Leaders, Managers and

Entrepreneurs
Selvakumar Murugesan
MGMT-5613
NOKIA -
STEPHEN ELOP
Stephen Elop, Curse of Modern Paradigm

Name: Selvakumar Athiganoor

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port
forever Thomas Aquinas.

Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction, build
an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out
where you need to go to "win" as a team or an organization; and it is dynamic, exciting,
and inspiring. Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management
skills to guide their people to the right destination, in a smooth and efficient way.

A leadership style is a leader's style of providing direction, implementing plans, and

motivating people. It is the result of the philosophy, personality, and experience of
the leader. Different situations call for different leadership styles. In an emergency
when there is little time to converge on an agreement and where a designated
authority has significantly more experience or expertise than the rest of the team, an
autocratic leadership style may be most effective. when decisions need to be made
quickly without consulting with a large group of people.

Leaders are larger than life in many ways. Personal traits play a major role in
determining who will and who will not be comfortable leading others. However, it's
important to remember that people are forever learning and
changing. Circumstances and persistence are major components in the
developmental process of any leader. To me leaders should

Ability to withstand job-related pressure and stress

Ability to take initiative, be clear and communicative
Ability to innovate, be curious and have an ambitious vision
Ability to support, accommodate and include employees
Ability to set goals, be thorough and follow up

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The leader whom I have chosen is Stephen Elop and inspired in his tenure as a CEO in
Nokia. The most inspired from him as a leader is the authority of decision, how to
handle pressure when failure comes and finally to admit the mistake. My article is
more focused on Stephen Elop and Nokia and his past contributions as a leader.

Stephen Elop, a Canadian businessman currently works as Group Executive in

Telstra, Australian telecom company since April 2016. His prior works involves as,
Executive Vice President of the Microsoft Devices Group business unit, CEO of Fin
firm Nokia, Executive Vice President, Devices & Services, as well as the head of
the Microsoft Business Division, as the COO of Juniper Networks, as the president of
worldwide field operations at Adobe Systems, in several senior positions
in Macromedia and as the CIO at Boston Chicken.
Stephen Elop is best known for his failure as CEO of Nokia. He was criticized for some
of his decisions, which resulted in the company making massive losses financially in
the market. Since January 2016 he also has a role as Distinguished Engineering
Executive in Residence within McMaster University's Faculty of Engineering, where
he originally studied in the 1980s.
As a leader, Stephen Elop have made tremendous contributions to the technology and
his contributions includes.
Replacing Symbian OS with Windows OS
Stephen Elop decided the best mobile operating system was Microsoft's Windows
Phone, and he bet Nokia's future on using it instead of the aging but well-loved
Symbian OS. It's a decision that was widely mocked, but there was smart thinking
behind it: Elop believed that Samsung was already in Android and
dominating Android, and if Nokia was in that market it'd be just another Android
phone firm.

Development of Flash

Stephen Elop had a very successful run at Macromedia, Elop was one of the central
figures. He was responsible for the strategy that led to the creation of flash, dream
weaver, and cold fusion. These 3 technologies that are fundamental in the
development of the internet and the creation of the .com bubble.
Elop's brilliance in his online strategy allowed the early internet to flourish. Sure,
nowadays, with all latest technologies and tools you might think that meh, Elop's
creations were not such a big deal. But back in the day, there were people out there
who thought of him as a visionary, as a savior, and as the future king of the world.
Back in 90s when given a choice to choose Stephen Elop or Steve Jobs, 9 out of 10
will choose Elop. Elop's strategic underpinnings in his vision of the world wide web

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is impeccable. His support of flash meant that for the longest time, the world had a
standard platform for rich applications. Elop's push for Dreamweaver as the industry
standard meant that for years, both hobbyists and professionals had a powerful and
easy to use tool, that allows anyone and their mothers to create their own websites.
Elop led the charge in spreading the dynamic web, and was instrumental in the "Pax
Macromedia" of the late 90s to the early 2000s.

Office 2010
For the longest time, there was an uneasy peace between IBM and Microsoft.
With the controversial over Office 2007, IBM fired a shot across Microsoft the launch
of Lotus Symphony. Lotus Symphony was the first product in years that even
attempted to challenge Office's domination, something that hasn't been done by a
major company in years. It was common knowledge that such a challenge must prove
to be futile, and thus for over 10 years, there was no credible competition to Microsoft
Office. IBM has launched the assault into one of Microsoft's core businesses. They
released Lotus Symphony, and since it was built on open office, IBM poured their
stacks of cash and army of developers into Open Office. Stephen stepped up to the
plate, and knocked a home run with Office 2010. It was hailed as the best version of
office ever, an amazing piece of productivity software, and the greatest sequel ever.
Elop just showed the developers of Call of Duty and Dynasty Warriors how to make a
real follow up to a piece of block buster software. IBM saw the tide turning, and
quickly folded their hand. Lotus Symphony was dead, open office was fractured, and
Microsoft ruled productivity again. Elop even managed to gain a beach head in
middle-ware. Long considered the core of IBM. Elop pushed hard for Microsoft
dynamics, share point, and other pieces of enterprise software. No longer can IBM
rule middle-ware, they have to first tooth and nail to defeat Microsoft on their own
turf.

