Having your chairman and head of software quit on the eve of your annual developer conference isn’t the normal way to open a show.
That’s how Nokia kicked off Nokia World in London this week with the resignations of Anssi Vanjoki on Monday and Jorma Ollila Tuesday. Bizarrely, though, the timing paid off.
An apparently rejuvenated Niklas Savander, executive vice-president of markets, proudly proclaimed that Nokia makes no apology “for the fact that we’re not Apple or Google or anyone else,” pointing out that the firm still knows how to sell a handset or two with sales of 260,000 smartphones per day.
Savander was combative enough to twist a Steve Jobs catchphrase into a mocking comment on the iPhone 4’s antenna problems, the paper added, as he declared the firm had begun its “fight back to smartphone leadership.”
His optimism could stem from the arrival of fresh blood at the top of the firm, with the resignations of Vanjoki and Ollila making fundamental change in the company’s direction almost inevitable, WSJ.com said.
Canadian-born Stephen Elop will be the firm’s first non-Finnish CEO when he takes over next week, and will provide much-needed knowledge of the US market where Nokia currently underperforms.
That makes it conceivable that Nokia might appoint staff from other markets where it hopes to improve its business – for example emerging markets, which remain a key focus for the firm.