Case Study: Motorola

Case Study: Motorola

Leslie L Daniels

Strategic Management MGT4070

Instructor Disbennett Lee

South Univeristy Online

January 5, 2013

Here is brief background on Motorola. The company was established in 1928. Over the years the company started by Paul V. Galvin and his brother started out as a battery eliminator business. Over the years it became a manufacturing company for FM radio communications and then a semiconductor business. In 1947, the name was changed to Motorola and it moved into the television business. At one time it was the fourth largest television set business. They also supplied radios for Ford and Chrysler for automobiles. The organization has seen its failures in the television industry when their color televisions were a flop due to issues and its high price. In the 80s they found themselves as the leading provider of cellular phones and pagers. Over years, the company has gone from the top of the heap to the bottom. Through its many misfortunes, dotcom bust, recessions, delay in technology, defaults from large customers (30B in sales) and corporate downsizing they are still around.

In more recent history, Motorola is trying to go back to its roots of research and development. They are currently working on creating new technology to return back to the country’s largest marketer of cell phones. The organization will need to incorporate a strategy plan to help them move forward and try to gain ground on Apple, Nokia (global leader in cellular phones) and now Samsung.

The implementation of a Balanced Scorecard will lend a vast improvement to Motorola. Scorecards are an excellent way to determine if a company is performing not only up to their standards but also its customer’s standards. “The Balanced Scorecard emphasizes the linkage of measurement to strategy (Kaplan and Norton 1993) and the cause-and-effect linkages that describe the hypotheses of the strategy (Kaplan and Norton 1996b)”. The BSC also allows an organization see the competitive advantages it has over other companies and can assist in the management of their inventory, property, plant and equipment. In their scorecard they can track man-hours, procurement (buyer outs, days on hand inventory etc.), inventory shorts, financial hits, transportation and even training through human resources department.

Example of a Balanced Scorecard and a strategic map

As you can see the scorecard would help Motorola out in determining how they are doing as an organization and help them to ensure they are staying competitive and satisfying their customers. It can assist in helping to evaluate their return on assets and if they are using best practices to maintain a sound strategy for success.

Motorola has strong competition in the global cellular phone market. Apple, Nokia and Samsung are creating a strong outside environment for Motorola to overcome. Through its research and a good strategic plan they can at the minimum creep up in the market. It has to continue to research and develop a niche in the market much like Blackberry did with corporate

America. Motorola could also strategize on honing in on the possibility of creating a larger market for itself in networking or tablet market. Its experience with other products like radios