We'll take a departure from our usual Innovator Spotlight format to discuss the departure of Motorola's chief technology officer, Padmasree Warrior. News she was leaving the company came to light yesterday, not long after the vendor said CEO Ed Zander would be stepping down, though published reports say Motorola had been preparing for Warrior's departure since October. It's not entirely clear if she left for a new opportunity or if she was pushed out, or perhaps both. Still, Zander and Warrior appear to be getting most of the blame for Motorola's inability to produce a great follow-up to the RAZR, and as the chief technologist and leader of thousands of other engineers at Motorola, Warrior deserves some blame.
However, no one else in the mobile industry came up with a better idea than the RAZR either, until this year's debut of the iPhone --a device that belongs in a whole different class and kicks off a whole new device era. What's being overlooked is Warrior's work with WiMAX and other wireless technologies and applications. If innovation is only about achieving higher sales than your last good idea, then there must be an awful lot of good ideas that don't get to see the light of day.
For more:
- check out this story in The Chicago Tribune
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