Motorola 殞落之真相？

由 Casper Kao 於 Mar 30th 2008 @ 12:00PM 發表

感謝讀者建議咱們來好好看一下這篇，經過小編消化一下之後，頗有人生如戲、戲如人生的感慨。所謂好人不長命，真是說得有夠他X的對！

總之，事情是這樣的，約莫在上個月，咱們主站編輯連絡上了這位 Numair Faraz，他也就是 Motorola 前行銷長（CMO）、RAZR 手機之父、已故 Geoffrey Frost 的得力助手。在 2005 Frost 過世之後，Numair 這幾年就不斷的被推離管理核心，被欺負成這樣的結果，終於讓他在今年二月，也就是 Motorola 宣佈分家打算過後沒幾天，向 Motorola 全體、董事會、投資人一封他對於這公司如何犯下決策上的錯誤、以及管理經營階層如何無能做出批評。

主站編輯在研究這些批評的真實性之餘（基本上他們對於 Numair Faraz 所提出的這些意見，認為都是實話實說），他們還發現了一些過去五年來 Motorola 內部的一些問題；包括了 Ed Zander 還有他的手下們如何為 "個人利益" 來奮鬥等問題，甚至是現任 CEO Greg Brown 本身竟然是個不用電腦的人等這些怪現象，都再再的顯露出管理階層的...該說是無能嗎？至少 Numair Faraz 在信中用了不少次這個字（inept，用這字算客氣了！）。

信中內容的原文跟簡單的重點摘要，這位可以在跳轉後參考一下，但從中的各樣建議、批評，真的是不難看出，為啥 Motorola 最終會走向這條分家路，大概因為他們也沒輒了吧！

[原文連結]

以下條列重點

Motorola 整個手機的行銷決策，全然落在 CMO、RAZR 之父 Geoffrey Frost 一人之手，意思是說其他大部分的管理階層都在尸位素餐？根據 Numair Faraz 的說法，Motorola 前任 CEO Ed Zander 對於小白球的熱忱遠大於公司的經營管理 ==
由於當年 Geoffrey Frost 等於是把 Motorola 手機事業的興亡一肩扛，在 ROKR 手機發展的時候，也是拼了老命在世界各地走透透，其他人？上面那段提過了...
當然在 ROKR 計畫進行的同時，Geoffrey 其實還有推動軟體服務，甚至將目標定在社群功能的想法，在當然 MySpace 跟 Facebook 都還不紅甚是根本還沒出現的時候，很難想像被 Motorola 做起來的話，現在的 Moto 又會是家怎樣的公司？可惜，這計畫被白球老爹給咖掉，因為他比較 favor 老賈的 iTunes（ROKR）手機，現在呢？
很多親近 Ed Zander 的人都認為 Geoffrey Frost 是被他操死的。
在 Geoffrey Frost 過世以後，Ed Zander 並沒有將 RAZR 賺來的大筆鈔票，投資在更具有市場性、突破性的新產品上，這為人兄則是買了 Symbol 這家公司，以及從投資人手中買回了一堆 Motorola 自身的股票。
在 2007 年，Numair Faraz 曾經提醒 Zander 不能在這樣敗下去，他卻責怪已故的 Geoffrey Frost 說他沒有創造出比 RAZR 更好的產品；還要他等這看 Motorola 在 2008 年推出新的大物級產品。（大物啊！大物！你是在大霧裡嗎？）結果這個大物，竟是讓 Motorola 大澈大悟的換了總裁，而他的離開，同時也讓 Motorola 付出了近 3000 萬美元（還不包括 Zander 擁有的股票）的代價。
新任總裁 Greg Brown 也沒有好到哪去。就算他不像是過去的 CEO 一般無能，他的決策，似乎直接扼殺了 Motorola 在消費型手機通訊市場的前途。信中 Numair Faraz 指責 Greg Brown 不僅是對消費型手機市場一無所知，甚至認為他一心想要將 Motorola 手機部切出，也只是個逃避承擔責任、不願面對自身無能的手段而已；不僅沒有盡力去重振手機事業，事實上是根本沒有去嘗試。要重振 Motorola 的手機事業，首要任務就是去找一個跟 Geoffrey Frost 一樣有願景的人才，並且將 Motorola 的發展，放置在個人前途之前，甚至應該對設計師施壓，要他們開發出更好的產品，讓過去哪種 RAZR 代表的富貴、特權，再次出現在 Moto 的手機上面。甚至要相信美國自行開發的軟體，而不是全然不負責任的將軟體外包給中國、俄羅斯等國。應該要好好利用 Linux 甚至是 Android 的平台，讓 Motorola 的手機界面跳出石器時代。
應該要接納集體分工模式（crowdsourced）的裝置設計平台，放棄名人既昂貴有沒有效力的代言策略，而是將 Motorola 的手機推廣到各層次的消費者。去體認到最重要的事情，是社群的經營。

Numair Faraz 在信中大概提到了這些要點，分隔線底下為原信內容，請各位參考參考！

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Greg Brown, and the rest of the executive team at Motorola,

As you may or may not recall, I worked with Geoffrey Frost as a personal adviser during his days as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of the company. I was the one quoted in Forbes in 2003 as saying "Motorola's biggest problem is that Samsung kicks ass," and eventually came to spend nearly three years working with Geoffrey during his efforts to revamp the company's mobile lineup, which eventually saw the launch of the RAZR. As I told the company's senior designers at Motorola's 75th anniversary meeting: create something cooler (and more expensive) than anything else out there, and everyone will want it.

