OPK: I believe Nokia’s future
image from mtv3.fi
Former Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was interviewed at MTV3.FI speaking briefly about what’s happening at Nokia.
Not much was said but he did say that he believes the company managed in the best possible way. I’ll trust Joni’s translation over google’s:
I believe that Nokia is run by smart people and they’ve made the best
possible decisions, and by that way Nokia will survive.About lay-offs: He didn´t comment whether he would have made similar
decisions. (is not in a position to give a comment about that…)
Cheers Joni for the tip!
Category: Nokia
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ah ah! the decline of nokia has begun with OPK… why mynokiablog doesn’t talk about Jean Louis Gassée inteview?? He said Nokia should fire Elop and the board too…
Sure, why don’t we talk about every industry pundit?
Incidentally, Gassee said Nokia should have fired OPK and ditch Symbian for Android back in 2010. Just thought I’d add that in.
Sorry I have not seen it but writing up something on it now.
Hi Peter
Since it can’t be “being kicked out of Apple 22 years ago”, what exactly makes JLG’s opinion in any way whatsoever more relevant than anyone else’s?
“and they’ve made the best possible decisions”
That translation is bit wrong. Se says something like this:
“one just has to believe and I do believe that they WILL make best possible decisions”
So he does not comment on what has been decided rather he comments that he believes that future decisions will be right ones. Difference is quite big.
Exactly!
I wonder where did you get that modal verb WILL? Finnish language has no future tense in direct form, and indirect ones give only possibility to discuss closest future.
Yes, you are right. I forgot the word “will”. Sorry
It is a pity that Nokia choise to go with Windows and not pursue an Android base
Though Nokia has a large remaining cash base,it will take a huge effort to turn the sinking ship around
I say abandon Windows and begin earnest research in Android and design a user freindly phone to at least bring some earnings in the company
its shame that Nokia choosing an alien platforms having at least 3 own
It’s funny – Nokia’s MSRP for the E7 was $679 – a price, in my opinion, that was severely overpriced given what was under the hood and that it came with Symbian ^3.
If Nokia made an Android device, given Nokia’s history of exorbitant MSRP’s, I really can’t see Nokia making the kind of money some think they would especially since they would have to pay Google for licensing all of Google services (and surely Nokia would not be allowed to use Nokia Maps/Drive with Android) and with IP licenses they would have to pay Microsoft (as most other Android oem’s do). Not to mention trying to compete with Samsung, HTC, and Motorola who are well established in the Android community (even though Samsung is more profitable).
I see Nokia being less successful with Android, even with an ICS/Jelly Bean device, than they will ever be with WP.
Symbian Have more features than android.its only not that smooth
After the next two Quarters Nokia will not have a large cash pile if any at all In fact at the moment I believe day to day funding must be very tricky for them (wage bill, trade financing) and they are effectively locked out of the wholesale funding markets at an already difficult period for even good names needing finance.
Most of this is pr spin rather than actual “truth” as such, because if opk had said negative things it may affect him and also nokia’s fragile share price…
OPK says or anyone… No one can save Nokia from Elop Now…
Elop is being called bad for Nokia. People call him incompetent, trojan, mole and his actions have proven bad for Nokia. Stockholders at a loss, Developers not trusting the Nokia roadmap, Consumers losing out on choice, Linux supporters lost their mobile platform, talent Nokia coders lost their jobs.
Too many negatives and we still have to wait for WP8.
Oh dear. His comments only show his power of judgement.
I think OPK is just being gracious about it. Good for him. But I wouldn’t read anything more into it other than general politeness.
Opk was wrong, but not as elop.
Even opk used symbian as main platform, which was developing slowly at that time (s60v5 and early symbian 3) , nokia still can take care of its own. Own OS, own app store, own community, own hardware requirement, limitations
Now everything depends on microsoft. Except the appearance of phone.
I’m sure OPK would say he believed in the faeries at the bottom of his garden (especially if it avoided questioning of the path he set Nokia on). The acid test would be how many stocks he still holds compared to oh 2007 say.
f*****d elop. the stock value is fall each day more than 4%.
its a satan . fire him.
bring new phone wp8 ASAP to market.
elop destroy nokia , we will never forget it . if he think that all our invested will drop to garbage and he will stay smile , he his wrong , we will find him.
It’s not Elop’s fault. This decline was inevitable.
Just look how Nokia was losing market share years before Elop. They lost 5% market share the very same quarter Symbian^3 and the N8 were brought to the market. Symbian^3 was a disaster.
Nokia is dying because of the Symbian.
Man, wake up and look at the numbers:
Nokia was growing unit sales and was very profitable well into Elop’s reign. They didn’t do as good as the competition unit wise, that’s why Nokia’s market share fell.
But no company dies as long as they increase sales and are profitable. It needs a certain type of leadership to destroy sales of existing products to pimp undesirable MS products that only a few people want. This destroys a company. An operating system does not destroy a company, bad management does.
Just look how Nokia’s profits were crashing long before Elop. Yes, they were profitable but they were rapidly losing profits. Just look how the EPS evolved QoQ.
If you want to keep up with the competition, it’s all about the market share and the profits. Symbian was no longer competitive and MeeGo was just an unproven promise.
Nokia EPS reported
2007/2008
Q1 0.25/0.32 (0.07)
Q2 0.72/0.29 (-0.43)
Q3 0.40/0.29 (-0.11)
Q4 0.47/0.15 (-0.32)
2008/2009
Q1 0.32/0.03 (-0.29)
Q2 0.29/0.10 (-0.19)
Q3 0.33/-0.15 (-0-48)
Q4 0.15/0.26 (0.11)
2009/2010
Q1 0.03/0.09 (0.06)
Q2 0.10/0.06 (-0.04)
Q3 -0.15/0.14 (0.29)
Q4 0.26/0.20 (-0.06)
2010/2011
Q1 0.09/0.09 (0.00)
Q2 0.06/-0.10 (-0.16)
Q3 0.14/-0.02 (-0.16)
Q4 0.20/-0.29 (-0.49)
2011/2012
Q1 0.09/-0.25 (-0.34)
No.meego wasn’t given time and the ui of Symbian sadly is rubbish.but it had tons of function.
“and MeeGo was just an unproven promise” – care to elaborate? my POV shows N9, if it were allowed to be sold wolrdwide at planned scale, would leave MSFT without _last_ chance to revive WM and leave whole MSFT without future. N9 had been killed because otherwise whole MSFT would go belly up – they slept over AAPL and GOOG products taking over market and leaving MSFT at choice to be 3rd or go bite dust.
YES, it is his fault.
Past mismanagement cannot be his excuse; he was brought in to FIX the problem with previous management. Instead, he made it WORSE.
Not only that, Nokia’s downfall accelerated under him.
His management style was flawed from the beginning. He wasn’t trying to build an ecosystem- he was converting Nokia to be a WP OEM. A co the size of Nokia, with the resources it has to support, MUST have their own ecosystem. It cannot be a m$ pusher and survive on its own. Whether WP succeeds or not, nokia will die unless it can build an ecosystem of it OWN – something that is grown within organically and provides added value that can be marketed.
What is the meaning of the headline “I believe Nokias future”, what does that mean? I am not native in english but i feel there is a word or two missing?
Maybe it missed one of the ff words
“bright” or “bleak”
I would place more blame on OPK than on Elop. Long before OPK the company had become a bureaucratic cash machine for stockholders without any clear product portfolio management. They felt invincible and the investors along with it. Some would call it arrogance, I would call it a company without direction and vision. Elop has atleast brought an aspect of communication to the table, which OPK clearly lacked.
One professor I know who had been at the head of design in Nokia said that the whole company culture had changed by the turn of the millenium, and blamed that for their downfall. He said they had forgot about “connecting people” and were a fine-tuned machinery for making cash and nothing else. No innovation, no risk-taking and no character…
Now that their backs are against the wall, it’s clear that there is no return to former glory but have to take matters in their own hands and battle it out, just like they did in the 90′s against Ericsson and Motorola, and mind you, Nokia is the only one left of that era. The markets have truly changed, but Nokia still has talent and a few aces up their sleeves. I think they still a good chance with people like Elop and Ahtisaari being the faces of the company, not some boring-ass accountant like OPK…
Sorry for the fanboy rant, but people don’t remember that to the consumer it’s about the product, not shareholder value, and I think Nokia has put some standout products out there for the last couple of years. Beyond Apple and Nokia, no other manufacturer has the confidence to stand out in their industrial design. Now they only need to get the OS situation straightened out and avoid more pr disasters…
Last I checked (just now), both Motorola and Ericsson still exist, and Motorola even still makes phones, though the Mobility portion of the company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. But, Motorola Solutions is still independent of Google.