Motorola CEO Greg Brown on the “Relief or Regret” Rule

Greg Brown (0:00)

I reacted very negatively and very bluntly to the board. And I said, are you freaking kidding me?

Are you kidding me? There is no buyer for this company, and it's wrong. And if we run a process, it'll leak to the journal, it'll cause unrest and further distraction. This is bullshit. And if you want to fire me, go ahead and fire me. Which I would recommend for future use, not something you should say to people you work for.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (0:27)

Well, it worked for you.

Greg Brown (0:28)

Well, not really, I recanted, I apologized. I a few days later said, you know what? That was an emotional reaction. My content doesn't change, my delivery does.

Penny Pritzker (0:37)

Today on The CEO Signal, we're talking to Greg Brown, Chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (0:45)

Motorola invented the mobile phone, but when Greg took over almost 20 years ago, it looked at risk of irrelevance.

Penny Pritzker (0:53)

Since then, Greg has turned Motorola into something completely different. It now provides mission-critical communication systems to first responders, governments and essential services.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (1:06)

And he's had to pull off this transformation while navigating activist and private equity investors, putting constant pressure on the strategy.

Penny Pritzker (1:14)

Now he's leading through another turning point as AI, drones and autonomous systems reshape public safety.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (1:23)

So how does a CEO know when to reinvent a company and when to hold the line? From Semafor, this is The CEO Signal.

Penny Pritzker (1:42)

Hello, Edge.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (1:43)

So you've known Greg Brown for more than a decade, I think. What was it about him that first made you think he thinks a little differently from most CEOs?

Penny Pritzker (1:52)

So I first got to know Greg back in 2013 I had just become Secretary of Commerce and I get a phone call out of the blue on a Sunday afternoon from him. He says, you have a very, very serious problem.

I had no idea what he was referring to. He was talking about this thing called FirstNet, which was a first responder network that Congress had charged the Department of Commerce with creating and developing post 9-11. He said to me, don't believe me, you need to look into this thing. It's really bad. And he was right. I looked into it. It was a serious problem, but he really helped me out because being aware of the problem, then I was able to go and really put our team on turning this ship around.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (2:39)

Motorola Solutions is based in your hometown. Do you see them on the Chicago business circuit?

Penny Pritzker (2:44)

Actually, I saw them a couple of months ago.

We caught up. We like to catch up periodically. Greg is one of America's longest serving CEOs, and he's completely transformed Motorola during that time.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (2:57)

Yeah, and I think it's easy to forget quite how sweeping that transformation has been. I think a lot of us hear the word Motorola and think back to some ancient mobile phone, but really these days, it's fully focused on public safety and defense technologies, and he's having to do that at a moment where that industry is being profoundly changed by robots, drones and autonomous technologies.

Penny Pritzker (3:21)

And Greg has done all that while navigating activist shareholders and private equity investors.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (3:27)

Yeah, that's very unusual. For most of Greg's tenure, he's had either an activist investor or a private equity firm represented on his board, which means he's had to spend a lot of his time as CEO, listening to some very powerful outside voices in the room.

Penny Pritzker (3:43)

I'm particularly interested in hearing, when does he hold his ground and when does he just listen or cave to outside voices?

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (3:51)

Well, let's bring him in and find out.

SPEAKER_4 (3:55)

The CEO Signal is presented by PwC.

SPEAKER_5 (4:04)

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Penny Pritzker (4:18)

So great to have you here.

Greg Brown (4:19)

Thanks for having me.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson (4:20)

Thanks for joining us.

Greg Brown (4:21)

My pleasure.

Penny Pritzker (4:22)

So Greg First. of all, it's great to see you again. You and I had the pleasure of seeing each other, I think, a couple months ago.

Greg Brown (4:29)

We did.

Penny Pritzker (4:29)

Which is really terrific. You know, what struck me when we were together was, you've been CEO of Motorola Solutions for almost 20 years, but you are so deep into it. You are so motivated. You know, what drives you at this point?