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When Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced this past Friday that CEO Ed Zander would be leaving his post come the first of next year, not too many industry pundits and analysts were surprised. Motorola seems to have lost its way in the last 18 months when it comes to the wireless handset marketplace, and Zander's inability to manage through that challenge cost him his job. But can his successor, the much-admired Motorola President Greg Brown, stage a comeback for the wireless giant?Brown has every bit as impressive (if not more) of a resume as Zander, having racked up 25 years in the tech industry along with mounds of operations expertise. Zander's claim to fame was as past president of Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVAD), although at the helm of Motorola, his reputation took a beating as the tech giant floundered against the competition, both in market share and profit.
Brown has the operational and logistics chops to make sound decisions at Motorola, but does the company need someone who can energize design, sales and marketing as well? Yes. Brown's training has not prepared him for the customer-centricity Motorola needs immediately, so he'll have to learn and adapt very quickly. Brown's been called a "bland guy" by some, although it's too early to tell if that is what is needed at Motorola -- the unbland.
Then again, former NCR CEO Mark Hurd was hailed as an operational guru without a distinct passion for sales and marketing when he joined Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) years ago, and he's turned out to be all that and more as HP has screamed back to the top of the tech world. Perhaps Brown can use Hurd as a template for how to get Motorola's heart pumping again.
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