Interview, below, excerpted from BusinessWeek online (May 14). Yellow highlights and non-italic BF are mine:
Motorola (MOT), once the most dominant cell-phone maker in the world, has fallen mightily in the past couple of years. But the Schaumburg (Ill.) communications-gear manufacturer is now clawing its way back—sustained by the performance of its broadband, government, and enterprise equipment businesses even as the flagship cell-phone division continues its struggle for profitability. Though the turnaround is far from complete, some light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. Motorola co-CEO Gregory Q. Brown, who was chief operating officer in 2007 when Motorola's recent fall from grace began, talked with BusinessWeek's Roger O. Crockett about some of the lessons learned.
Was hubris, born of Motorola's Razr success, a factor in Motorola's decline?
I think success is one of the biggest impediments to growth. It can be blinding. It can reinforce a historical or traditional way of doing things.
What do you mean?
Sustainable success has to be earned every day. And sometimes, a hit product can mask the brutal reality that more work needs to be done. I also believe that successful organizations have an 'outside in' perspective. They are consistently looking at their work and the results through the lens of their customers or investors."
How did Motorola stray from this approach?
In Motorola's case, historically we viewed things inside out as opposed to outside in. And at certain points in our history we developed an unhealthy hubris that manifested itself in us thinking we knew what was best for customers, as opposed to listening in an unfiltered and unemotional way to what customers were telling us."
This blog has flogged the outside-in gospel from the beginning. We wrote a damn book about it. There's nothing really new here, folks, yet history just keeps on repeating itself. The victim here: Motorola. They should've asked. Coulda told "em.
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