Strategies I Learned Becoming a VP

by Ronald Plachno

Overview

The Cellular explosion in the World Marketplace took our small $50 million a year car telephone business at Motorola and grew it rapidly to over a $15 billion a year huge enterprise. It was an amazing ride, and Motorola had some top talent that made it the leader in the field at least in the early years of Cellular. Yes, I indeed was at first one of the engineers and then one of the leaders in this dramatically expanding field. But more importantly, I was around some of the best leadership talent who helped teach me and others to deal with perhaps the business equivalent of riding white rapids down a raging river. The business experience in this book is not just relevant to the Cellular industry, but I believe transfers well to most other businesses - in my opinion.

I have the highest admiration for some of those early leaders in Motorola Cellular and our great Industry Partners and learned much from them. And yes I also did learn some knowledge on my own, and often not the easy way. This book is my attempt to share that knowledge with others willing to read it. My purpose? I wish I knew these items at the beginning. It should not take 40 years to learn them.

I do understand that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that there are perhaps other ways to learn business excellence. But this is the learning I received as I grew rapidly in the Cellular Business explosion. I moved from a low paid starting engineer to a VP in a Fortune 500 Company and then to a Sr. VP in a California startup firm, and then to founding a few small businesses on my own. It has been... a fun ride.... and a tremendous learning experience. And I am now trying to share it with others as openly and honestly as I can. Thank you for reading this, and I indeed do wish you the very best.
- Ron Plachno (author)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940148133230
Publisher:	Ronald Plachno
Publication date:	01/31/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

The author of this book, Ronald J. Plachno, was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1945, the middle of three sons. He was born of parents who were never rich or even that well off, but who believed their children should receive a college education as well as other education in music and more. His father, Joseph Plachno, was a tool and die maker and his mother Mary (sometimes called Marie) often worked long hours to help their family, while encouraging ethics and also continuous learning. It was a great family for a child to grow up within. Later, Ron was also quite fortunate to have a wonderful family with lovely wife Valerie and two great sons Kenneth and Gregory, who now each have families of their own.

Ron graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT in Chicago, and took 6 graduate courses at the University of Illinois. Beginning as a low level engineer, Ron over time had success in engineering and then leadership and became a VP at the Fortune 500 Motorola Corporation and later a Sr. VP at Novatel Wireless, a technology startup company in California. Ron was also listed at one time in the "Who's Who of America". At times he was considered a problem solver and at one point was asked to move himself and his family to England for three years to help a Division, $1 billion dollar a year in sales, that was in trouble. He has since founded a few small companies, and has 16 Copyrights with the US Library of Congress and one more in progress.

But of course, there is more. Ron was fortunate enough to be in the right Motorola group of Car Telephone that exploded in a huge Market to become a giant cellular business. Along the way he learned from some very talented people who also helped lead that very dramatic growth. This book is really a summary of that learning, and what worked for him, and what he believes would be very helpful information to pass onto others who will come after him.