Fortune Staff

The 25th Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list suggests that tech giants’ peers respect them as much as ever.

World's Most Admired Companies

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

Fortune 500

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The data communications and telecom equipment manufacturer serves more than 100,000 customers in more than 100 countries.

Motorola Solutions, Inc. (MSI) Company Profile, News, Rankings | Fortune

legacy

Motorola Solutions

motorola solutions

Susie Gharib

Motorola Places Big Bets on Law Enforcement

/2017/04/26/motorola-ceo-greg-brown-law-enforcement/

How Motorola Solutions Escaped Bankruptcy

/2017/04/25/motorola-solutions-ceo-greg-brown-bankruptcy/

Jonathan Vanian

Versace Family Member Wants To Succeed In Artificial Intelligence, Not Fashion

/2017/01/17/versace-neurala-artificial-intelligence/

 Greg, when people hear the name Motorola, they think cell phones. But now you're in this business of equipping police and fire departments and first responders with things like body cameras, high-tech telecommunications gear. Is public safety now the new growth paradigm for you? It is. It is. So think Motorola Solutions as mission critical communications. Well, as you know, we live in terrible times. And the public is demanding a lot of transparency and accountability with police and fire departments. And so in some ways, this is a positive trend for a company like yours, right? It is. So people want a more constructive relationship with local law enforcement. You're right. Unfortunately, a lot of the things that are going on in society today are tough. So local law enforcement wants the best communications tools. They want the best things that make them productive. For officers, they want eyes up, hands free, to deal with crime in a constructive and productive way. And we're supplying these products and solutions that allow them to do that. What are some of the new gadgets that are coming through? Because we hear things like smart belts that tell you know when you take a gun out of your holster and smart glasses. I mean, what are the Motorola engineers working on? Body-worn video, sensors on a holster. We just invested in a venture capital company called Neurala, which is edge image recognition. So if we have a composition of a bad guy in midtown Manhattan in a red baseball cap and a blue fleece, we can load that information, have this company search massive big data databases, and bring it back, and isolate that individual, and deliver it to that specific police officer. And just about every company these days-- and not just tech ones-- are using or talking about getting into virtual reality, artificial intelligence. And I know that you've been moving into that area as well. To what extent will that technology make a difference in this whole area of public safety? I think it will be pretty substantial. So if you're a police officer, you don't just have voice recognition of what you're coming into. Maybe you'll have a video feed. Maybe you'll have building schematics. Maybe you'll have situational video that comes on a special purpose device that tells you, even though you're a mile away, what you're coming into. So it's the combination of mission critical communications and mission critical intelligence. And we expect to lead in both. How do the police forces react to all these new gadgets, this new technology? They'll welcome it, if it's easy to use and intuitive. So body-worn video-- we don't have a body camera that's separate. We embed it into the speaker mic. So it's one less gadget for them to manage. Certainly, this is a very fast growing field. And you have competitors coming into it. I know they're a lot smaller than Motorola Solutions. But some of them could be potential disruptors. How are you staying ahead of the competition? That's a great question. I mean, we have the established competitors. But you never know which company is formed out of their garage or which startup comes out of Silicon Valley. So we keep our ear to the ground. We invest a lot of venture capital in startups to capture that ideation that we may or may not be thinking about. We're continually staying close to our customers in ride-arounds with customers, so they identify their trends and needs. And we continually have a healthy level of paranoia. And what are you doing to get your employees behind this innovation push so that they are trying new things and taking more risks? I think employees are coming to Motorola Solutions because we have a new corporate location. We're downtown Chicago. It's much more vibrant, less bureaucratic. We're hiring more software people, less hardware people. And we launched a strategy-- in innovation office where we're spending tens of millions. And we don't expect anything in return. It's OK to take a risk. It's OK to spend money on an idea. And it's embedded within the overall strategy of the firm. How's it working out so far? Fantastic. We moved the company about eight or nine months ago. If I had one thing to do over again, I would have done it sooner. We're getting 7 and 8x the interest on a job application. Marketing, sales, software design-- I think we're hitting our stride in the transformation this company. I really do. It's exciting. 

Motorola Wants You to Know It's More Than Just Cell Phones

Leadership

It’s focusing on developing devices for police.

