Motorola has done it again. As reported by every news agency that attended the Consumer Electronics Show, Motorola has joined up with Google, Yahoo and Kodak to improve its products and make new products. This is, of course, after partnering with Apple months ago.
What’s really important about this news is it shows the ongoing effort to create White Space in Motorola. As I blogged a year ago, Motorola’s efforts to create White Space where new innovation can flourish is a key success factor for turning around the struggling behemoth. Now, it’s ventures not only are opening the product development doors for licensing and creation, but in fact the Kodak venture will co-locate people from both companies into a joint development facility.
Many people have pointed out that several new products, including the RAZR, were mostly developed prior to Zander showing up. So why am I such a fan of Zander? Why so eager to talk about these projects? Because Zander Disrupted Motorola and unleashed the creativity which was there. The sparks already existed, but previous leaders did not know how to Disrupt the environment, attack the Lock-ins that held Motorola hostage to its worn out Success Formula, and create White Space to migrate the company into a new Success Formula. What’s happening in Motorola’s turn-around isn’t just a product story. It’s a story about how to overcome Lock-in to the past and launch yourself forward. And for that a lot of credit does go to Mr. Zander.
A lot has happened at Motorola since Ed Zander took over. Most of it, from raising cash by selling automotive businesses to aggressively promoting DVRs to putting real pizzaz into the phone marketing and creating new ventures has all been good. This is a company to watch, and probably a stock to own.