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Operaatio Elop
Nokian kasvutarina on koko maailman mitassa ainutlaatuinen. Yhtä ainutlaatuinen on yhtiön muutamassa vuodessa tapahtunut romahdus.
Operaatio Elop etsii vastauksia kysymyksiin, jotka Nokian hallituksen entisen puheenjohtajan Jorma Ollilan elämäkerta jätti avoimiksi. Miksi toimitusjohtajaksi valittiin kanadalainen Stephen Elop? Miksi puhelinten käyttöjärjestelmäksi valittiin Windows eikä esimerkiksi Meego? Minne katosi nokialaisten kuuluisa motivaatio ja yhdessä tekemisen meininki? Oliko Elop Troijan hevonen: tuliko hän Nokiaan Microsoftin miehenä tavoitteenaan nuijia yhtiön markkina-arvo mahdollisimman alas?
Teosta varten on haastateltu yli sataa henkilöä, joista useimmat ovat olleet Nokian palveluksessa. Operaatio Elop on ensimmäinen Stephen Elopin valtakauteen, vuosiin 2010–2013, keskittyvä Nokia-kirja.
Esiin nousee runsaasti ennen julkistamatonta tietoa Nokian sisältä. Uutta tietoa saadaan muun muassa Windows Phonen valintaan johtaneista syistä ja tapahtumista. Samoin siitä, miksi Nokia lopulta myi puhelimet Microsoftille. Kirja myös vastaa kysymykseen, oliko Elop Microsoftin palkkaama Troijan hevonen, ja kertoo, miten Nokian henkilöstö Elopin vuodet koki.
Operaatio Elop etsii vastauksia kysymyksiin, jotka Nokian hallituksen entisen puheenjohtajan Jorma Ollilan elämäkerta jätti avoimiksi. Miksi toimitusjohtajaksi valittiin kanadalainen Stephen Elop? Miksi puhelinten käyttöjärjestelmäksi valittiin Windows eikä esimerkiksi Meego? Minne katosi nokialaisten kuuluisa motivaatio ja yhdessä tekemisen meininki? Oliko Elop Troijan hevonen: tuliko hän Nokiaan Microsoftin miehenä tavoitteenaan nuijia yhtiön markkina-arvo mahdollisimman alas?
Teosta varten on haastateltu yli sataa henkilöä, joista useimmat ovat olleet Nokian palveluksessa. Operaatio Elop on ensimmäinen Stephen Elopin valtakauteen, vuosiin 2010–2013, keskittyvä Nokia-kirja.
Esiin nousee runsaasti ennen julkistamatonta tietoa Nokian sisältä. Uutta tietoa saadaan muun muassa Windows Phonen valintaan johtaneista syistä ja tapahtumista. Samoin siitä, miksi Nokia lopulta myi puhelimet Microsoftille. Kirja myös vastaa kysymykseen, oliko Elop Microsoftin palkkaama Troijan hevonen, ja kertoo, miten Nokian henkilöstö Elopin vuodet koki.
354 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 10, 2021
“The “Burning Platform” speech has become a legend how a CEO can destroy almost everything with one stroke. Consultant and ex-Nokian Tomi Ahonen has created the fitting term: “Elop Effect”. Elop combined two different CEOs cardinal blunders: The Osborne and Ratner Effects.
In 1983, the computer manufacturer Osborne announced several new models of computers, which they said would be launched in sales after one year. In the meanwhile, sales of the old models plummeted because the consumers were waiting for the new models. Osborne ended up in bankruptcy. Gerard Ratner, on the other hand, was the CEO of the jewelry company Ratners. He gave a speech in 1991, where he said that Ratners products were so cheap because they were “total crap”. The consumers believed him and stopped buying.”
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Not being a Finn, I read the ex-Nokian crowdsourced English translation. Thorough, evenhanded, and rooted in extensive, extensive fieldwork. Walks through in a very rigorous way the dialectics of Nokia's failures, although given the extent to which the issues were rooted in earlier failures under Kallasvuo, it would have perhaps been best to dig deeper into his term as well.
In 1983, the computer manufacturer Osborne announced several new models of computers, which they said would be launched in sales after one year. In the meanwhile, sales of the old models plummeted because the consumers were waiting for the new models. Osborne ended up in bankruptcy. Gerard Ratner, on the other hand, was the CEO of the jewelry company Ratners. He gave a speech in 1991, where he said that Ratners products were so cheap because they were “total crap”. The consumers believed him and stopped buying.”
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Not being a Finn, I read the ex-Nokian crowdsourced English translation. Thorough, evenhanded, and rooted in extensive, extensive fieldwork. Walks through in a very rigorous way the dialectics of Nokia's failures, although given the extent to which the issues were rooted in earlier failures under Kallasvuo, it would have perhaps been best to dig deeper into his term as well.
February 19, 2019
A pretty good overview of Eflop's disastrous reign as Nokia CEO which led to the demise of the World's greatest smartphone manufacturer.
The book does let Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia's current Chairman, off the hook too easily though. Siilasmaa is also one of the major responsibles for the collapse of Nokia's D&S division and since 2013 his tenure at Nokia has proven how incapable of having a greater vision for the company he is.
Elop took Nokia down a disastrous road that led to the collapse of a major division. Siilasmaa, however, is taking the entire company towards the edge of the cliff. If Nokia Networks fails to become the biggest player in their field (and competition from Ericsson, ZTE and Huawei is fierce), this time Nokia will have no lifeboat.
Because under Siilasmaa not only they placed all their eggs into the networks business basket... But they also dropped Nokia's bread and butter for the last quarter century: the consumer market.
The book does let Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia's current Chairman, off the hook too easily though. Siilasmaa is also one of the major responsibles for the collapse of Nokia's D&S division and since 2013 his tenure at Nokia has proven how incapable of having a greater vision for the company he is.
Elop took Nokia down a disastrous road that led to the collapse of a major division. Siilasmaa, however, is taking the entire company towards the edge of the cliff. If Nokia Networks fails to become the biggest player in their field (and competition from Ericsson, ZTE and Huawei is fierce), this time Nokia will have no lifeboat.
Because under Siilasmaa not only they placed all their eggs into the networks business basket... But they also dropped Nokia's bread and butter for the last quarter century: the consumer market.
March 30, 2021
Originally released in 2014 in Finnish and crowd-sourced translation in 2017-2018, it is an interest read on Nokia and the Elop era. Was he a trojan horse for Microsoft or was the task too big for him? In hindsight it is easy to see that choosing Windows Phone operating system was a huge error, which many, including myself in the IT tech world thought at the time. Add the burning platform memo destroying what was left of the shrinking Symbian community and failing to give other internal effort a fair chance (Maemo/Meego etc) resulted in the sales of the mobile phones division to Microsoft. Also in hindsight the right move, since the book highlights how bad a situation Nokia and Windows Phone ecosystem was in. But instead of putting the blame on Elop (other than apparently asking the right questions, but not drawing the right conclusions), at the time half-god Ollila's role in the demise was only touched upon briefly. And the role of the board including Risto Siilasmaa is just lightly covered in this book. With this one in the bag it will be interesting to read the "sequel", Siilasmaa's own book Transforming Nokia next, to see how he reflects on the early 2010s.
Almost a fiver, but I'd really have liked to see a more consistent translation of the book. Some chapters contain too much Finglish, that is written English heavily influenced by Finnish structure, e.g. in Finnish passive form is used a lot and that does not translate well into English. It just feels awkward and, after a while, annoying. Luckily there were only 4 or 5 chapters out of approx. 25, suffering from this. Still crowd-sourcing a translation is a helluva effort, and I raise my hat to all people taking part in the effort and bringing the story to a larger audience. And hey, it is free of charge, just search for Operation Elop and you'll have it in seconds in a format suitable for your needs!
Almost a fiver, but I'd really have liked to see a more consistent translation of the book. Some chapters contain too much Finglish, that is written English heavily influenced by Finnish structure, e.g. in Finnish passive form is used a lot and that does not translate well into English. It just feels awkward and, after a while, annoying. Luckily there were only 4 or 5 chapters out of approx. 25, suffering from this. Still crowd-sourcing a translation is a helluva effort, and I raise my hat to all people taking part in the effort and bringing the story to a larger audience. And hey, it is free of charge, just search for Operation Elop and you'll have it in seconds in a format suitable for your needs!