Greg. When people hear the name Motorola, they sink cell phones. But now you're in this business of equipping police and fire departments and first responders with things like body cameras. Ah, hi. Tech of telecommunications gear is public safety now the new growth paradigm for you? It is. It is. So think Motorola Solutions as mission critical communications. Well, as you know, we live in terrible times, and the public is demanding a lot of transparency and accountability with police and fire departments. And so in some ways, this is a positive trend for a company like yours, right? It is. So people want ah, more constructive relationship with local law enforcement. You're right. Unfortunately, a lot of the things that are going on in society today are tough. So local law enforcement wants the best communications tools. They want the best things that make them productive for officers. Um, they want eyes up, hands free to deal with crime in a constructive and productive way. And we're supplying these products and solutions that allow them to do that. What are some of the new gadgets that are coming through? Because we hear things like smart belt tell you know when you take a gun out of your holster and smart glasses. I mean, what are the Motorola engineers working on body worn video? Uh, sensors on a holster. Um, we just invested in a venture capital company called Kerala, which is, uh, ej image recognition. So if we have a composition of a bad guy in midtown Manhattan in a red baseball cap and a blue fleece, we can load that information, have this company search massive big data databases and bring it back and isolate that individual and deliver it to that specific police officer. And just about every company these days and not just tech ones are using or talking about getting into virtual reality artificial intelligence. And I know that you've been moving into that area as well. To what extent will that technology make a difference in the whole area of public safety? I think it will be pretty substantial. So if you're a police officer, you don't just have voice recognition of what you're coming in, too. Maybe you'll have a video feed. Maybe you'll have building schematics. Maybe you'll have situational video that comes on a special purpose device that tells you even though you're a mile away what you're coming into. So it's the combination of mission, critical communications and mission critical intelligence, and we expect the lead in both. How did the police forces react to all this? These new gadgets, new technology? They'll welcome it if it's easy to use an intuitive, so body worn video, we don't have a body camera that separate we embedded into the speaker mic, so it's one less gadget for them to manage. Certainly, this is a very fast growing feel, and you have competitors coming into. I know there are a lot smaller than Motorola Solutions, but some of them could be potential disruptors. How are you staying ahead of the competition? That's a great question. I mean, we have the established competitors, but you never know which company is formed out of the garage for which start up comes out of Silicon Valley. So we keep our ear to the ground. We invest a lot of venture capital in startups to capture that ideation that we may or may not be thinking about. We're continually staying close to our customers in right around with customers, so they identify their trends and needs, Um, and we continually have a healthy level of paranoia. And what are you doing to get your employees behind this innovation push so that they are trying new things and taking more risks? I think employees, um, are coming to Motorola Solutions because we have a new corporate location were downtown Chicago. It's much more vibrant, less bureaucratic. We're hiring more software, people less hardware people. And we launched a strategy on innovation Office were spending tens of millions, and we don't expect anything in return. It's okay to take a risk. It's okay to spend money on an idea, and it's embedded with within the overall strategy of the firm. How's that working out? Fantastic. We moved to the company, Um, about eight or nine months ago. If I had one thing to do over again, I would have done it sooner. We're getting seven and eight x The interest on a job application, marketing, sales, software design. Um, I think we're hitting our stride in the transformation. This company, I really do. It's exciting

Greg, when you became CEO of Motorola Solutions, you completely transformed this 90- year- old, iconic company. You spun off the cell business. You sold off other parts of the business. You made some acquisitions. How did you know that it was time to completely transform this company, as opposed to just making some adjustments on the side? We didn't have the luxury of incrementalism. The company was in trouble, actually. The cellphone business was losing hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter. So the benefit I had was the need for change was crystal clear. Because status quo eventually would have bankrupted Motorola. So we had to do something differently. In addition to that, Motorola invented a lot of different things in the past but they were more consumer oriented. Motorola invented the cell phone, invented the pager, if you remember the pager. Invented the car radio. Invented elements of the television. But in each of those cases Largely the Koreans and the Chinese come in and disrupt those industries. What Motorola was best at was mission- critical, industrial, complex communications, We doubled down on the things we were best at and we expanded that lead accordingly. So what did you need to do as a leader to take this newly invented company In the right direction? I think actions speak louder than words. So we reshaped the portfolio, we reshaped the board. I think I relentlessly and persistently communicated the need for change. By the way, some people didn't get on board. We changed the people. So, you- So you have to hire a different breed of employee. There were some senior level management that liked the rearview mirror more than the windshield. And that's okay, but then you have to make the Those decision accordingly as well. I'm assuming that not everything went so smoothly, and that there was some mistakes along the way. What was the biggest mistake as look back, and what was the leadership lesson that you've learned from that? Biggest mistake was not moving soon enough on people. Especially people that I knew well And that had been with Motorola a longer period of time. I have a phrase that went, and when it comes to people, when you don't know, and the biggest mistakes I'd made in the transformation were riding the wrong people too long. And you learn. Greg as you look back on your very long career, what would you say is the best leadership advise that you ever received and why was it so crucial in shaping your leadership style .>> One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten was from my wife. And I was sharing with her a difficult situation in Motorola, she said Greg you have two choices. Change it or change the way you think about it. The leadership lesson is, decisions, you either make them or they're made for you. So if you're the leader, if you are the CEO, if people expect you to lead, assume the position and do it. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

CEO Greg Brown moved Motorola headquarters to Chicago and shifted focus away from consumer products.

How Motorola Solutions Navigated Away From Bankruptcy

Finance