Cutting the Cord

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What to expect

One of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Inventors in History shares an insider’s story of the cellphone, how it changed the world—and a view of where it’s headed.

While at Motorola in the 1970s, wireless communications pioneer Martin Cooper invented the first handheld mobile phone. But the cellphone as we know it today almost didn’t happen. Now, in Cutting the Cord, Cooper takes listeners inside the stunning breakthroughs, devastating failures, and political battles in the quest to revolutionize—and control—how people communicate. It’s a dramatic tale involving brilliant engineers, government regulators, lobbyists, police, quartz crystals, and a horse.

Industry skirmishes sparked a political war in Washington to prevent a monopolistic company from dominating telecommunications. The drama culminated in the first-ever public call made on a handheld, portable telephone—by Cooper himself.

The story of the cell phone has much to teach about innovation, strategy, and management. But the story of wireless communications is far from finished. This book also relates Cooper’s vision of the future. From the way we work and the way children learn to the ways we approach medicine and healthcare, advances in the cellphone will continue to reshape our world for the better.

Critics Review

  • “Lessons on how to be innovative, managing innovation, failing at innovation, and inspiring others to be innovative; this book has it all because Marty Cooper has done it all!”

    Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times bestselling author

  • “Cutting the Cord recognizes that innovation has always been about both standing on others’ shoulders and collaboration. Throughout tech, we all stand on Marty’s shoulders just as he stood on Marconi’s.”

    Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft

  • “Marty Cooper is the father of the cell phone, and our lives have been changed and saved because of this unshackling from our cords. How Marty got us there is an important and compelling story.”

    Gary Shapiro, chairman, Consumer Technology Association & CES

  • “For three decades, Marty Cooper was at the center of innovation in portable, wireless technology at Motorola, where I had the distinct pleasure of working with him. Then he spent another thirty years commercializing wireless technology through a number of entrepreneurial ventures. Marty knows how wireless innovations have developed—and where they’re going.”

    George M. C. Fisher, former CEO of Motorola and Eastman Kodak

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