Motoral Group Case

For Bob Galvin, Motorola is his legacy. Motorola was built by his uncle and father, Bob’s mentor and teacher, and has seen unprecedented growth. Bob has been with the company since 1944 and knows where it came from and has a vision for where it can go, as he continues to pursue the values instilled by his father. Bob’s style is casual and open. He discusses issues with all different types of employees in the hallways or in the lunchroom. He likes to “manage by wondering around” which is what has allowed him to hear the disagreements and complaints of his employees. What he calls “structural problems”. Increasingly, he hears that the company structure is confusing; the management matrix is difficult to navigate. The product development cycle keeps growing which Galvin knows will hurt him with direct competition from Japan.

Galvin knows his legacy is in trouble and risks getting pummeled by the Japanese. Galvin chooses to announce his challenge to his top officers at the biennial meeting of his top 153 officers that the company needs structural changes and look toward, possibly “smaller, more focused business units”. The only person in that room who knew what was coming was Galvin himself. None of his officers had any idea of what he was looking to do. Most people were beginning to panic and rumors started running wild through the company. People were thinking that they just made it through a recession and posted some good numbers and then hear that Galvin wants to change things and it confused them. The HR department seemed to be the only ones behind Galvin’s idea but also said that “neither managerial agreement nor an effective change process would be easy to come by”.

The uniqueness and the key to Galvin’s success is his distinguished role as a leader first, and a Chief Executive Officer second, as he expresses fully through his speech on leadership. He explains being a leader in simple