Nokia Corporation, a Finnish multinational communications and information

technology company, founded in 1865. Nokia is headquartered in
greater Helsinki metropolitan area. In 2014, Nokia employed 61,656 people across
120 countries, did business in more than 150 countries and reported annual revenues
of around 12.73 billion.

Smart Phones and Evolution

Nokia was a pioneer in mobile technology and mobile devices. Nokia's dominance
also extended into the smartphone industry through its Symbian platform, but was
soon overshadowed by competitors and modern paradigm. Symbian OS became
prominent from the S60 (formerly Series 60) platform built by Nokia, first released

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in 2002 and powering most Nokia smartphones. Symbian eventually became the most
widely used smart mobile operating system. Symbian was used by many major
mobile phone brands, like Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and above all by Nokia.
As a pioneer that established the smartphone industry, it was the most popular
smartphone OS on a worldwide average until the end of 2010 at a time when
smartphones were in limited use, when it was overtaken by Android, as Google and
its partners achieved wide adoption.

Nokia was based on operating system Symbian platform. Apple introduced smart
phones based on iPhone OS (now iOS). Android mobile operating system by Google
used by Samsung. Nokia Symbian S60 was popular in late 2000s. Another notable
success product from Nokia smartphone is N95 and E71. As days went by Symbian
platform that Nokia were using was quickly becoming outdated and difficult for
developers after the advent of iPhone OS and Android.

Change for Nokia - CEO and Smartphone OS

As days went by Symbian platform that Nokia were using was quickly becoming
outdated and difficult for developers after the advent of iPhone OS and Android.
Stephen Elop joined Nokia in 2010. In February 2011 Nokia's new CEO Stephen
Elop made a partnership with Microsoft to use Windows Phone as its primary
operating system. Nokia's first Windows Phone flagship was the Lumia 800, which
arrived in November 2011. The falling sales in 2011, which were not being improved
too much with the Lumia line in 2012, led to consecutive quarters of huge losses. By
mid-2012, with the company's stock price falling below $2, Nokia almost became
bankrupt.

During the second quarter 2011, Nokia Siemens Networks completed the acquisition
of certain wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorola Solutions, including
products and services in relation to GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE. The
acquisition is designed to strengthen the companys position in North America and
Japan.
The Lumia 920 was announced in September 2012, which was seen by the press as
the first high-end Windows Phone that could challenge rivals, due to its advanced
feature set. Although Nokia's smartphone market share recovered in 2013, it was still
not enough to improve the dire financial situation. The company had already been
making huge losses for two years, and in September 2013 announced the sale of its
mobile and devices division to Microsoft.

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Based on the interactional framework for Analyzing a leadership, situation plays a
vital role. With that given situation and the time frame, Stephen Elop was not able to
succeed. In his last speech Stephen Elop ended his speech with We didnt do
anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.

In an interview with Stephen Elop during his tenure as a CEO in Nokia, for him
Leadership is

1. Operate openly, honestly, directly and with transparency

2. Willingly engage in respectful debate, and then affirmatively support the
decisions that arise
3. Assume the best of intentions in the actions of others
4. Externally, compete respectfully to win. Internally, partner to achieve the best
balance of outcomes
5. Model these principles within and beyond our Company, while holding each
other accountable to them

Changes to Nokia as a CEO

Of course, it is all of the people that need to change Nokia. My job is to create the
conditions necessary for everyone to drive change. This includes ensuring that
everyone understands our current challenges, our strategy and the priorities that
we need to pursue in order to achieve our goals. It also includes identifying the

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 attitudes and behaviors that need to change in order to ensure success. For
example, at Nokia, we are very focused on Accountability, Urgency and Empathy.

Capabilities or Qualities of a leader:

There is no single perfect leader, because you need a team of individuals that together
accomplish so much more. Thus, you must first consider the diversity of the team.
Given the strengths and weaknesses of the team (and of yourself), what
complementary types of leadership are important? That being said, there are a
number of attributes that I value highly, including integrity, creativity, urgency and
perseverance, the ability to effectively communicate, mastery/expertise,
accountability, strength of character, teamwork, etc.

Biggest mistake one leader can do

One of the mistakes of leaders, and often of companies, is a lack of humility. Greater
success is likely if you recognize that there is always something for others to
contribute, that the results of a team will always be more durable than the results of
an individual, if you are able to listen to consumers, if you are paranoid about the
competition, etc.

I would like to end this article by repeating the word of Stephen Elop - We didnt do
anything wrong, but somehow, we lost. Nokia was a respectable company; they
did not do anything wrong in their business. However, the world changed too fast and
their opponent were too powerful. Nokia was lost of the modern paradigm and
Stephen Elop, as successful techie was the curse for it. A true example of situational
analysis of leadership.

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References:

http://fortune.com/2010/09/10/can-stephen-elop-fix-nokia/

http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=13368
1&privcapId=21835

http://fortune.com/2016/03/16/former-nokia-chief-stephen-elop-joins-telstra/

http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/stephen-elop-is-one-of-the-greatest-heros-
in-technology.453327907/
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-managementchanges-
idUSKBN0OX1V720150617
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-
phones/stephen-elop-s-biggest-hits-and-many-misses-1297079

http://newatlas.com/microsoft-office2010-business-launch/15111/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGPBwUdYV3M