Greg Brown became chief executive of what was then Motorola in 2008.
asserted
what → become → 2008
But it’s only in the last decade that he thinks he has become “a reasonably good CEO.”
asserted
he → ’ → decade
And he credits a series of career-threatening encounters with activist and private equity investors for getting him there.
asserted
he → credit → him
Motorola invented the mobile phone, but by the time Brown was handed the reins, its cellphone business had been outpaced by Nokia and Samsung.
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business → invent → Nokia
Apple had introduced the iPhone just two months earlier, and Brown concluded that his company had no future in smartphones, which were losing hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter.
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which → introduce → dollars
“We were a year and a half to two years away from bankruptcy, extrapolating out,” he recalls in an interview for The CEO Signal.
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he → extrapolate → Signal
Brown resolved to spin off the mobility business for which his brand was best known, and says now that “there wouldn’t be a firm” if he had not done so in 2011.
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he → resolve → 2011
That let him start to build the new Motorola Solutions, an overlooked “jewel… buried in the bowels” of the parent company, as a leader in critical public-safety technologies.
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him → let → technologies
It now provides police forces, school districts, and hospitals with tools ranging from communications networks and AI-assisted video analysis to drones and defense equipment.
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It → provide → drones
But the separation that set Brown’s company on a path to today’s $75 billion valuation nearly didn’t happen.
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that → set → valuation
As directors wobbled at the eleventh hour, debating whether to keep the company together and “get rid of Brown,” he confronted them with a back-me-or-sack-me ultimatum.
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he → wobble → ultimatum
“I said, ‘I don’t care what you do with me, but you’re out of your minds if you don’t separate and exit cellphones.
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you → say → cellphones
You want to shoot me?
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You → want → me
But you’re crazy if you do anything differently.’
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you → ’re → anything
He prevailed, but it was not his last test.
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it → prevail → ?
In 2014, under pressure from the activist investor ValueAct, Motorola Solutions board members debated whether to sell the whole company.
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members → debate → company
Brown, who had already examined and rejected the idea, thought it would be “dumb” to distract the business with an auction process and risk selling at a depressed price.
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it → examine → price
“I said, ‘Bullsh*t, we’re not doing that,’” he recalls, “And if you want to fire me, go ahead and fire me.”
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you → say → me
He drafted a resignation letter, only for his wife to convince him late one night that quitting made no sense.
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quitting → draft → sense
He later apologized to the board for his “emotional” delivery, but not for the substance of his argument.
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He → apologize → argument
Those standoffs speak to the uncommon amount of pressure under which Brown has operated: For each of his 18 years as CEO, he has had an activist or a private equity investor on his board.
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he → speak → board
Carl Icahn, ValueAct, and Silver Lake have each brought a level of extended scrutiny that few of his peers have faced.
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few → bring → peers
How to turn the toughest investors into strategic allies
Motorola was already under siege from Icahn when Brown started.
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Brown → turn → Icahn
The veteran activist had launched a proxy battle and was calling for the company to split itself up.
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company → launch → itself
Brown admits to feeling intimidated by Icahn at first, but he decided to engage, even as his board objected to settling.
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board → admit → settling
“I also knew I had no choice,” he explains: “Carl was coming one way or the other.”
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Carl → know → choice
The two men reached a point of mutual respect, he says, where Icahn “knew I would do what I said I would do,” and Brown felt that the “endurance test” of answering Icahn’s frequent calls had made him a “tougher and stronger” CEO.
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him → reach → calls
ValueAct’s 2014 challenge was scarring, but even as Brown rejected its push for a full-blown sale, he listened and ultimately agreed when it challenged him to unwind the largest acquisition he had made up to that point.
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he → scar → point
“I am a believer in a meritocracy of ideas,” he explains.
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he → explain → ideas
“Check your ego at the door [and ask], ‘What’s the right thing to do now?’
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thing → check → door
And that decision today might be different than what you would have decided three or four years ago.”
uncertain
you → decide → what
Despite his outburst to the board, he also agreed to test whether any buyer wanted the whole of Motorola Solutions.
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buyer → agree → Solutions
The process confirmed his belief that none did, but it caught the attention of Silver Lake.
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it → confirm → Lake
When the tech-focused private equity firm proposed investing $1 billion in exchange for two board seats, Brown saw a chance to bring in fresh capital and expertise.
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Brown → focus → capital
Bringing Silver Lake’s Egon Durbin and Greg Mondre onto his board was “one of the best decisions I ever made,” he says now.
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he → bring → decisions
Motorola Solutions bought out Silver Lake’s convertible notes in 2024, and Durbin and Mondre have since left its board, but Brown says his experience with them, ValueAct, and Icahn made him a better, more accountable leader.
“It made me transition as a CEO that thinks like a manager to thinking like an owner,” he says.
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he → buy → owner
The difference is that, now, when deploying capital, he asks himself: “Would you do that with your own money?”
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you → deploy → money
There were “dark moments” in the process, Brown admits, but it taught him lessons that he now teaches to people who report to him, including on the importance of candor.
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who → be → candor
Just tell the truth,” he says.
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he → tell → truth
How to put your best people on your biggest problems
Brown describes himself as a consummate learner who is not embarrassed to ask “dumb questions.”
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who → put → questions
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
