Turnaround Man? Motorola Names Sanjay Jha New Cell Phones Chief

Some executives would welcome the opportunity to step into the top-of-the-ladder role of a struggling cell phone company to be the one who turns it around. Others would despise it.

It was announced on Monday that Sanjay Jha lives in the camp of people who crave the challenge when he was named the new CEO of Motorola’s money-losing cell phones unit.

The appointment quelled concerns by analysts about Motorola’s ability to attract a strong candidate. Motorola had been searching to fill Jha’s role since the beginning of 2008.

Leaving his high-level post as the COO of Qualcomm, Jha has also become the co-CEO of Motorola as a whole and now serves in tandem with Motorola CEO Greg Brown.

Global Crown Capital analyst Pablo Perez-Fernande told Reuters on Monday that Jha’s hire is a “coup” for Motorola and he’ll give the lagging cell phones behemoth new credibility.

At the end of the day, all that really matters is whether or not Jha will inspire Motorola to return to the mobile phones game with killer devices that effectively stand out in the sea of rival devices.

Since the game-changing release of the Motorola RAZR years ago, Motorola has since seen itself kicked in the hinny by competitors including Nokia and Samsung. Only time will tell if Jha indeed is Motorola’s golden turnaround man.