May 02, 2010

Don't Blame Olli-Pekka for U.S. Mess

An April 30 engadget report on a Reuters piece is making it's way like wildfire across the 'net, titled "Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo being replaced to soothe frustrated investors?"

The report stresses that there are no hard sources behind the swirling rumors, and I'll leave it to others to debate whether Symbian^3 delays merit a CEO's ouster, but let's be clear on one point - I know the buck's gotta stop somewhere, and ultimately that's the CEO, but don't blame Olli-Pekka for the Nokia mess in the U.S.

Per the engadget report, "OPK pledged to build up Nokia's US presence when he took over, and he's obviously failed to deliver on that promise -- US marketshare has fallen from 20 percent to 7 percent, prompting one analyst quoted in the Reuters piece to wonder if 'Nokia really has the desire to fix the problem.'"

Yeah, Nokia is suffering badly in the U.S. Two successive regional leaders and leadership teams have failed or are in the process of failing to develop and execute a unique strategy for what is a unique marketplace. Rather, in both cases, drawing from legacy Nokia Networks experience, leadership focused less on unique U.S. technology and consumer trends, and more on leveraging one-time relationships and stature (Nokia and personal) with carriers, married to measly drive-slot marketing sops, to drive tweaked variants of global product.

Um, that doesn't seem to be working, at least so far (after all, we keep hearing that the strategy's gonna pay off soon).

So, yeah, I know, that buck-stopping concept is a real one, and blaming regional leadership ultimately means blaming global leadership, which endorsed the regional strategy. But in this case, notwithstanding Olli-Pekka's brief tenure in the U.S. in the '90's which gives him some insight into the uniqueness of the market, Nokia U.S. leadership was specifically and unusually vested with a mandate to rebuild, repair, restore and/or renew Nokia in the U.S., and in whatever fashion necessary dictated by that very market uniqueness that Olli-Pekka recognized demanded on-the-ground expertise. In other words, the Nokia U.S. organization was free from global cookie-cutting - technology, product, business model or otherwise - if it chose to be. With that level of autonomy should come commensurate accountability.

If there's house-cleaning to be done, do it where it needs to be done. Don't axe the remote landlord because the building manager can't keep the place in order. Get a new building manager. Indeed, you might want to think about remodeling in the process (see the conclusion of my March 2 post which touches on this concept).

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