The Company
Intel Corporation is a leading American company that designs and manufactures integrated digital technology platforms on an international scale for both commercial and consumer markets. Holding approximately 80% of the market share for semiconductors, Intel remains highly aggressive in maintaining it’s role in millions of devices ranging from personal computers, mobile devices, medical equipment, and server platforms. Intel’s main competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., has always been in second place relative to Intel in the semiconductor industry. Intel employs 82,500 workers, 55% of which reside in the United States. The company was founded in 1968 and is based in Santa Clara, California.

The Vision
Navigating to Intel’s homepage and finding their vision statement was very easy. It reads: “Extend our silicon technology and manufacturing leadership. Deliver unrivaled microprocessors and platforms. Grow profitability worldwide. Excel in customer orientation.” Intel provides us with a clear and fairly precise vision of what they hope to accomplish in the future.

Unfortunately, this is not a prime example of what a vision statement should be. The first problem is length. A vision statement with more then ten words is going beyond its true purpose, and yet Intel’s statement provides sentence after sentence of what they hope to be doing in the future. The consequence of this is that the statement, or in this case “statements,” are not at all memorable. Readers should be able to read a company’s vision and have it stay in their minds at least for a short time. Intel’s vision will not be so easily remembered in its current form.

Another faulty aspect of Intel’s vision statement is that it is much too specific. Instead of giving readers an idea of the company’s overall future state, they provide more of a list of goals. “Extend our silicon technology”, “grow profitability”, and “excel in customer service”, are simply statements of general goals that neither give impressive expectations nor quantifiable objectives. A proper vision statement should not sound like a list of goals or objectives. It should sound like a challenging, yet exciting future role of the organization that will both motivate and guide the employees of the company.

The Mission
Intel’s Mission statement declares, “This decade, we will create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth.” Intel manages to describe their current mission in a way that is simple but powerful. The quality of Intel’s mission statement far surpasses that of their vision statement. It addresses the important elements that all company missions should have in their statements, with only one exception.

The only minor problem with Intel’s mission statement is that it spans a whole decade. While including such a timeframe suggests high confidence, it cannot be a realistic assessment of the company’s current state. The mission statement should seek to only describe what the position and purpose of the company is from today to about three or four years from now. The reason for this is because of the volatility of the market and the various factors that play into the current state of any company. It is simply not possible to know how a company will be doing in ten years time.

Looking past the minor issue of the large timeframe of Intel’s mission statement, the full quality of the statement can be appreciated. It addresses the purpose of the organization, which is to “enrich the lives of every person on earth.” It describes the current state of the company, which creates computing technology and also works to extend that technology worldwide. The statement speaks to the company’s overall business model, and does not involve any specific details that may crowd the meaning of Intel’s mission.

The Values
Values are an important part of any organization and relaying them to the public ensures stakeholders that the company is guided by appropriate principles. Intel’s website offers a list of their values: “Customer orientation, results orientation, risk taking, a great place to work, quality, discipline.”

It is clear that Intel has sufficiently provided values that connect the company with all of its stakeholders in a positive way. However, it doesn’t quite provide us with a definite understanding of the company culture. “A great place to work,” leaves much to the imagination in terms how they intend to accomplish that. Will the company be open minded and inviting in relation to employee influence in the workplace? Or do they prefer running a tight ship where workers don’t have much of a voice. How diverse does Intel strive to be? Do they intend to challenge employees or provide an environment that excites and stimulates creativity? These questions are unanswered and therefore we remain in the dark about the company culture.

The values do give clarity to the core ideology of business. Customer satisfaction is just as important to Intel as the quality of the products. The value of discipline shows a desire for structure and consistency. Risk taking suggests a need for innovation and wider reach in the world market. These values define Intel’s core ideology and state the means by which they expect to solidify that ideology for the long term.

The Governance
Intel’s corporate governance is found in detail on there website. The provided document spells out the primary responsibilities of the board of directors: “The primary responsibilities of the Board of Directors are oversight, counseling and direction to the management of the company in the interest and for the benefit of the company's stockholders.” This is in tune with the general consensus of what the role of the board of directors should be. Monitoring, evaluating, and determining the direction of the company is recognized as the crucial responsibilities of the board, and Intel apparently agrees. Intel has also designated the number of directors to be 9-15, and states that most should be outside directors.
The top management at Intel is also clearly listed in a section on their website. The list includes Andy D. Bryant, the chairman of the board, Brian M. Krzanich, chief executive officer, and Renée J. James, president of Intel Corporation, among others. Each executive’s responsibilities are not found within their brief biographies. The strategic vision of Intel says they “strive to make the best silicon and technology products in the world, and through their application, to create a better future.” A precise vision that directs the top management and overall purpose of their decisions should definitely satisfy the stakeholders.

The executive compensation at Intel is a diversified program that offers cash-based as well as stock-based compensation that directly depends upon individual performance of the executives and operational goals of the company. This typical approach correctly establishes the incentive alignment.

Summary
Looking at the elements of Intel’s vision, mission, values, and corporate governance has shown areas that can be improved, but also great quality. Intel does not provide a nicely packaged vision statement that highlights where they expect to be in 30 years, but instead lists unmemorable goals. Their mission statement covers too large of a timeframe, however, it perfectly describes the role of the organization. The corporate governance covers a wide variety of information, and the specific elements we looked at seemed to be adequately addressed.