Talk:Motorola: Plan B

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Can anyone comment?
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 * Yes, anyone can comment. The wiki was only opened today, which is why there are no comments yet. Angela (talk) 18:47, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

What about replacements?
--Anyone got any ideas? I always thought Mike Z. (Current head of Nortel) would have done a great job. Unfortunately I don't think Nortel has done fantastic things since he went there, or if he would be willing to come back.

--I am also in agreement, I can see Mike Z. being able to take the reins of Motorola like alot of people thought he would and create a better Motorola for it's employees and customers. Just from the work that he has put into Nortel a struggling company shows that he would put the same effort in bringing back Motorola from the grave, especially having once served Motorola in the past. I think in a way him leaving Motorola and taking on the extreme challenge of Nortel will give him the strength to apply it to the rebuilding of Motorola.

-Mike Z has had just as long at Nortel as Zander has at Motorola. I've seen no evidence that he has done anything to improve Nortel.

-Mike Z is originally from General Electric. Managers from GE are best known to optimize operations for mature products. They are very good at reducing costs but my view is that they may not be the best managers for high-tech companies that need to innovate and get these products to market quickly. Ed Z was from Sun Microsystems and would have seemed to fit the bill for a high-tech company, but it appears he was not.

Mike Z. is famous around here (Motorola, Fort Worth) for saying in a town hall that he could hire 5 engineers in China for the price of 1 in the U.S.

Way to motivate the troops! I said good riddance when he left.

However, Zander (and most American corporate level managers) seems to have the same managment philosophy....

Outsource outsource outsource.

What about replacements?
I think Dan Maloney the head of Home and Network Mobility would be a good choice. Eddie Lampert on the board would be fantastic.

--I disagree with the Meg Whitman quote about CEO leaving every 10 years. Bob galvin was CEO for multiple decades and was excellent. It is about accountability, so I can't agree more that the 4 board members who oversaw identical mistakes need to go.

Lampert? How well is the Sears/Kmart merger going? (I'ma asking, it seemed good at first, but I have not heard great things since.) David Doorman and Greg Brown are both former AT&T. However AT&T was a dog while they were there and it has subsequently been purchased twice over.

Greg Brown seems to be Zander's choice for saving things. However, when Brown ran the Networks Division, he merged the Cellular and Government divisions just to break them apart again when he became COO. What changed besides his promotion to make the merger a good idea one day and bad idea the next? Motorola was trying to build RFID organically and failed under his "leadership" so he was behind the purchase of Symbol to make up for it apparently. Motorola had twice the engineering dedicated to 3G as they do now to WiMax. They failed in 3G, so now they are going to succeed with 1/2 the investment? Again, Brown. He needs to go before Motorola becomes AT&T junior.

I realize I'm not helping to suggest people, but the private equity model is to make whoever they put in charge invest some of their own money. "Skin in the game" as the plan says. Icahn and Lampert can certainly claim that if put on the board. I'd like to see the same from any future CEO.

So not many suggestions so far. It probably is not going to be a high-profile canidate. A good search will be required. Since many high-profile CEO's seem to fail as they do succeed, my thoughts are that Motorola should find the right executive from a mid-sized technology company without offering a golden compensation package. Speaking of compensation package, maybe this should be its own point or sub-point in Plan B. If structured as pay-for-performance, unlike all CEO packages today, it will actually incentivize for the CEO to get it right. It must be structured so the CEO does not benefit from short-term performance, which can be easily manipulated at that level. It needs to be structured for the long-term success of the company, such as offering significant stock options that are only exercisable 2 years or longer after the CEO leaves the company. And no golden parachute, if the CEO fails miserably. Maybe Motorola can set a precedent for proper compensation packages.

Breakup the company
Why nobody ever think about breaking up the company? Why do you think bringing a new CEO will help? You may get another Zander? Any how, it will take time to turn the company around. Market is move up fast, and we are lagging. The best choice is to break the company into 3 pieces, IPO, private equalty, whatever. The two profitable business would easily fetch $20 billion each. The MD, although loosing money, can still fetch more than $25 billion, or even more. Just my two cents.

I don't know about your valuations, but as part of the Public Safety business, I would not shed too many tears leaving the mothership. Freescale stock was $13 when Motorola spun it off. It is $39.99 today. Former Symbol and GI people probably find it unusual to see their stock come to a screaming halt too, despite their market positions, margins, and growth.

Did blogger Jackson help Icahn?
Check out this story: http://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2008/03/blogger_turned_activist_invest.php

Another Wrong Move
Motorola appointed Stu Reed as head of Mobile Devices Business. He is the last guy who should have been appointed. He is the architect of a very bureaucratic and completely vertical supply chain organization. The many business units throughout Motorola have no control over the manufacturing of their own products - they are at the whims of a supply chain organization that doesn't have any 'skin in the game' to quickly and effectively introduce new products into manufacturing. His claim to fame is cost cutting in supply chain - obviously it has not helped Motorola's earnings. (The cost-cutting was not from reduced staffing because the supply organization has grown tremendously in the last couple years as Stu built his empire.) Motorola can not recover by cost cutting. Zander would hire 5000 more people if he could get another hit like the RAZR. Instead, we need a visionary, who knows what will be the future of the mobile user experience and that can articulate it so people can understand. Saying (parading) "Seamless Mobility" is not enough. We also need a leader that can properly organize Motorola to spur innovation - a vertical organization clearly is not the right structure.

Mobile Devices has a new leader
''Mobile Devices has a new leader, so this entire section is a moot point. You can debate if it's the right person or not, but it won't change the decision, so move on to more important issues. ''

Steal, borrow, and copy from the leading companies who have made product usability their top priority. Has anyone considered hiring and empowering designers who understand something about usability, not just cool industrial design?

Industrial design of products can be copied (e.g., Samsung Blackjack, Sanyo Katana, and LG AX8600 are all examples of design knock-offs) but human interface design is an art and, therefore, that much harder to copy.

Palm, Apple, and others have put the user experience at the top of their list for design criteria. Their software is simple, intuitive, and rewarding. The result has been innovative products that customers LOVE to use. Whether iPhone is one of those products remains to be seen, but the current user experience for almost all mobile phones is painful.

It's as if Microsoft or the person who designed BMW's iDrive system have infected everyone with their tortured views on how to make products infinitely complex and frustrating to use.

When will people get it? No customer REALLY cares about Linux-Java. Does the phone work? Is it easy to use? Do I enjoy the experience? The software strategy is less important than the interface design and experience, by orders of magnitude.

Who is leading the change on this front??? Nokia phones, while much easier to use, are just as boring and staid as every other phone on the market. THAT is why iPhone will be successful.

To paraphrase James Carville, "It's the experience, stupid!" It's NOT about the technology. iPhone is not that impressive when you look at all the individual components and technologies, but wrapped in software and a user experience that have set a new standard for the industry Apple has created BILLIONS of dollars in market capitalization merely by announcing this new product.

That is the power of design that's well-executed.

In addition to replacing Ed Zander, I believe Greg Brown and Stu Reed need to be replaced. This would likely come with a new CEO anyway, but why wait?