The first business leader to be labeled "paranoid" was Andrew Grove, the book's author. Grove was the most legendary CEO in Intel's history. In 1968, Grove participated in the founding of Intel Corporation.He single-handedly built Intel into one of the world's largest technology companies. The term "paranoid" in this book refers to the ability and determination of a leader to come forward during a life-or-death moment and save the day. In other words the ability to lead the team out of the valley of death using solid willpower and absolute conviction.

The road of life is long, but only a few steps are critical. This also applies to enterprises. These key steps often determine the fate of an enterprise: when the enterprise is on the right track, it can obtain sustainable growth.Andrew Grove calls these critical steps "strategic inflection points" for the enterprise. They are usually caused by technological revolutions or changes in competitors and user groups.