Nokia is in big trouble, and it knows it. New CEO Stephen Elop has already promised to unveil his new vision on how to save Nokia at a meeting on Friday, but setting the stage for his plan, Elop sent out an internal memo to staff diagnosing Nokia’s problems and telegraphing his intentions: Nokia is going to radically reinvent itself, and heads are going to roll.
In Elop’s 1300-word memo, which has just leaked, the ex-Microsoft exec likens the company to an oil platform burning at sea while the hands try to put out the fire by dousing it in gasoline instead of water.
“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,” Elop wrote. “We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning.”
Elop then goes on to lament Nokia’s impotence when it comes to countering Apple and Google.
“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,” he said.
But what of MeeGo, Nokia’s next-gen touchscreen OS? Says Elop:
“We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.”
That comment is fascinating, since many expected the first MeeGo phone to debut this weekend at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. However, sources speaking to Reuters now indicate that Elop has killed off the development of the first MeeGo handset, putting that platform’s debut even further out.
It’s an exciting time in mobile. Nokia’s spent the last four years as the slumbering giant, but in Elop’s hands, it seems as if the colossus is about to waken, dust itself off and go to war. Will the Finnish giant be able to make a dent in the Jupiter and Saturn of iOS and Android? Time will tell, but Elop, at the very least, seems bold enough for the try.
