ABSTRACT
The above quote chronicles the first days of Edward Zander as CEO of “fallen angel” Motorola. As the quotation indicates, Motorola had lost the confidence of a key customer, Nextel. Zander’s new company had at one time led the cellular telephone market, but did so no longer. Other customer meetings reinforced Nextel’s message. What followed was a concentrated effort to focus on customers and streamline manufacturing and procurement processes. Some successes were also reported in the December 2004
Forbes
article. Notably, most of the battles were with the “enemy within,” namely, of culture of autonomy, non-cooperation, and unclear accountability for customers.
