MT Magazine May/June 2026

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A VIEW FROM THE WOODS

MAY/JUNE 2026

Andy Grove Meets Isaac Newton I worry about products getting screwed up, and I worry about products getting introduced prematurely. I worry about factories not performing well, and I worry about having too many factories. I worry about hiring the right people, and I worry about morale slacking off. they simply decide for whatever reason to go with a new supplier, or they go out of business. Technology changes – it could be something small, like a new type of tooling that facilitates faster setups or a whole new way of processing parts. Customers’ technologies change – the demand for pistons disappears when vehicles have electric motors. And customers’ expectations change – if their supplier fulfills contracts faster and with better quality products, they’re going to want the same thing from you – even if you make an entirely different component. And, of course, I worry about competitors. I worry about other people figuring out how to do what we do better or cheaper, and displacing us with our customers. — Andrew S. Grove, “Only the Paranoid Survive”

Every company has experienced a period of significant growth – significant momentum. A good exercise for management is to determine that period’s growth velocity and then use it as a benchmark. While conditions between then and now are likely different, what isn’t is that for a company to continue succeeding, it must have forward momentum. So, track and compare the current rate of growth to what it had been by month, quarter, and year. Make it visible to the entire organization: “This is what we once did, and this is what we are doing now.” If the organization is underperforming compared to what it once accomplished, then it must assess the mass it has accumulated (aka “unessential overhead”) – and determine what may be slowing its velocity. One of the problems that can exist is something that doesn’t seem to be a problem – until it becomes all too evident. Back in my days at Liberty, we had a great customer. One day, I was at our contact’s office to pick up a purchase order. When the meeting started, he got up from behind his desk, moved to the chair next to mine, and put his hand on my shoulder. “I gotta tell you, you guys are doing a great job,” he said. “I’m getting all kinds of requests from our teams to use you.” He pointed to the purchase order to prove the point. “But listen,” he continued. “In my experience, we kill more good suppliers than we gain. We kill them with love.” He meant that regular orders could lead to complacency. And if – when – something changed, then that complacency was fatal for the supplier that had grown too comfortable. So, every day, I thought about what we needed to do to get better. I attended every trade show I could and walked every aisle. I made sure my people were aware of and had access to the best technology I could bring to the operation. Worry without deliberate action is irrelevant to momentum. Andy Grove didn’t just worry: While he was CEO of Intel, the market cap of the company went from $4 billion to $197 billion. He helped generate the critical mass.

Although I hadn’t read former Intel CEO Andy Grove’s book when I ran Liberty Precision, I shared all of those concerns he enumerated. Yes, at the time, he was running one of the leading microprocessor companies in the world, while I was operating a special machinery company, but I was concerned every

day that we would lose a good person, or a competitor would enter our market, or a customer would decide to go elsewhere. While this might seem like a stressful way to run a business, I always knew that if you’re not moving forward – if you don’t maintain momentum – then before you realize it, you’re in a bad situation. Many who reach a stable, comfortable status quo can suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them. As you may recall from one of your engineering books: p = mv. Or momentum (p) is a measure of an object’s motion, which is calculated by multiplying mass (m) by velocity (v). This is derived from Newton’s second law: F = ma. Or force (F) is equal to the mass (m) of an object multiplied by acceleration (a). What I want you to think about is that a key aspect of both momentum and force is the amount of mass. From an organizational perspective, mass represents the elements that make up a business, from employees to customers to the technology utilized to produce the products those customers need. But there are two types of mass. One aggregates over time. At points along the way, people are hired, machines are bought, customers are acquired, and things just continue on in a seemingly satisfactory way. The other type is what I call “critical mass.” This is the accumulation of resources and customers that achieves sustainable growth through a competitive advantage – an advantage predicated on people, processes, and technology. The first type of mass lacks both the momentum of the first equation and the velocity of the second. This is a situation of high comfort and little consideration for the possibility that it might disappear in an instant. But the reality is that competition always changes – and if you’re good at something, you can be certain that someone else is doing their best to be better. Customers change – whether

Douglas K. Woods President AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology