Motorola’s on the bubble.  Today we learned the CEO is being replaced (read article here). 

It’s easy to forget how bad things were at Motorola (see chart here) when Ed Zander took the helm.  The company had been laying off thousands, and most analysts were calling for more reductions.  Many people wondered if Motorola would survive.  But Ed Zander didn’t cut a lot of jobs, instead he opened up a lot of White Space.  He altered where Motorola invested, and made many acquisitions in businesses keeping Motorola at the cutting edge of digital television, wireless data and wireless communications.  Ed Zander made a lot of Disruptions at Motorola, and he encouraged thinking to move the company forward – rather than trying to find past glory.  Some people forget that he was CEO of the Year in the business press 2005.

But he didn’t do enough, fast enough, to leverage fast wins in mobile phones. His White Space project with Apple, for example, didn’t move fast enough or hard enough to be a leader, and ROKR is barely known while iPhone is gadget-of-the-year.  Enterprise data applications from Symbol still aren’t even identified with Motorola, despite being a Lotus Notes sort of application.  Even though all the Comcast Digital Video Recorders come from Motorola, too many people only know the name TiVo.  Lots of great White Space – but not enough results fast enough, as profits from RAZR evaporated.

No rest for the weary is never more true than in growth companies.  It’s not important what you did last year, only what you’re doing now.  Despite Disruptions and White Space, there weren’t enough results. 

Now the press is talking about how the new CEO is from the telephone business – as if going back to previous markets will save Motorola.  Do analysts want to go back to thousands of lay-offs and cost reductions?  Or should the company go forward, continuing its path into new markets, new applications, new growth opportunities?

When RAZR profits fell, Carl Icahn came calling.  This grim reaper investor doesn’t care about Motorola’s long-term health.  He wants to suck cash out for himself.  If pulling the cash kills the company’s long-term prospects he doesn’t care.  He just wants a short-term payoff.  And he got Mr. Zander to blink (or maybe Motorola’s Board).  New programs slowed, new rollouts slowed, market share efforts stopped as the organization turned to old approaches.  Faith in Disruptions and White Space evaporated as Defend & Extend practices returned.  And Mr. Zander’s demise became predictable.

Mr. Zander turned around Motorola, lest we not forget.  But what will happen next? If the company forgets how it unleashed innovation and returned to growth, things could get a lot worse before getting better.  Our biggest regret has to be that Mr. Zander didn’t do a better job of keeping his Board and investors aligned with his programs – and of not pushing his White Space teams to produce more results more quickly.  We can hope the new CEO will return to Disruptions and White Space rather than Defend & Extend practices which will push Motorola back to where it was before Ed Zander arrived.  Going back to the past may sound comforting, but success is all about the future.