Motorola Going After Control of Vertex Standard (parent of Yaesu)

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Nov. 5, 2007:
Motorola Commences Tender Offer to Acquire Controlling Interest in Vertex Standard Co., Ltd. (Parent of Yaesu)

The full story here:
http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId=8909_8838_23&pageLocaleId=2026

Looks like they're going after Vertex's 2-way radio products, since their cell phone product business seems to be going down the tubes.

[WA1GFZ]

a company trashed by bean counters and chris galvin

[Bill, KD0HG]

Tribune staff, wire reports
October 23, 2007

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration chief Karen Tandy disclosed Monday that she is stepping down from her government post to take a high-level job with Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc.

Tandy, 53, will serve as senior vice president of Motorola's global government relations and public policy division. In that role, the company said, Tandy "will serve as Motorola's top public policy spokesperson" on issues related to global telecom policy, trade, regulation and related matters.

Tandy was the first woman to head the DEA, presiding over an organization with 11,000 employees, including 4,600 agents based in the U.S. and overseas.

Before that, she served in a number of posts with the Justice Department, including stints as an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia and Washington. She also filled a variety of roles in the department's criminal division.

----------------------------
The mismanagement hasn't stopped with Galvin leaving.

Being a well-connected narco officer is a perfect background for a senior VP in today's telecom business.

Knowing the difference between even a pager and a cell phone isn't a prerequisite any more, but knowing the best restaurants in Washington is.

"We make...err,..What is that thing?"

[kf6pqt]

Motorocomwood.

[Tom WA3KLR]

Motoyaesu?

Yaesumoto?

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Tribune staff, wire reports
October 23, 2007

Knowing the difference between even a pager and a cell phone isn't a prerequisite any more, but knowing the best restaurants in Washington is.

"We make...err,..What is that thing?"

Ya only need to know they're "communicators".
Best restaurants, best bars, and best hotels are important prerequisites for any high-level manager. Leave the drudge work to the lower levels.

[W3RSW]

Tom,

"Yaesumoto."   That's rich.

Great play. Guess your referring to the Yamamato, one of the largest WWII battleships that was sunk about the same way Motorola's going.  -Stranded without the rest of a navy or airforce.  ....steaming out to die, for the greater glory of the Emperor. 

Rick

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Motorola grabbing controlling interest in Vertex Standard.
Kenwood  involved in joint business development program with JVC.
Rumor has it that Kenwood and Icom will share some D-Star co-branded products.
Seem to remember Ten-Tec and some French Company diddling together with digital stuff for the future amateur market.
ARRL and MFJ team up to offer 40 meter QRP kits.

Who's Next

Ya want to have continued future success and footprint; you need to partner and sometimes even with your competition in certain markets.

And some just worry about an imaginary AM window and/or voluntary international band plans

[WA1GFZ]

Motorola was the king of parts and now they do nothing. Another HP story. Sell everything to make the quarter look good.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Motorola was the king of parts and now they do nothing. Another HP story. Sell everything to make the quarter look good.

Ya got to keep the investors happy. The bottom line is "king".

[WU2D]

When I was a lad in 1979 and almost an engineer I decided that I wanted to work for the finest radio company in the world - Motorola. I was a co-op student going to school at RIT and working every other quarter at a radio outfit that rebuilt and tested old military radios like the GRC-106. I did not have super grades but I was determined to get a job with Mot. I only sent out one package. After a while they got tired of my letters and sent a guy up to RIT to interview several of us. It was a tough interview but I got invited to come down to a brand new plant in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. I was hired into the special products group - mostly hams. It was a dream job - great management- fun group - fantastic culture - and we were on top of our game.

Not understanding what I had, I moved away because my wife did not like Florida and began my career in New England. I would never see a New England company that well managed and balanced.  Well until I worked for Analog Devices - they were pretty close.

However, things began to change for the worse according to my many friends back at Mot. sometime around 1990. They instituted a new program called 6 sigma. It was all downhill from there. Process replaced innovation. The family culture changed to a profit culture. All was lost.

One buddy who stayed there was just layed off two weeks ago after 29 years. A talented RF engineer but he has no degree.

I guess things change - what a loss.

Mike WU2D


 

[AF9J]

Yep another company run by bean counters.  I argued about that in a business class I was forced to take for engineering degree #2.  I stated that you wanted somebody who knew the product, so they would have product specialized insight with regards to manufacturing, marketing, sales, etc.  You know what I was told?  "That's what you have your experts for, who work under you."  Yeah, right!  One of the biggest maladies of US manufacturing companies nowadays, is that they're run by acountants and marketing, and have been for the last 30 years or so.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Process replaced innovation. The family culture changed to a profit culture. All was lost.

One buddy who stayed there was just layed off two weeks ago after 29 years. A talented RF engineer but he has no degree.

I guess things change - what a loss.

