Goodbye Motorola

The Post I Should Never Have Written

I spent the entire month of April, writting and re-writting this post. You see, I used to work for Motorola. As a matter of fact, all combined I worked for them for a total of nearly 13 years. Some of my original drafts blasted middle management, upper management, CEOs, and pointed out all that was wrong with the company.

I finally decided to shelve the burn Motorola post. Motorola is burning by itself without any additional help from me. I will say one thing, the one thing that I feel doomed Motorola, more than any of its problems with management: Motorola forgot that it survived by providing a place for people to innovate. The company started treating everyone like an interchangeable commodity. The company turned its back on being loyal towards its people, and as a result the company lost the loyality of its people—mainly through fear. The end result was the company cutting its own lifeline: innovation.