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Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

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Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#31

Post by mytailorisrich »

blunte wrote: post #10

Fascinating. Motorola has been part of some very significant things in history (not just because I'm multi-Amiga owner). From my outsider view, it seems the companies who really invest in R&D make the best things happen. Unfortunately the best doesn't always mean the most long term successful (depends on many many more factors than just the quality of the product). I would love to see a world where it was fashionable…

For a commercial company the aim of R&D is to ship competitive products. You can spend a lot of R&D and do plenty of cool stuff but if you don't ship products you'll go under all the same.

For instance Xerox was doing plenty of cool and innovative stuff with GUIs and the mouse but then it was someone like Jobs (and Bill Gates) that turned that into a hot product. Where's Xerox now? Where's Apple?

In engineering we too often forget that sales and marketing are crucial.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#32

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

selfsimilar wrote: post #6

I grew up in a neighboring suburb to Schaumburg, and in junior high or high school in the late 80's early 90's I remember taking a field trip to the Motorola campus (as well as McDonald's Hamburger University!). Mostly I remember a showroom museum of sorts, where much of the early tech, military field radios I remember mostly, was on display. At the time I was underwhelmed, I think in part because I knew Motorola as…

Their micros remain one of the more successful parts of the business. Naturally they spun that off to avoid those annoying profits.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#33

Post by sonograph »

vikramkr wrote: post #13
sonograph wrote: post #2

It is being demolished now. The company doing the demolition must be very proud of destroying things, because they make drone & time-lapsed videos of it: https://johlerdemolition.com/portfolio-items/motorola-schaum... Edit: I meant this in a positive tone, not a negative. I'm glad they take pride in their work.

Why shouldn't they take pride in their work? Its honest and important work. Not every building can/should be preserved, tearing down these structures is important to remove dilapidated safety hazards and/or build something new

I didn't mean it negatively. I wrote it with a smile. They should take pride in their work!

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#34

Post by rpcwork »

lostlogin wrote: post #21
Swizec wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s their job to destroy things, why wouldn’t they be proud? I’m proud too when I refactor bad code.

Are you proud enough to provide drone footage of the refactor?

Screen capture, Nope. Drone footage, yes!

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#35

Post by mytailorisrich »

pfdietz wrote: post #16
blunte wrote: post #10

Fascinating. Motorola has been part of some very significant things in history (not just because I'm multi-Amiga owner). From my outsider view, it seems the companies who really invest in R&D make the best things happen. Unfortunately the best doesn't always mean the most long term successful (depends on many many more factors than just the quality of the product). I would love to see a world where it was fashionable…

Motorola couldn't do software very well. And software became increasingly important in all the fields they competed in. It turned out to be easier to take a company that was great at software, and turn it into a cellphone company, rather than trying to take a cellphone company and make it great at software.

In the case of Apple, I think it's especially a case of a company great at products. They did great because they had a great vision of the product.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#36

Post by wyldfire »

tomkat0789 wrote: post #4

Even stranger is the abandoned Motorola complex built way out among the farmlands in Harvard, Illinois. Motorola has fallen far! When I started a job at a big company in a Chicago suburb, they actually asked for a show of hands "who's from Motorola" and like 17/20 people raised their hands!

I assumed from the title that this would be the Harvard facility. I never would have dreamed that Schaumburg would be shut down as long as the brand existed. How wrong I was!

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#37

Post by bfrog »

Motorola is maybe a telling of how complacency and pure business leadership can lead to a downfall.

They became complacent, they abandoned their technical leadership for bean counters, and became dust.

Intel was almost going down that road.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#38

Post by kyrra »

selfsimilar wrote: post #6

I grew up in a neighboring suburb to Schaumburg, and in junior high or high school in the late 80's early 90's I remember taking a field trip to the Motorola campus (as well as McDonald's Hamburger University!). Mostly I remember a showroom museum of sorts, where much of the early tech, military field radios I remember mostly, was on display. At the time I was underwhelmed, I think in part because I knew Motorola as…

Hi former neighbor!

For those that are wondering, here is the campus on maps: https://goo.gl/maps/WdHju125jSbmRbaS9. It looks like it's mostly been torn down now (streetview and satellite show it gone).

I never visited the campus. My next door neighbor worked there (he was a big RF guy and had a a giant shortwave antenna on his roof). They also employed so many people that they had their own stoplights at their entrance/exit. Plus the city convinced them to do staggered start/end times for their employees as to not flood the roads around the building.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#39

Post by cestith »

bfrog wrote: post #37

Motorola is maybe a telling of how complacency and pure business leadership can lead to a downfall. They became complacent, they abandoned their technical leadership for bean counters, and became dust. Intel was almost going down that road.

Motorola probably started slowly downhill after Lear left and Wavering retired.
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