Motorola announced today that it would be appointing Qualcomm's former COO Sanjay Jha to head up its ailing handset division -- much to the chagrin of our own
Ryan Block. Jha will also take on co-executive duties for the parent company along with current CEO Greg Brown. The news comes hot on the heels of speculation that the electronics-maker will spin off its mobile phone wing as a separate, publicly traded entity, though chatter persists that an
outright sale of the division may be more economically advisable at this stage. So here's the question that begs asking: why has Moto gone the co-CEO route? Whether it's a matter of the board's confidence in Brown's abilities, or a by-product of some unseen moves, it comes off as unusual at best.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jayanth @ Aug 4th 2008 1:28PM
Good move by Moto to play to its strength - Engineering and Product Design. Mr. Jha, with all his experience will only strengthen these aspects of Moto.
This move must actually give Moto's stakeholders the confidence that the giant has still not given up and is in the game for with a long term view. Also, this will help retain it's strong position in the North American market, where Mr. Jha is the poster-boy of modern telecom industry and also gets good relations with the carriers on board. While this is a strong move in new product design (remember Moto's 3G product line-up, or the lack of it? ;-) with a long term vision in mind... what Moto urgently needs is a head with consumer sales experience. What happens to Moto in the immediate to short term where it's product line-up and more importantly it's platform strategy is still far behind competitors needs to be seen.
Good challenge for Mr. Jha to head a consumer devices company. While this will help Moto strengthen it's carrier relationships (mainly in the western world), it needs to be seen how it manages to steer itself in the emerging markets which are primarily retail and consumer-centric.
Hopefully, we'll see the re-emergence of Moto as we know it - the tech giant.
Sam Oakley @ Aug 6th 2008 5:56AM
don't know if I've already submitted this but Moto's sharprice was up 11% immediately after announcing the hire. that's some appointment!
Jayanth @ Aug 4th 2008 1:32PM
Good move by Moto to play to its strength - Engineering and Product
Design. Mr. Jha, with all his experience will only strengthen these
aspects of Moto.
This move must actually give Moto's stakeholders the confidence that
the giant has still not given up and is in the game for with a long
term view. Also, this will help retain it's strong position in the
North American market, where Mr. Jha is the poster-boy of modern
telecom industry and also gets good relations with the carriers on
board. While this is a strong move in new product design (remember
Moto's 3G product line-up, or the lack of it? ;-) with a long term
vision in mind... what Moto immediately needs is someone with consumer
sales experience. What happens to Moto in the immediate to short term
where it's product line-up and more importantly it's lacklustre platform strategy needs to be seen.
Good challenge for Mr. Jha to head a consumer devices company. While
this will help Moto strengthen it's carrier relationships (mainly in
the western world), it needs to be seen how it manages to steer
itself in the emerging markets which are primarily retail and
consumer-centric.
Hopefully, we'll see the re-emergence of Moto as we know it - the
tech giant.