The list of top 20 selling handsets with contracts from Mobile Today shows the weakest performance of Motorola handsets this year.
In the top 20 there are: 7 SonyEricsson, 6 Nokia, 4 Samsung, 2 LG and only one Motorola made handset. The only Motorola handset in the list is the KRZR, ranking 14.
I'm not sure if analysts use this kind of market trends at all when they make investment decisions, but somebody has to question the reasons behind such a dismal performance.
Motorola has failed to find a followup to the best selling RAZR phone. The company was a victim of its own success with the RAZR by thinking that they found the right formula for a best selling handsets. Instead of developing new handset ideas with new concepts, they kept on releasing models that essentially copy the RAZR concept over and over.
I remember vividly how my casual suggestion of developing a new mobile platform that enables handset customisation was met with ridicule at Motorola.
Since the news that the ex head of mobile devices Ron Garriques is to join Dell came out a couple of months ago, the analysts suggested that one of his tasks may be to develop Dell-style user customised handsets. Well done Ed, another opportunity lost for Motorola.
Showing posts with label Motorola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motorola. Show all posts
19 May 2007
10 May 2007
Moto CEO Tantrums pay off
So Carl Icahn failed to get a seat on Motorola board. Few months back Icahn raised some valid and very real concerns as an important shareholder of the company, which any sensible corporate interested in adding value to its shareholder should keenly take on board (almost literally!) and address sincerely and with an open mind.
I just could not believe how Ed Zander reacted to Icahn’s concerns: he simply wrote a letter to all other shareholders, effectively shooting down Icahn and attacking his character. As Moto’s politically correct HR policies put it, Zander is expected to “lead by example”, so what a great lesson to teach your subordinates on how SMALL you can get: “don’t take responsibility of trouble you brought on yourself, …do your dirty politics and you’ll be fine”. Frankly speaking, the whole thing read like a scripted version of a street brawl….
Since the late 90s, Moto corporate culture has encouraged managers, directors and executives to get away with such behaviour. So much energy and effort of Moto managers is wasted into: dirty politics and plotting against other Moto managers, trying to dodge blame and never take responsibility of actions, finding scapegoats, cronyism, empire building, ego inflation….etc.
Frankly speaking, I sympathise with Icahn’s concerns. I can not remember the last time Motorola has actually came up with something genuinely new or different. The company in general encourages conformity, so the few bright and imaginative people don’t have the space or encouragement to be creative. Terms like “creative”, “on the ball”, “has the acumen” in Motorola’s lingo are bestowed on the arrogant who, by definition, talk a lot but are not good listeners (essentially experts in BS), and those who can put together slide packs from thin air.
Motorola can go back to its glorious days, it just needs a fresh corporate culture that values new ideas and encourages long term success, not short-term agendas.
I just could not believe how Ed Zander reacted to Icahn’s concerns: he simply wrote a letter to all other shareholders, effectively shooting down Icahn and attacking his character. As Moto’s politically correct HR policies put it, Zander is expected to “lead by example”, so what a great lesson to teach your subordinates on how SMALL you can get: “don’t take responsibility of trouble you brought on yourself, …do your dirty politics and you’ll be fine”. Frankly speaking, the whole thing read like a scripted version of a street brawl….
Since the late 90s, Moto corporate culture has encouraged managers, directors and executives to get away with such behaviour. So much energy and effort of Moto managers is wasted into: dirty politics and plotting against other Moto managers, trying to dodge blame and never take responsibility of actions, finding scapegoats, cronyism, empire building, ego inflation….etc.
Frankly speaking, I sympathise with Icahn’s concerns. I can not remember the last time Motorola has actually came up with something genuinely new or different. The company in general encourages conformity, so the few bright and imaginative people don’t have the space or encouragement to be creative. Terms like “creative”, “on the ball”, “has the acumen” in Motorola’s lingo are bestowed on the arrogant who, by definition, talk a lot but are not good listeners (essentially experts in BS), and those who can put together slide packs from thin air.
Motorola can go back to its glorious days, it just needs a fresh corporate culture that values new ideas and encourages long term success, not short-term agendas.
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