Edward Zander was a man who greatly valued stability. Although Motorola was no longer the global market leader at this time, it was still number one in the US market. Therefore, Edward Zander's mission was to maintain Motorola's leading position in the US market and prevent anyone from challenging it.
Consequently, he began to aggressively oppose anything that threatened this stability.
Of course, he knew that opposing companies like Nokia and Samsung would be futile, so he chose not to. His focus was primarily on rivals who were beginning to emerge.
For instance, BlackBerry was severely targeted after Edward Zander took office. Motorola launched a model that closely resembled BlackBerry's flagship device in terms of appearance and features, with a similar price point.
It’s important to note that BlackBerry's rise at this time was largely due to its aggressive pricing strategy, offering comparable quality to Motorola but at a lower cost to gain market share.
Edward Zander's move instantly crippled BlackBerry. Sales plummeted, and the company spent the following years slowly recovering, only truly rebounding after Motorola's eventual decline.
This success made Edward Zander very proud. He believed he had successfully stabilized Motorola's market position. His plan was to continuously replicate this strategy, preemptively striking down emerging mobile brands to kill them in their infancy and ensure absolute stability.
However, even with this objective, Edward Zander should not have been hostile towards a mobile phone that hadn't even entered the market yet, nor had a dedicated distributor.
This, however, can be attributed to Edward Zamp's keen foresight and his grandson. To be fair, Edward Zamp's foresight was truly remarkable.
About two weeks prior, one morning, Edward Zamp noticed that his beloved grandson had switched phones.
Edward Zamp's grandson had always been a staunch supporter of Samsung. He had a peculiar theory about mobile phones: Samsung phones were industrial art pieces, Nokia phones were industrial tools, and Motorola phones were industrial waste.
Yes, that was how Edward Zamp's grandson described Motorola. Edward Zamp had once criticized his grandson, warning him that if his colleagues, especially his superiors, heard such remarks, they might assume he himself held those views, which would be detrimental.
In response, his grandson deliberately avoided Edward Zamp's social circle. He maintained his aesthetic preferences by refraining from any contact with Motorola personnel. Edward Zamp fully supported this, as long as it didn't affect his own career.
Then, on this particular day, Edward Zamp discovered that the Samsung phone, which his grandson considered an industrial art piece, had been replaced by another device.
Furthermore, in his grandson's own words, this new phone wasn't merely an industrial art piece, nor an industrial tool or industrial waste. It was described as a piece of industrial art.
You see, it had been elevated to a higher echelon. Edward Zamp first praised his grandson, then took the phone from him. After playing with it for a while, he had to admit that this phone, in terms of appearance, functionality, and design, completely surpassed Samsung. It was indeed a step up, and calling it industrial art was perfectly justified.
Following this, Edward Zamp decided to completely ban this phone.
After all, Motorola, such industrial waste, was already on shaky ground, its dominant position threatened by the "industrial art pieces" and "industrial tools." Now, with the emergence of an "industrial art piece," how much longer could it survive?
Edward Zamp immediately ordered his subordinates to conduct a thorough investigation of this phone. The intelligence on the Tianxing 5 was then placed before Edward Zamp.
The person responsible for the investigation had proactively suggested that since the Tianxing 5 had never entered the market, there was no need to exert effort in suppressing it.
However, Edward Zamp once again displayed his intelligence.
He argued that a company that had no intention of entering the mobile phone market had spent three years developing five generations of phones, each with significant technological advancements. In just three years, they had managed to elevate their new-generation phones from being inferior to "waste," "tools," and "art pieces" to being truly artistic. Would anyone believe that such a company harbored no ambition to enter the mobile phone market?
Moreover, Tianxing was not an obscure, small enterprise. It was backed by the Jiangnan Group, a newly emerging Chinese technology company. This was a company that Zamp had been closely monitoring.
Edward Zamp had been displeased with the Jiangnan Group since December of the previous year.
At that time, Edward Zamp had just assumed the position of President of Motorola. This period was crucial, as Edward Zamp needed to demonstrate his capabilities and achievements to the board, at the very least by improving Motorola's profitability and solidifying his presidential position.
However, the market was unpredictable. Edward Zamp could not guarantee the development of a phone that would be well-received by the market. Therefore, relying on the release of high-quality phones to increase profit potential was highly unstable, and Edward Zamp disliked such unstable methods.
