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Stephen Elop, the new chief executive of Nokia, brings with him the software expertise and experience acquired in the days when he worked at Microsoft in the U.S., but analysts point out that he has some very significant gaps in his CV personally, writes Market Watch.
Although his experience in the U.S. Microsoft will prove valuable, as Nokia is trying for years to gain momentum in North America, Elop has no apparent relationship with any telecom operator who controls the distribution network in the United States.
Some of the reasons why Nokia has managed to get stronger in the U.S. is that the Finnish manufacturer has managed to establish strong relationships with players like Sprint, Nextel and Verizon Wireless.
“All talk about the experience in the U.S. of Stephen Elop, as if it would be a great thing. In fact it is not so relevant, as long as he does not have strong relationships with operators in the region”, said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, mobile segment. Credit Suisse analysts highlight the same problems. “We believe Elop lacks some recent and consistent relationships with players in the telecom market, something which we consider an important factor”, they said.
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Another gap in the experience of Elop is the hardware design. “Although Elop’s software experience is relevant, it remains to be seen how he will handle the hardware segment. The design matters increasingly more”, says Neil Mawston, analyst at Strategy Analytics.
Elop came to Nokia’s leading position from a position of Business Manager at Microsoft in the U.S.. Like other strengths, the analysts say that Elop will probably do better than Kallasvuo at the Communication during conferences chapter, a weakness of his predecessor.
“Kallasvuo was not the best speaker. Nokia understood what he meant, but the execution was poor and the communication was even poorer”, said Lee Simpson, an analyst at Jefferies.11
