Thread: Let's talk Nokia stock. Really.
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juiceme is offline juiceme
2013-08-06 , 09:31
Community Council | Posts: 4,920 | Thanked: 12,867 times | Joined on May 2012 @ Southerrn Finland
#1644
Originally Posted by Lumiaman View Post
Let me remind you something that your memory doesnt serve you well. NOKIA board hired Elop because they clearly saw that Symbain was dead man walking. If Symbian was so great, how come NO ONE licenses it now, and how come in 2009, Samsung announced that they dropping Symbian, followed by a whole slew of other manufacturers that they are dropping the great Symbian platform by the fall of 2010?????

The sign of great companies is when they notice the need for change long before it becomes catastrophic. NOKIA leadership didnt plan well, didnt execute well, and were lulled by the numbers you quote above. Anyone using Symbian devices in 2009/2010 knew that this was inferior OS, waiting to fall dead. All pre-Elop.
Actually, there were few options that the board considered when looking for the CEO candidate. The main contestants in the game were mr. Elop who came from outside the company and mr. Vanjoki who came from inside.

Both candidates outlined their plans for future of the company;

Mr. Vanjoki had the following agenda:
  • Let's develop future based on our existing strengths, use the migration path from Symbian to Meego. Current product lineup is falling but we have time to fix this if we pull together.
  • On short term this will create additional costs but on long term the cost-effectiveness of being in control of our OS will even out

Mr. Elop had the following agenda:
  • Let's outsource our OS development to a partner company, this will immediately make 3500 SW developers redundant and enable huge savings now
  • I've got good relations to MS, I can negotiate a contract that gives us very good terms on OS licencing

Now imagine that the board members are NOT competent on the engineering aspects, they have NO background on SW development. Their main competence is on finance and so when presented with these options the choice is clear --> go for the option which seems lucrative and produces immediate gratification.