After the success of the RAZR, while Geoffrey was tied up every which way in ROKR development, meetings, criscrossing travel, and so on, through his associates I implored the company to beef up their software expertise, and focus on creating socially networked devices (this was in the years before MySpace and Facebook became the juggernauts they are today). Your predecessor, Ed Zander, had little interest in this, and instead insisted on parlaying his relationship with Steve Jobs into the ill-fated ROKR effort in order to prop up Motorola's stock price.

Zander, who seemed to care more about his golf score than running one of America's greatest technology companies, left all of the hard work to Geoffrey; I've always considered it Motorola's dirty little secret that the strategy for their entire profit machine was run by the company's CMO -- not the rest of the company's executives, who are as inept now as they have ever been.

Many close to Geoffrey believed Ed Zander worked him to death, putting the pressure of the fate of the company in his hands. [That was certainly the buzz around the industry at the time. -Ed.] I took his untimely death in 2005 very hard, and knew that the company would head downhill in the aftermath. On a personal note, Lynne, his wife blamed the company for his passing. She committed suicide soon after.

Meanwhile, Ed Zander continued to reap the dividends of Geoffrey's work as the company made billions in profit from overselling the RAZR for years. Instead of channeling that money into the obvious -- further development of groundbreaking consumer devices -- Zander purchased enterprise companies such as Symbol ($3.9b), and engineered billions of dollars in stock buybacks.

As I told Zander in a phone call in 2007, I felt that he was setting the company up for massive failure. He had the audacity to say, "Well, maybe Geoffrey should have come up with a better successor to the RAZR," and told me to "Wait for big things in 2008." I guess he was right -- the golden parachute he got for his exit from the company was worth about 30 million dollars -- and that doesn't include his accumulated Motorola stock.

Your appointment to the position of chief executive gave me cause for hope, and I reached out to you; I knew you were one of the main drivers behind the enterprise acquisitions, and that you had zero expertise in consumer devices. Surely you could use some help in turning Motorola's flagging cellphone business around?

But apparently different from the rest of the incompetent senior executives at Motorola -- except instead of merely being inept, you're actually actively killing the company. Your lack of understanding of the consumer side of Motorola doesn't give you a valid reason for selling the handset business; moreover, publicly disclosing your explorations of such a move, in an attempt to keep Carl Icahn off your back, shows how much you value the safety of your incompetence.

You clearly have no interest in fighting the good fight and attempting to mold Motorola into the market leader it can and should be. Taking control of the handset division, as you have recently announced, will accomplish very little except but to give you an ability to say, "We tried our best" -- which you haven't -- when you finally do cart the business off to the highest bidder.

In order to turn the handset division around, you need to bring in another Frost; someone worldly and dynamic who is more interested in Motorola's success than their own corporate career. You need to task the company's designers with the same mantra that created the RAZR -- make me a phone that looks, feels, and works like a symbol of wealth and privilege. Recognize the superiority of American software, and bring back those jobs so irresponsibly outsourced to China and Russia. Fully embrace embedded Linux and Google's Android initiative, and take the phone operating system out of the stone age.

Recognize that, while rich people don't really know what they want, the lower end of the market does -- and fund the development of an online "crowdsourced" device design platform to take advantage of this fact. Get rid of all of your silly, useless marketing, including those overpriced and completely ineffective celebrity endorsements, and do one unified global campaign with Daft Punk (the only group whose global appeal extends from American hip hoppers to trendy Shanghai club kids to middle-aged Londoners). Understand that the next big feature in handsets isn't a camera or a music player -- it is social connectedness; build expertise in this area, and sell it down the entire value chain.

I was there when Motorola's handset division was brought back from the brink of death 5 years ago. Follow my advice, and we can do it again.

Maybe it sounds like I take the downfall of Motorola personally; I do. It was my experience at Motorola, with people like Geoffrey and all of the loyal employees who still remain, that taught me what corporate America can and should be. But with people such as Zander and yourself, Motorola symbolizes the worst of our country's corporate culture.

As an immigrant American, and someone who has traveled all over the world, I really do appreciate the uniqueness and importance of the American culture of creativity and ingenuity. Whereas other countries back their money on gold and commodities, we back ours on our ability to invent the future. The failure of Motorola as an American institution of creativity and innovation, should you let it happen, will now be entirely of your doing. Hopefully you'll keep that in mind while the board has the accountants prepare your golden parachute.

Regards,
Numair Faraz

Dated Feb 5, 2008. Letter edited for form.

Tags: Motorola

讀者回應 (第 1 頁 / 共 1 頁)

Neutral