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Rescuing Nokia? A former exec has a radical plan

theregister.co.uk

1–10 of 55 posts

Re: Rescuing Nokia? A former exec has a radical plan

#2
I have worked in Nokia as consultant for almost a year and I have always wondered how Nokia became Nokia, given they way they managed software development internally. Several consultancy companies were working on the same project - a communication nightmare and developers with little or no experience were brought on board. But, as the book suggests, the main issue was coming from the Nokia managers involved in the project. They were absolutely unable to manage and run a large scale software development project and, above all, they weren't able to take any decision, a complete, terrified paralysis. Not sure how they ended up being like that, the Peter principle is likely one of the causes. I hope Nokia gets back on their feet, they surely have a massive technological asset and they can bring innovation to the telco world.

Re: Rescuing Nokia? A former exec has a radical plan

#3
From the article.

"Essentially, Nokia has forgotten how to bring innovative products to market. This is despite a rich R&D base, which has pioneered many of the innovations competitors now feature. Instead, a risk-averse bureaucracy has grown up that stifles innovation – it makes progress slow or non-existent."

An old and familiar story.

"his diagnosis may be familiar, but the proposals quite radical. ... a bloodbath of middle managers – starting with 300 to 500 staff at senior VP, VP or director level. This he calls a GRO program, or Get-Rid-Of."

Yahoo had 300 or so VPs before its fall. How do companies end up with five hundred + VPs? What value do they provide exactly? (Genuine question, not snark. From what I've seen most people at VP level spend all their time in internecine politics)

Does anyone know how many VPs Apple has? or Google? (though I suspect , with no proof or numbers, that the latter would have relatively high numbers, given the "middle agedness" Google seems to demonstrate these days)

Re: Rescuing Nokia? A former exec has a radical plan

#7

From the article. "Essentially, Nokia has forgotten how to bring innovative products to market. This is despite a rich R&D base, which has pioneered many of the innovations competitors now feature. Instead, a risk-averse bureaucracy has grown up that stifles innovation – it makes progress slow or non-existent." An old and familiar story. "his diagnosis may be familiar, but the proposals quite radical. ... a bloodbath…

From http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html, there are about 58 VPs and SVPs at Google. I am not sure if it's too many for a company its size.

Someone with knowledge on corporate organization might want to chime in.

Re: Rescuing Nokia? A former exec has a radical plan

#8

I (and also a lot of people) think they ought to ship Android phones, How bad could be for them that option? my limited vision says it is an excellent choice.

Shipping Android phones would be probably a smart move for Nokia but I don't think the company wants to be bound to Google that much. Instead of insisting on Symbian, they should have worked on developing a proper Linux-based OS. Maybe is not relevant, but Linus Torvalds is Finnish and the country, even if rather small, has the brain power to do that. Maybe now is too late and probably the Android move would be the smartest but I don't think it'll happen.

Re: Rescuing Nokia? A former exec has a radical plan

#9

From the article. "Essentially, Nokia has forgotten how to bring innovative products to market. This is despite a rich R&D base, which has pioneered many of the innovations competitors now feature. Instead, a risk-averse bureaucracy has grown up that stifles innovation – it makes progress slow or non-existent." An old and familiar story. "his diagnosis may be familiar, but the proposals quite radical. ... a bloodbath…

I can imagine it's because Nokia is (or used to be) a huge company. Also Scandinavian businesses are generally not very hierarchical.

Re: Rescuing Nokia? A former exec has a radical plan

#10
post #8

I (and also a lot of people) think they ought to ship Android phones, How bad could be for them that option? my limited vision says it is an excellent choice.

Shipping Android phones would be probably a smart move for Nokia but I don't think the company wants to be bound to Google that much. Instead of insisting on Symbian, they should have worked on developing a proper Linux-based OS. Maybe is not relevant, but Linus Torvalds is Finnish and the country, even if rather small, has the brain power to do that. Maybe now is too late and probably the Android move would be the s…

maemo?
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