Bob Galvin (1922 - 2011) was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Motorola, where he helped shepherd in a new era in computing and telecommunications that transformed American society. A veteran of 50 years of service, courage, and dedication to the company founded by his father, Paul Galvin, he changed the corporation's direction from a maker of car radios and TV sets in the 1960s to a global supplier of semiconductors and communications equipment. Bob Galvin spearheaded the company's annual sales from $200 million to an annual volume of nearly $7 billion with 80,000 employees worldwide. Bob Galvin's Motorola was truly an organization of proactive empowered leaders with a sense of proprietorship. The emphasis on participative management was promoted throughout the company. His hoped for result was the kind of trust that leads to creativity and long run business survival. Bob Galvin in his "The Idea of Ideas" stated, "One's creativity depends on interaction with another, that other must know the trust of openness, objectivity and a complementary creative spirit." His leadership also enabled Motorola to launch its then famous six-sigma quality management program, which, in 1989, helped the company earn one of the first Malcolm Baldridge awards for corporate excellence, presented by President Ronald Reagan. In 1991, he was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of fame. Robert Galvin addressed the student delegates at the 1985 Achievement Summit in Denver, Colorado, on the importance of good communication skills for effective leadership.