So, what was a stable way to increase profits?
Naturally, it was by reducing costs.
Thus, Edward Zamp launched his cost-reduction plan. The first step was to significantly scale down the mobile phone design and research teams.
Edward Zamp stated that mobile phones, when all is said and done, offered limited scope for external changes. The classic designs that resonated with users were even fewer. He believed that breaking through in terms of exterior design to boost the market was difficult and unstable. Therefore, by continuously replicating previous classic designs, they could stably harvest the market.
This would allow for the dismissal of a large number of designers, as the focus would shift to modifying and reskinning existing classic models.
Furthermore, the research and development team for mobile phones could also be downsized, with more than 60% of the R&D staff potentially being laid off. This was because Edward Zamp had discovered China much earlier.
After joining Motorola, Edward Zamp was initially responsible for the software design aspect. At that time, China imported Motorola's mobile phone technology and only required some system modifications to adapt it to the Chinese domestic usage environment. Thus, Edward Zamp, representing Motorola's technical personnel, made a trip to China. He was astonished by the ingenuity and industrial capabilities of the Chinese people and believed at the time that China might become the world's factory in the future.
Therefore, as Edward Zamp was continuously promoted, he also kept a close eye on China. In 1995, he proposed building a factory in China, which effectively relocated a large portion of the mobile phone manufacturing operations to China, saving Motorola significant production costs and earning him favor with the board, thus propelling him into senior management.
This also deepened Edward Zamp's understanding of China. So, when the China Electronics Industry Development Alliance was established, Edward Zamp immediately dispatched a representative to attend.
However, this representative was not an official delegate and did not even reveal his Motorola affiliation. Instead, he infiltrated the event disguised as a representative of a domestic electronics company to observe secretly.
Through this company, Edward Zamp gained access to much of the alliance's publicly available intelligence, including the continuous development of new technologies.
At this point, Edward Zamp painfully discovered that the Chinese had developed a significant amount of electronic technology that surpassed Motorola's, particularly in chip storage, communication base stations, and other areas where they had achieved considerable technological leadership.
Logically, at this juncture, he should have channeled his frustration into vigorous investment in research and development to suppress China once again.
However, Edward Zamp did not see it that way. Previously, Motorola's primary technological efforts were focused on the Iridium satellite project. Now that the entire Iridium project had been scrapped, Motorola was lagging nearly five years behind in mobile phone technology research and development. Catching up would cost at least $500 million.
And this would reduce his profits by $500 million, leaving him with no achievements to present to the board.
Therefore, Edward Zamp decided to take a completely opposite approach. Since the technologies of the China Electronics Technology Industrial Alliance were fully open for external access and licensing, and could even be purchased at relatively low prices, Edward Zamp decided to scrap most of the outdated research and development plans and departments and simply purchase Chinese technology and components.
Edward Zamp calculated that this would further reduce Motorola's costs by another $200 to $300 million, with immediate effect.
Furthermore, Edward Zamp could also sell some of the technologies he possessed to the China Electronics Industry Alliance, which would yield at least $1 billion in profit, making him invincible.
Consequently, Edward Zamp instructed Motorola to officially engage with the China Electronics Technology Development Alliance, expressing his desire to join the alliance as a founding member.
Indeed, Edward Zamp's initial intention was for Motorola to become a founding member. Despite Motorola not being present at the alliance's inception and being a foreign enterprise, which completely violated the alliance's regulations.
But Edward Zamp's reasoning was simple: "I am Motorola! Who would dare refuse Motorola?"
Then, he was refused. A very direct refusal.
The reason was straightforward: they did not meet the alliance's regulations, and the founding period had passed, meaning there would never be new founding members in the future. After several exchanges, Edward Zamp grudgingly took a small step back. He stated that founding membership was not essential, but a formal membership would be reasonable.
However, he was still refused. The reason remained very sound: according to the alliance's regulations, enterprises that were not of Chinese nationality could not become formal members.
Of course, Motorola could become a foreign member of the alliance. This would allow them to enjoy most of the alliance's benefits, with only crucial technologies being withheld from foreign members. The prices would also be slightly higher, by a mere zero-point-something percent.