Bob Galvin , The Man Who Built Motorola, Bob's was the mentor and teacher , and has seen unprecedented growth of Motorola company .He discusses issues with all different types of employees in the hallways or in the lunchroom.
Paul Galvin passed on two keys to building a successful entrepreneurial culture within Motorola:
- Do not fear failure! In other words, entrepreneurs take risks and risk takers will inevitably experience some failures. Fear of failure can prevent a potential entrepreneur from taking risks.
- Recognize the signs! In other words, recognize the possibility of failure and move quickly to cut losses once it is clear that a new project will not become profitable.
During his time at the helm of Motorola, Galvin took Motorola from a successful two hundred million dollars in sales to a global company which had sixty seven billion dollars in sales when he retired in 1986. He hired professional management, and impressed upon them that they had proprietary interest in the success of Motorola. Galvin, alongside an engineer from his company created the well known ‘Six Sigma’ type of quality control system .
This control system is often associated with GE . Galvin utilized it, knowing that providing better quality control than the Japanese was the only way to become better than them. Galvin is also said to be one of the very first entrepreneurs who saw the opportunities which existed in the Asian market, as well as other continents. Just to open up the Chinese markets for Motorola products, Galvin invested one hundred million dollars. Communication systems for police forces, cable television boxes, cell phones, hearing aids, pagers, cell phones infrastructure systems, and many other wireless devices were created while Galvin was in charge at Motorola.
Bob Galvin felt that the key to Motorola’s long-term prosperity was effectively serving its customers, employees, shareholders, and community:
- FOR CUSTOMERS:
The objectives are to serve every customer better than our competitors with products and services of excellent value and quality , and thereby earn continued enthusiastic trust and support.
- FOR PEOPLE :
The objectives are to treat each employee with dignity, as an individual; to maintain an open atmosphere where direct communication with employees affords the opportunity to contribute to the maximum of their potential and fosters unity of purpose with Motorola; to provide personal opportunities for training and development to ensure the most capable and effective work force; to respect senior service; to compensate fairly by salary and benefits and, where possible, incentives; and to practice the commonly accepted policies of equal opportunity and affirmative action.
- FOR SHAREHOLDERS:
The objective is to have our shareholders prosper and, therefore, make our equity securities an attractive investment.
- FOR OUR COMMUNITY:
The objective is to be a good corporate citizen by contributing to the economic and social well-being of every community and country in which we operate. The corporation will encourage its employees to actively participate in community affairs.
Bob Galvin insisted on constant respect for people and uncompromising integrity. The hoped for result was the kind of trust that leads to creativity and hence long run survival. Here is what Bob Galvin says about such trust in his The Idea of Ideas, “One’s creativity depends on interaction with others – others one trusts – others who feel trusted. For one to be unfettered in risking creative interaction with another, that other must know the trust of openness, objectivity and a complementary creative spirit.
Entrepreneurship was always second nature to Bob Galvin, who in his 61 years with Motorola developed a participatory management culture that rewarded employee innovation and creativity while maintaining the highest standards of quality. Although his leadership guided Motorola’s strategic growth, Bob’s word was never law, he expected challenges to his authority, and he trusted his colleagues to make decisions that would keep the company profitable.
