a chart he had proudly crafted himself. But in the course of checking the math, a 25-year-old first year Fortune reporter named Bethany McLean, called him out on an error. He exploded in anger – and then quickly backed down once he re-examined the facts and realized she was right. (Bethany would go on to prove she was more than capable of holding her ground and facing down angry older white men when she wrote in 2001, a month after I became managing editor, the first national story to question Ken Lay and Enron’s then high-flying stock.)
“When Andy came to visit our offices in New York shortly after the piece appeared, he had little interest in seeing me and or my boss, John Huey, who had commissioned the story. ‘Never mind you guys,’ he roared, ‘I want to meet this Bethany McLean!’ He was quick to challenge but equally ready to admit—and celebrate –if he made a mistake.
“Some months earlier, Andy had appeared on stage in San Francisco at the FORTUNE 500 Forum with the other most-prominent CEO of that era, GE’s Jack Welch. In the course of their dialog, Andy suddenly turned to Jack and asked him if he used a computer. Jack admitted he did not. (Yes, kids, 20 years ago it was still possible to run one of the world’s biggest and best companies without personally using either the PC or the Internet!) Andy shook his head and, leaning in towards Welch with a mix of empathy and horror, said in his heavily accented English: ‘Jack, you really need to get a PC.'”
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