Intel CEO Brian Krzanich explains the worst part of being CEO
He's navigating a declining PC market and admitting Intel missed mobile. He conducted layoffs, did a $16.7 billion acquisition of Altera, and got Intel into new markets like virtual reality and drones.
Along the way, he's also massively changed Intel's culture, bringing in more managers from outside Intel, and a commitment to diversity of having a workforce that fully represents the US population by 2020.
But when Fortune's Adam Lashinsky asked Krzanich the worst part of being CEO, Krzanich didn't even miss a beat.
It's the wardrobe.
"When I ran all of Intel's manufacturing, I lived in Arizona. I came ot work everyday in shorts and a T-shirt," he said in an interview on stage at Fortune's Brainstorm conference in Aspen, Colorado.
"I loved that job. It was the funnest job I ever had. Intel is one of best manufacturers on the planet."
He doesn't love a lot of his current job, most of the 'to-do list" stuff he does everyday, he said. But he especially dislikes the dress code. "Being CEO is different. I have to dress nicer. I don't get to come to work in shorts. I have to go to board meetings."
His two favorite parts of the job are the fact that Intel still makes stuff, and manufacturers most of it in the U.S., and solving really hard engineering manufacturing problems, like building impossibly small 5-nanometer chips.
And he enjoys going to customer meetings, particularly now with an emphasis on Intel's diversity, as he can show Intel off as a model of a "more diverse" company.
"I love to go to customer meetings. I'm the only one that walks in with one or two women and an African-American leader into a room of all men," he smiles.