Mustangs and Motorla
What do you do when your back is against the wall and you need to find some someone who will listen to you? If you said, "Go bang on some doors," then you're right, and that's just what we did. The door we went to bang on however had 4 lanes and looks like this from space:
Once we got in all we had to do was find someone in this general location who would listen to us:
In case you haven't figured it out, this is Motorola's world headquarters in Schaumburg, IL. What I went in with was a few basic deeda device and ecosystem documents that Joe had helped put together and of course, our Georgia.
Georgia got us into the main gates without having to say a single word. In fact, we pulled up and the security guard just looked over, smiled, gave a thumbs up and then opened the gate. So far so good...
What we were on the hunt for was, the ever elusive, Motorola Ventures office. This clandestine Motorola operation usually comes and finds you instead of the other way around. A fact that became immediately obvious when the first engineer I came across just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Motorola What?" He proceeded to check out Georgia, and talked about how he always wanted to get a classic car. "I've been thinking about getting an old Camaro, but the wife... kids... you know how that goes." He smiled and then offered to walk me to his building so I could speak to the front desk at the Innovation Center.
Sweet.
The front desk has to know what we're talking about, right?
Wrong.
"Motorola What?", was the response.
"Motorola Ventures. You mean you've never heard of them? Really?" I said this almost as if to test and see if this was something they were trained to say to strangers.
"Yeah, I just work at this desk. I'm not really sure where that is. I'm pretty sure it's not in this building. Are you sure this is the address?"
The engineer was still standing next to me trying to help with the situation, but nothing was really happening. Finally, the lady at the font desk said, "Oh! Maybe it's in the 1303 Corporate Tower Building?" I had a sudden flashback to MIT... Building and class number please...
She gave me a map, circled the building number and the entrance number, and then ended with, "The Corporate Tower Building has a lot more security. You probably won't even be able to get this far over there... but it's up to you if you want to try."
The odds of success were getting smaller by the minute, and I almost felt like just giving up. Basically, here's the scene:
Since the 1303 was nearby I decided to give it a try. Pulling up to the enormous Corporate Tower I immediately noticed what the front desk attendant was talking about. Aside from various entrances, the building had a huge glass covering that led to the main door I was supposed to go in . After parking Georgia I got out and looked at the gate, entrance, and building. How was this going to work?
On the way in I came across a few people that were entering and exiting the building. Building up some courage I asked a woman with a smile on her face,
"Excuse me, Is this the building with Motorola Ventures."
"Motorola What? Sorry, I've never heard of it.... Motorola Ventures?"
Another lady picked up where she left off,
"Ummm.... I'm not sure... I think so?... try asking at the front desk."
Basically, things were going down hill faster than ever, but I still managed to make it up to the front desk where I was greeted by an eager attendant who seemed confident I couldn't ask her anything she didn't know.
"Motorola What? I'm sure I've never even heard of that. Are you sure that's the name?"
Finally I just blurted out what was on my mind, "Look, there's an entire website with the name and address for Motorola Ventures. It actually has a really snazzy website. Can you go on the web from your desk computer? You can see that I'm not making this up."
Sure enough she pulled up the website and agreed that this was the building and the right address. Maybe she could do a search on her computer for people who were in that department or office? Bingo! 3 names came up! We were finally getting somewhere!
In Shanghai, China....
What?!
"Yeah, there's nobody listed in the Schaumburg headquarters. I can get you the names and addresses of the people in Shanghai though..."
"...I wouldn't even know what to do with those...", I said with a confused look on my face.
I mean, here I am at the World Headquarters of Motorola but the only people who can help me are the Motorola executives in China?!
In the 30 minutes that this was all going on, about a dozen people were leaving the building to go home for the day. In my head I kept asking myself, "Why didn't I just take a chance and ask one of them?" Finally, I decided that I'll ask the next person that comes out of that door, and if I get the standard, "Motorola what?" answer, I'll just leave...
The next person that walked out of the door was Art Paton. Dressed in perfectly pressed dark suit and carrying a standard issue corporate briefcase with multiple sections and zippers, he looked like a true Motorola executive. Hesitantly, I asked, "Excuse me sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but I've been having the hardest time trying to find Motorola Ventures. By any chance have you even heard of them?"
