Nokia Siemens CEO Rajeev Suri believes the company has returned to growth and will be able to break even this year.
While the target - announced to journalists and analysts yesterday at the MWC - may seem modest, it's a huge improvement over the last two years.
Suri said that a year ago "we were talking about recession, an industry in retreat and some very tough times for NSN.
“Two years back were at the crossroads -- we had lost ground, our cost base was too high and our roadmap had fallen behind."
He joked, half-heartedly, that in this industry one year can seem like 10.
A year later he claimed the company was outgrowing the market and has increased profitability. He expects overall industry revenues will grow slightly in 2011 and is confident NSN will achieve its target of break even in non-IFRS operating margin this year.
The firm cut its operating loss to €686 million ($926m) in 2010, on flat sales of €12.6 billion, returned to revenue growth in second half of the year, “up 8% year-on-year.”
Suri said the company has emerged from the recession in better shape than when it was founded four years ago. "A crisis can be a positive focus and it helped us to make some difficult decisions."
To get there it has taken a number of steps to strengthen its foundation. These include realigning its regional footprint, with a new focus on higher-margin markets -- the US, Japan and Korea.
Suri believes NSN's pending Motorola acquisition will give it a much stronger base in the US. He said revenue grew 141% in Japan, making it the No. 2 foreign vendor. After the Motorola deal is finalized, it expects to rise to No. 1.
It also broke into the Korea market, picking up LTE contracts with SKT and LG U+ and an optical deal with KT without making an acquisition or investing in a local joint venture.
NSN has also worked to strengthen it product lineup. Suri said it was no secret that it struggled in the first two years with its product portfolio due in large part to under investment prior to the launch of NSN. "Today our portfolio is 100% back, which is supported by feedback from customers."
Last year the firm won 25 new 3G customers and claimed to have the highest number of W-CDMA customers at 193. He noted that 3G still has room for growth and doesn't see it peaking until 2020.
He said the company had signed 31 commercial LTE contracts to date, and recorded strong growth in managed services for the third year in a row, with 65 new contracts in 2010.