I'm not a big fan of Elop, but you can't deny the fact that he's brought some much needed Canadian cool-headedness to Nokia. As an outsider, he was probably able to cut through the internal politics and bureaucracy.

Windows Phone is a strategic decision and we may not agree with it, but apart from that, Elop has also focused on operational efficiency - by organizational restructuring, cost-cutting, quick decision-making and bringing focus to key business areas, for ex, his mission to make Nokia the 'where" platform, and striking up licensing deals with Amazon, Oracle etc.

After reading the article, you realize that Nokia had become a lumbering behemoth. The American upstarts sped ahead because they were agile and headed by people who were in the thick of things and understood the new market sentiments perfectly.