Some of the valley's best-known entrepreneurs were born in other countries. Chief Executive Officer Andrew S. Grove escaped from Hungary in 1956 and built Intel into the largest U.S. chipmaker. In 1983, Frenchman Philippe Kahn founded Borland International Inc., one of the world's biggest software companies. Now, a new generation of immigrants is working its way up the high-tech hierarchy. Still, it's not all that easy for immigrants to get into management.
Some new arrivals have language problems, of course.
And it takes time to move them up the management ladder. Several Valley companies are trying, however, to open up their managerial ranks. In many companies, managers routinely take courses on ''managing diversity.'' Some companies offer immigrants classes on American idioms and business culture. In the highly competitive electronics business, more and more companies are finding that it pays to tap the cultural backgrounds, financial contacts, and entrepreneurial drive of the new immigrants. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.