Intel is a perennial member of the Fortune 500 (#8 this year) and among the more than 30 percent of corporations that saw revenues decline in 2008. But the company hasn’t lost its nerve (see “What Not To Cut“). One of the main reasons why is the confident consistency of the company’s chairman, Craig Barrett. Barrett was recently interviewed by the Wall Street Journal’s Michael S. Malone, and his comments reveal a man who has become convinced of the inviolable need for investing in innovation, regardless of external circumstances.

Barrett says, “The job of the CEO is not to reward the short-term speculator of your stock, but to do a good job long term for your shareholders, employees and customers. You don’t invest for ‘let’s have a 20% lay-off tomorrow to prop up our stock’ or ‘let’s cut R&D; to get a positive response from Wall Street.’ Thank God for Moore’s Law, because it won’t let us think like that; because if we do we get hammered.”

He learned that lesson the hard way. In When Growth Stalls I document one of the company’s rare failures to maintain its technological leadership position, and the inroads an aggressive AMD achieved against Intel’s market share. About that hiccup Barrett said, “We won’t let that happen again.”

I believe him, at least as long as the culture that Gordon Moore, Andy Grove and Barrett have nurtured over the years holds up. Barrett says that occasionally companies will be tempted to say, “What’s with the pell mell rush to improve our technology every two years? Let’s slow down to say, four years, and only have to invest half as much capital.” About that he says, “It always sounds like a cool idea, and it always ends up with that company losing market share.”

Over three-plus decades at Intel, Barrett has faced down every kind of market tectonic, sometimes with more success than others. He knows that the economy is cyclical. He understands that today’s technology is tomorrow’s artifact. And he actually appreciates competition. “It’s like athletes,” he says. “To be a great company you need great competitors. It’s what keeps you alive and keeps you honest.”