The failure of the Motorola Iridium global satellite telecom project was a result of its exit champion.

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Although a culture of championing venture projects is advantageous for stimulating an ongoing stream of entrepreneurial initiatives, many of the ideas will not work out. At some point in the process, a majority of initiatives will be abandoned. Sometimes, however, companies wait too long to terminate a new venture and do so only after large sums of resources are used up or, worse, result in a marketplace failure. The costly Motorola global satellite telecom project known as Iridium provides a useful illustration. Even though problems with the project existed during the lengthy development process, Motorola refused to pull the plug. Only after investing 5 billion USD and years of effort was the project abandoned. Motorola lacked an exit champion. This is an individual working within a corporation who is willing to question the viability of a venture project by demanding hard evidence of venture success and challenging the belief system that carries a venture forward.

The Failure of the Motorola Iridium Global Satellite Telecom Project