Are the knives out at Nokia or are executives voluntarily jumping off the cliff? Either way, Nokia Chairman Jorma Ollila is the latest to tell the board that he will serve until the company’s 2012 annual general meeting. The news comes less than a week after CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo announced he would step down on Sept. 21 in favor of former Microsoftie Stephen Elop. Annssi Vanjoki, head of mobile solutions only said he was off yesterday. These changes are happening uncharacteristically quickly at Nokia. I hope you’re keeping up at the back.
However, one thing is for sure, if you are looking to Nokia to suddenly find its Jonathan Ive or Steve Jobs, you’ll be waiting a long time. Having talked in depth to executives, I don’t think Nokia even wants a product obsessive to pilot the Supertanker that is Nokia’s mobile business.
For instance, this quote from Niklas Savanger, executive vice-president and general manager of Markets, at Nokia World, speaks volumes: “Execution is dependent on a much larger business than just two people. Right now there are 60,000 other Nokia people committed to executing on the strategy that we have.” In other words, well go on managing things like we always have – in a collegiate, distinctly Finnish ‘groupthink’ manner. Not in the manner of someone with one single vision, since we have so many handsets and products to support.
And that’s an issue, because software platforms, which is where the real fight is now for mobile, depend on having that single software vision.