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Will DR. SANJAY K. JHA be able to turn Motorola around ?

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:August 14, 2008

An engineering genius who is now in charge of the troubled mobile phone business,doesn’t have the marketing know-how to create exciting new products and pull Motorola out of the mud. So should you buy Motorola? It’s hard to say. After losing more than $1.9 billion since the beginning of last year, has Motorola Seen The Worst? Was it a fight betweem Motorola’s RAZR and Apple’s iPhone. Can DR. SANJAY K. JHA compete with Steve Jobs experience?

DR. SANJAY K. JHA Profile:

DR. SANJAY K. JHA
Co-CEO, Motorola, Inc.
Chief Executive Officer, Mobile Devices

Dr. Jha joined Motorola in 2008 and serves as co-chief executive officer of Motorola, Inc. and chief executive officer of Motorola’s Mobile Devices business. He is also a member of Motorola’s Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Motorola, Dr. Jha served as chief operating officer of QUALCOMM Incorporated where he oversaw Corporate Research and Development and QUALCOMM Flarion Technologies (QFT). Dr. Jha also served as president of QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies (QCT), QUALCOMM’s chipset and software division.

Dr. Jha began his career at QUALCOMM in 1994 as a senior engineer with the QUALCOMM VLSI (very large-scale integration) group working on the Globalstar satellite phone, and later on the first 13k vocoder ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). In 1997, Dr. Jha was promoted to vice president of engineering, where he was responsible for leading the integrated-circuit engineering group. Dr. Jha led and oversaw the development of five generations of modem and cell site chipsets, both digital baseband and RF (radio frequency), and system software. Dr. Jha was promoted to senior vice president of engineering in 1998.

In 2002, Dr. Jha led the formation of QUALCOMM Technologies & Ventures, where he managed both the technology investment portfolio and the new technology group as senior vice president and general manager. Dr. Jha became executive vice president of QUALCOMM and president of QCT in 2003. He was named COO in December 2006.

Prior to joining QUALCOMM, Dr. Jha held lead design engineering roles with Brooktree Corporation, San Diego, and GEC Hirst Research Labs, London, England.

Dr. Jha holds a Ph.D. in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University Of Liverpool, England.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications. The company develops technologies, products and services that make mobile experiences possible. Our portfolio includes communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility solutions, digital set-tops, cable modems, mobile devices and Bluetooth accessories. Motorola is committed to delivering next generation communication solutions to people, businesses and governments. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $36.6 billion in 2007. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit http://www.motorola.com.

Recently Chicago-based telecoms manufacturer Motorola, Inc. has signed multiple contracts worth US $431m with China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC) for its GSM network upgrades and expansion. The contracts were signed in the first half of 2008 and reflect Motorola’s position as a global leader in GSM network solutions. Approximately 50% of the revenue from these contracts was recognized in the first half of 2008. Following the US $394m contracts over the same period of last year, these multiple contracts mark another milestone of the cooperation between China Mobile and Motorola.

While speaking to an audience of analysts and media, the new Motorola exec stated that he would be reviewing the firm’s device platforms / product roadmap within 90 days, and he’s also planning to make “hires in areas where he doesn’t have experience.” Thankfully, that latter tidbit includes hires in product design, which — judging by the looks of its Alexander — really needs some fresh brains to step in. Of course, we wouldn’t expect a new bigwig to say anything other than this, so the real test comes in T-minus eighty-some-odd days when we see how he delivers. The clock’s ticking, Mr. Jha. BoyGenius Report has released leaked photos and specs for another phone called Atila. Briefly, this is the first phone from Motorola which has tri-band UMTS/HSPDAas well as quad-band GSM and Wi-Fi support. It comes with 2.8 inches QVGAscreen running Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1. Beyond that, not much in known including when it will be released and at what price.

Separately, Motorola announced an investment in Amobee Media Systems, a company that develops advertising solutions for mobile operators. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Though shareholders already love the company’s new Co-CEO, Sanjay Jha (former COO of Qualcomm) Just hours after the announcement, shares jumped 11%. Motorola shareholders may have felt a big relief when the handset company finally appointed Sanjay Jha to run the company and its struggling handset division, but they better not think they aren’t paying big bucks for someone of his caliber. His package may be worth as much as $94 million, including restricted stock, options, base pay and a special payment. Most notably, however, is that Jha will be paid $30 million if the company does not spin-out the mobile devices business by Oct. 31, 2010.

I would say, first think Jha needs to do is hire some fairly competent designers as the same old tired Motorola designs aren’t helping. Even i am tired of these designs. So will he succeed in pulling the mobile-phone business for Motorola out of the doldrums? Stay tuned.
What’s the motivation if he is guaranteed $30 million for failing?

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