December 28, 2020
There is an English version of this book that volunteers and the publisher generously created and put out for free. https://asokan.org/operation-elop/
The book is based on interviews with more than 100 anonymous people. The author didn't claim to hold the exclusive truth of what happened under the reign of Stephen Elop. Rather, the book gave readers another point of view from people who had direct or indirect experience with Nokia at the time.
The book is a bit lengthy at times with a lot of details that may bore viewers. Essentially, it's about a giant that failed to transform itself when there were seismic changes in a cut-throat industry. Nokia had a lot of problems, including an ineffective board with insufficient industry experience, wrong go-to-market strategies, especially in the US, managerial failures and outdated technology. At the time when Android and iOS were launched, along with their respective two-sided marketplace, Nokia had no answer. As their feature phones gradually became a thing of the past, their smartphones, either by themselves or in collaboration with Microsoft, couldn't compete with Apple or Samsung's.
Some say Elop's choices at the time might be the best among available options and it is unclear whether somebody else could do better, given all the challenges.
I was more interested in the book because I used to live in Finland, but if you want to know how one of the top brands in the world back in 2007 fell from the sky in a matter of a few years, it's an informative read.
The book is based on interviews with more than 100 anonymous people. The author didn't claim to hold the exclusive truth of what happened under the reign of Stephen Elop. Rather, the book gave readers another point of view from people who had direct or indirect experience with Nokia at the time.
The book is a bit lengthy at times with a lot of details that may bore viewers. Essentially, it's about a giant that failed to transform itself when there were seismic changes in a cut-throat industry. Nokia had a lot of problems, including an ineffective board with insufficient industry experience, wrong go-to-market strategies, especially in the US, managerial failures and outdated technology. At the time when Android and iOS were launched, along with their respective two-sided marketplace, Nokia had no answer. As their feature phones gradually became a thing of the past, their smartphones, either by themselves or in collaboration with Microsoft, couldn't compete with Apple or Samsung's.
Some say Elop's choices at the time might be the best among available options and it is unclear whether somebody else could do better, given all the challenges.
I was more interested in the book because I used to live in Finland, but if you want to know how one of the top brands in the world back in 2007 fell from the sky in a matter of a few years, it's an informative read.
June 9, 2020
If you liked the Transforming Nokia: The Power of Paranoid Optimism to Lead Through Colossal Change, and are eager to hear more about the events from the point of views of Elop and from "ordinary Nokia worker", this is for you. The theory of Elop being "Trojan horse" of Microsoft is also debunked thoroughly on this book.
April 21, 2018
A interesting dive into the final years of Nokia Mobile and how the company structure and personalities allowed for a seemingly destined failure. With hindsight, choices and actions taken can be evaluated, and with foresight the learning applied to current business solutions. The translation is a bit bumpy in parts, but a general grasp of 'intent' will smooth that. Authors place on the table a fair statement of facts and allow the reader to reach conclusions.
January 3, 2025
Vetävästi kirjoitettu. Kirja kumoaa teoriat Elopin roolista Microsoftin myyränä ja Meego/Android vaihtoehdon automaattisesta menestyksestä uskottavasti. Syyksi Nokian romahdukselle kirja näkee yrityksen hitauden, kankeuden ja ylimielisyyden. Vaikka näitä kuvataankin, olisi niiden analyysia mielellään lukenut enemmänkin.
September 14, 2018
Insightful book on how a comeback attempt can fail
January 4, 2015
Hyvä kuvaus Nokian tarinasta Ollilan Mahdottoman menestyksen jälkeen, tällä kertaa tuntuu että asiaan päästään vähän syvemmälle ja ratkasuihin löytyy perusteluja ja analyysiä. Kirja koostuu monista haastatteluista ja lähteistä mutta silti teksti on hyvin sujuvaa ja siitä voisi muutkin ottaa oppia, tosin yksittäisiä lähteitä on vaikea paikallistaa.
December 3, 2014
Insights to an organization, based on numerous interviews.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews