Ex Microsoft honcho Stephen Elop, now chief executive officer of Nokia, has been brutal in his latest memo to the troops: Nokia could go out of business. The memo, obtained by engadget , doesn't pull any punches.
"I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform. And, we have more than one explosion – we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us. For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem … While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind. The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable … This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning."
The company is to unveil its strategy and it has some big choices ahead. PC Mag says it could partner with Microsoft to make Windows Phone 7 devices, sack its board, move to Silicon Valley or get into making Android devices.
It's hard to see any of this working. Windows Phone 7 has not exactly been a runaway success, any transition to Silicon Valley will take time and the Android market is getting pretty crowded. Elop will have to convince the market he can execute the plan. That remains to be seen.
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