Mike WU2D

Innovation is great if it can bring the company profits. If it can't, good management should kill it and/or re-direct the energies, and move on to something that will. If you have investors, the bottom line (profitability) is the high priority. Having lots of plaques on the wall from innovating designs that bring no profits, will lead you to the poor house very quickly in today's business world.

Back in my corporate days, I had no problem killing projects that had innovated designs and innovating engineers, but were too long on the design cycle and the return-on-investment just wasn't going to be there. Product-to-market windows are getting shorter all the time.

[WA1GFZ]

how much crap can you buy from China while on welfare?

[WQ9E]

Yep another company run by bean counters.  I argued about that in a business class I was forced to take for engineering degree #2.  I stated that you wanted somebody who knew the product, so they would have product specialized insight with regards to manufacturing, marketing, sales, etc.  You know what I was told?  "That's what you have your experts for, who work under you."  Yeah, right!  One of the biggest maladies of US manufacturing companies nowadays, is that they're run by acountants and marketing, and have been for the last 30 years or so.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Hi Ellen,

I almost agree with you but as a professor of marketing I am a little biased.  Well run companies understand their customers (marketing) AND their capabilities (engineering) and when they start chasing efficiency at the cost of everything else (often inspired by accountants and/or financial officers) then you are sliding down the slope to disaster.  My standard opening lecture in my sales management course is that it is easier to be efficient than to be effective but which is more important???  GM provides a perfect example, over the years, of the fight between the financial management types and the marketing and engineering types over company direction.  The current game being played by most auto companies is called, "will the customer miss it?".  You remove a light source here, a bit of sound insulation there, and improve your production cost figure and multiplied by several hundred thousands of units produced the cost savings look attractive.  My answer as a marketer is, "the customer probably won't miss these items during a test drive and they will likely buy the vehicle but they will over time become less satisfied with all of the little cost cuts and probably will not be a repeat buyer."

 Our biggest shortcoming as a nation, business certainly included, is our short term orientation; it is a major competitive disadvantage which does lead to a national security issue.

Most marketers I know like and respect engineers, heck I spent two years in the engineering core before I switched to business.  I am sure that the time I spent in thermodynamics was character building and at least I got to laugh at my fellow business students complaining about the one "calculus for dummies" course they had to take as compared to the courses I had already completed.  Most marketer's biggest sin is re-framing product specs to "massage" the product image.  Marketers are biased towards customers wants (even when the customer doesn't know what they "should" want).  I am convinced that if Ten Tec gear photographed a little better the sales would be much greater; another example of aesthetics being more important than performance in product sales.

NOBODY can make an old buzzard transmission like a college professor!  Wink SRI

Rodger WQ9E

[Tom WA3KLR]

"the customer probably won't miss these items during a test drive and they will likely buy the vehicle but they will over time become less satisfied with all of the little cost cuts and probably will not be a repeat buyer."

Yep, got the sale today, but never again.  You hit the nail on the head Rodger.  Repeat business is the key.  The mentality is that there are an infinite number of customers out there, but there isn’t! 

And many of the employees in today’s companies with these philosophies have the attitude that there are an infinite number of employers out there too.  It’s no wonder why so many American companies go down the tubes.

[WA1GFZ]

Tom,
Mot loved on their past for a while until customers found out they were paying high prices based on past performance for plastic crap. I worked for mot in 95 and 96. That was all I could take. Every radio that came out of Isral had to be worked on right out of the box. it was real junk and you had to be careful not to break plastic snaps because they eliminated all hardware.
Then they sold off all the 800 MHz. repeater licenses which really ticked off customers. A 6 channel trunking repeater not had 2 so first thing in the morinng the phone rang off the hook with ticked off people.
Today the playing field is level...everyone makes junk.

[Bill, KD0HG]

It's good to know that the USA doesn't need companies like Ford, GM, Collins, Bell Labs and Motorola any more.

Between Google and our Communist friends in China, our butts are covered.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

ARRL and MFJ team up to offer 40 meter QRP kits.

Now THERE'S a match made in heaven! 

[WA1GFZ]

Bill, don't you mean cooked

[Pete, WA2CWA]

It's good to know that the USA doesn't need companies like Ford, GM, Collins, Bell Labs and Motorola any more.

Between Google and our Communist friends in China, our butts are covered.

Many companies get too bloated over time and/or fail to react in a timely manner as consumer or business needs change. They have only themselves to blame. Sometimes a "crash and burn" is the only answer and then hope that "resurrection" will work for them.

[WA1GFZ]

that's because they become infested with idiots who can only bean count.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

that's because they become infested with idiots who can only bean count.

If you don't keep tabs on your "beans", you're not a good business person.

[WA1GFZ]

True but when when people with no talent invade the bean counting system the end is in site. Then it becomes more important than doing anything else. I prefer the Kelly Johnson approach to bean counting.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

True but when when people with no talent invade the bean counting system the end is in site. Then it becomes more important than doing anything else. I prefer the Kelly Johnson approach to bean counting.

Rule No. 6
There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program.

I guess he kept the "bean counters" busy too.