I'll never forget the smirk that came across Art's face at my question, "Yes. I actually know Motorola Ventures very well."
The lady at the desk pulled out a beaming smile. "Oh great! See someone who can help you! For some reason I could only find people in China for him."
Art kind of shook his head and then continued, "Well, I know all the people at Motorola Ventures. Who do you need to speak with? What's this all about?"
And so the conversation about deeda began... Art and I slowly walked outside and then stood in the front of the building talking about deeda, our devices, and our ecosystem approach - we talked about why I believed Motorola should listen to us - why I moved my young company to Chicago instead of the Valley - and why all of this was so important to me. What I thought was going to be a 5 minute conversation turned into a conversation that lasted close to 40 minutes. Art had a lot of interesting things to say that seemed to mesh perfectly with our approach and ideas, but was also fairly direct about how Motorola was focused on remaining a products-only company. Ecosystems seemed to be in Motorola's past.
Our conversation however, appropriately ended with Georgia. The topic had come down to relating design to products, why we both believed that design inspires customers to believe in a company and its future products, and why design as a first point of contact with your customers is so critical. Wanting to point out examples of this even outside of the technology market, I pointed across from where we were standing and said,
"You see that car over there in the lot?"
"That '67 Mustang?"
Before I could even complete my first sentence about how Georgia epitomizes this, and why she's been such a major inspiration for our company, Art started to walk towards it while reciting stats about the car. It was as if this seasoned executive had turned into an excited little kid right before my eyes.
"I used to race these when I was younger you know. Back in the late 60's... I even went out to Carrol Shelby's airport hanger at LAX and got to take a GT40 out. This car is something special though... man is this thing awesome.... you redid the entire interior? Can I look under the hood?"
This is passion. And this is what we need to see in every person who puts pencil to paper before designing another technology product for consumers. It's not just about cars - it's about everything. Whatever you do in life be passionate about it and great things are sure to follow. Most importantly, passion can't be faked, and people congregate around those who are passionate because it makes them believe in something bigger and greater than themselves. Cars like the '67 Mustang have that passion trapped in their DNA, and even 40 years later they still inspire and leave people in awe when they first look at it.
At this point Art mentioned another gentleman at Motorola that he felt we should meet.
"You know who you should talk to? Casey Hill. He's a huge mustang nut. In fact, he has three of them! One of them is a really rare 1968 California Special. I'm sure he would love to talk to you about Motorola and your company's ecosystem approach - plus you guys can talk about Mustangs too! He has to see this car."
I offered Art to take Georgia out for a quick spin but he responded with, "I would love to, but I'm already 40 minutes late for a meeting. But maybe some other time!"
40 minutes late for another meeting? I was so impressed with Art's kindness and was surprised to find out that I had inadvertently made him late for a prior engagement.
We parted ways in the parking lot knowing that Art would be out of town for the next two weeks, but that he had my information that I had given him. Things couldn't have gone better, and so on the way out of the Motorola labyrinth, I found the main road that led to the exit; stretching almost a quarter mile straight ahead of me.
I dropped the hammer and let Georgia wind up till the tach light burst with a hot yellow glow. Second gear. The crescendo became deafening, to Motorola gates seemed to be running towards me... hot yellow... one second more of that beautiful scream... third gear... and then the second coolest thing of the day happened to me. There, all alone at the end of one of the parking lots that butted against the main road I was traveling on, sat a bright red 1969 Corvette Stingray. Its owner (a Motorola engineer perhaps?) was running towards his Vette and waving his arms in the air like a little kid. As I was passing by I could see he already had his door open, a huge grin from ear-to-ear, and a thumbs-up sign in the air. Mustang guys don't really like Vette guys - it's like the Yankees and the Red Sox - you pick your poison for life. But at that point we both 'got' each other. His car looked awesome, and at another time it would have been a race or maybe just a cordial exchange of glances at each others rides. But either way, the day ended with what deeda is all about:
Beauty, Passion, and Inspiration...
Don't let anyone tell you Motorola is in trouble. They've got some amazingly brilliant and insanely cool people working there. I think they just need to find the right inspiration.
Today was a good day.
posted by deeda Inc. @ 12:53 AM
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