Mr Chris Galvin may or may not have been born to be chief executive of Motorola. On one hand, his grandfather, Paul Galvin, founded the Schaumburg, Illinois-based telecoms group in 1928 and his father, Robert Galvin, was chief executive and chairman until his retirement in 1990.

But because of that legacy, the younger Mr Galvin, who lacks an engineering background but boasts solid business credentials, has long been subject to criticism. The $37 billion (€41.6 billion) group has struggled to dent its competitors, particularly Finland's Nokia, the world mobile phone leader.

Recent news at Motorola has been troubling. Last week, the company announced it was selling its Dublin operations in Swords to Celestica and 750 of its 1,400 employees are to lose their jobs. The following day, the company, which also has operations in Cork, issued a sales and earnings warning, blaming softer semiconductor and handset sales. The group cut its sales estimates by $500 million to $10 billion, and reduced its earnings estimates by 44 per cent to 15 cents a share.

By late afternoon, Motorola had dropped 75 cents to $17.06 but, earlier in the day, had briefly fallen below $16.

"The stock did have a pretty terrific run based on expected improvement in the semiconductor and wireless sectors," said one long-time Motorola observer. But, he notes, the stock has dropped once again and now hovers near where it stood when Mr Galvin became chief executive four years ago.

"Essentially, Motorola has had a very difficult time generating solid profitability from its handset business unit," says Aman Kapoor, research associate with Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco. "They tried to emulate Nokia's best practices and they failed. And frankly, in the handset business, it's not just Motorola but also Ericsson that cannot keep up with Nokia's success," Mr Kapoor says.

Motorola had traditionally focused more on semiconductors and government electronics contracts, until the advent of the cellular phone changed the company's direction, says Edward Snyder, a wireless technology analyst with Chase H&Q.

Indeed, times have changed significantly since Mr Galvin's father's day. Chris Galvin grew up in the Chicago area, developing a close relationship with his father. Robert Galvin entertained Chris, his brother, and two sisters with stories about life at Motorola.

Yet Mr Galvin's interests lie more in business than in engineering. After spending high school at the Cranwell Academy in Massachusetts, Mr Galvin returned to the Chicago area for his university education, earning an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University.

Although Mr Galvin has spent his career at Motorola, he didn't start off in senior management. In 1973, out of school, Mr Galvin began by selling the company's two-way radios (citizen's band was a popular US hobby at the time).

But he rose steadily through management over time and, along the way, returned to Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, earning a business degree. By 1987, as a vicepresident of Motorola's paging division, Mr Galvin won a promotion as special assistant to the chief executive, giving him an open road to the top position.

His father was succeeded as chairman by George Fisher, who abruptly left for Eastman Kodak in October 1993. Despite the elder Galvin's pleas, the Motorola board selected Gary Tooker, the chief executive, as chairman instead. Chris Galvin waited, serving until 1997 as president and chief operating officer.

Supporters say Mr Galvin - a long-married father of two, who enjoys golf and skiing - has a much friendlier, more egalitarian touch than Mr Tooker had. Even so, the company has had some high-profile business disappointments, chiefly its 18 per cent stake in Iridium, a troubled US satellite consortium.

"Looking out over the next six to 12 months, it doesn't appear that the types of problems that Motorola is experiencing are easily and quickly fixable," says Todd Koffman, analyst with Raymond James in New York.

The company too slowly realised the mobile phone market had switched to a lower-priced consumer-oriented focus, Mr Koffman adds.

Another analyst, recalling Mr Galvin's bullish comments at an August meeting, says, "I guess he's eating his own words."