Customers drive a technology-driven company: An interview with George Fisher.

As president and CEO of Motorola, Inc., George M.C. Fisher is striving to build a company in which customer needs shape product development--without weakening Motorola's creativity or technology leadership. How do you strike this delicate balance? "Our answer is to develop a management system that essentially flips the organization," he says. "A system that empowers the sales force as surrogates for customers." In an extensive interview, Fisher describes the management techniques Motorola uses to understand, anticipate, and respond effectively to customer needs. He describes several of the company's most important products and systems--a new generation of portable telephones, a sophisticated radio communications system designed for IBM, a secure telephone network built for the National Security Agency--and explains the lessons each offers for effective technology management. Fisher also reviews technology-based competition with Japan. He offers an optimistic forecast for U.S. companies. "We are more receptive to change than the Japanese," he argues. "And that's becoming an increasingly important factor for competitive success: to change designs quickly, to customize products for specific markets. The imperatives of business success are moving in directions that favor the strengths of the United States." But Fisher distinguishes between the future of U.S. companies and the United States as a nation. "Here's the basic question: Does being a successful global company headquartered in a particular country also mean that country will be successful as an economic entity? Increasingly, the answer is no." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]