Competing with Intel and Nvidia: The Revival of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

Abstract

Nowadays, organizations need to have innovation mechanisms, and this is due to the market constantly evolving. This ever-changing climate may cause instability within organizations, in some cases even lead them to a scenario of bankruptcy. In this case study, we analysed the unlikely success story of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). AMD is a company that operates in the semiconductor industry. A company responsible for computer processors since 1969, and more recently it went through a major change in its strategic management to survive a bankruptcy situation. Even though AMD showed a lack of adaptation throughout the years, especially when smartphones and tablets first appeared, AMD has, since then, turned their focus towards what they are fundamentally good at, and they bet on those segments, which were high performance computer components. These segments were mostly dominated by very few players, such as Intel and Nvidia. This restructuration was led by Dr. Lisa Su, as she rethought the various strategies used by the company, propelling AMD once again to the top and making it one of the market leaders in the technology industry. In this study we focused on the successful case of AMD, by understanding the type of strategy chosen by the company and how it influenced its ongoing success. To achieve this, we collected information in various ways. Regarding the gathering of information about the company, an analysis of Dr Lisa Su's interviews and the organization's website was made. After carrying out these tasks, academic articles were read to identify the approaches selected by the company. Dr. Lisa Su's management proved to be fundamental to the company's success, as her futuristic vision and her ability to bet on promising products allowed AMD not only to face its biggest competition, but also to go head-to-head against it. This study suffered some limitations in terms of data collecting since there was no opportunity to talk with the company and consequently ended up being based on the formed opinion of the authors.