Ten Things Nokia’s New CEO Must Do ASAP [Nokia]

Nokia’s new CEO, former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop , will bring a bit of Silicon Valley to the Finnish cellphone giant. But there’s much more Elop is going to must do to get Nokia back on course.

While the company remains to be the area’s largest cellphone manufacturer , it has lost much of its mindshare inside the high-end smartphone industry to Apple and Google . (Apple has swallowed the profits , too.) It won’t be easy to win it back, but Elop should no less than be capable of make some progress. We’ve put together a checklist for Elop’s first few months on the job.

1. Make it the company’s top priority to be competitive in smartphones
Smartphones are still a small percentage of the general phones sold on this planet, but they represent a vital, disproportionate percentage of revenues and profits. If Nokia continues to lose at smartphones, it is going to be in serious trouble. So this ought to be Elop’s first mandate.

2. Shift the point of interest from smartphone hardware to software
What made Apple’s iPhone this type of revolutionary product wasn’t just its industrial design but its software. It was miles sooner than the whole industry, and remains the correct mobile software in the stores.

This has been a weak point for Nokia, and that’s where Elop’s background at Microsoft and Macromedia might be helpful. He should in any case realize how important software is to smartphones, something Nokia’s last regime didn’t seem to. In step with a former Nokia employee who got in contact with Daring Fireball’s John Gruber , Nokia has long valued hardware over software. If Nokia has of venture to compete with Apple and Android, it must flip that around.

3. Pick a single smartphone platform to take a position in, and dramatically simplify its platforms across the board
Nokia has one of the vital convoluted product lines within the tech industry. Its size has an awful lot to do with it, nevertheless it just feels disorganized. No person knows what they’re getting. It’s time to shrink the product line, perhaps by half or more, and focus onone smartphone platform-whether Symbian, the newer MeeGo, or something new.

And Nokia’s dumb phones should all start to run on one or two similar platforms, too, so the total lineup is more cohesive.

4. Take a protracted, hard inspect Google Android (or perhaps Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7)
The smartphone platforms that Nokia has in-house will not be on top of things with Android or Apple’s iOS. Apple’s software is off-limits. But Nokia could adopt Android. It might be an immense shift for the company, and it would put it in a weaker position in some aspects because it’d now not fully control the software it uses for the foundation of its products. Nokia may be the equivalent of HP or Dell within the PC world.

But if Nokia were to adopt Android, it will instantly be the largest Android partner on the earth. It might have a real impact on how Android was developed, and it may also customize Android but it wanted. And, even better, it’d further reduce Apple’s relative share to Google.

Elop will want to partner with Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 instead, assuming it’s any good. That might be an immense coup for Microsoft, but it surely probably wouldn’t give Nokia as much control than if it were to exploit Android.

5. Install a product visionary or two answerable for making Nokia awesome
Elop is a manager . And unless he has been hiding talents, he doesn’t appear like much of a product visionary . But Nokia needs a type of, so Elop has to search out one. It’s possible they’re hiding inside Nokia, the manner Apple’s industrial design guru Jonathan Ive was there before Steve Jobs returned.

But maybe Nokia will attempt to hire former Microsoft product dude J Allard, or former gadget boss Robbie Bach? That they had a number of successes – and plenty of failures – at Microsoft, so it’s hard to assert they’re going to be the highest options. But Elop knows them.

6. Get the services strategy under control
Right before Apple got everyone wondering mobile apps, Nokia went on a services shopping spree, under the impression that it was going to sell its customers not just phones, but mobile services. Generally, apps and the internet have taken over quite a few that activity, though. But now Nokia still has Navteq (GPS), Plazes (social networking), Dopplr (social networking), and other acquisitions on its hands. So what’s it going to do with all that? And what’s going to happen with ” Comes with music,” Nokia’s subscription-based try to rival iTunes?

7. Determine what Nokia means to the us, especially to carriers
Nokia still has a significant presence in Europe and in other markets, however’s nearly as good as dead within the U.S. That’s not good because the U.S. is among the most significant markets for top-end smartphones, and where many of the best smartphone app development is occurring.

So Nokia must determine its U.S. strategy quickly, and convince U.S. carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless that it’ll be useful to them again. Because it hasn’t been for years.

8. Prove to developers it’s worth their time
New CEO Elop channeled old boss Steve Ballmer’s famous ” developers, developers, developers” mantra today to close out the Nokia World conference, showing his affection for developers. But if a developer is going to jot down a mobile app this present day, especially if it’s based inside the U.S., it’s going to do it for the iPhone first, Android second, and Nokia… probably fourth or fifth. Nokia can win developers by illustrating a really perfect platform and commerce strategy. But until then, they’re right to be skeptical.

9. Boost employee morale
Nokia actually has pretty good employee ratings, consistent with Glassdoor.com , which tracks these things. Nokia staffers gave the company a 3.5 rating, that is ” satisfied.” That’s higher than Ericsson (3.3), Motorola (2.8), and Samsung (2.8), but it surely’s below Apple (3.8) and Google (3.9).

If Nokia is going to leapfrog Apple and Google, it should be an grand place to work.

10. Do something magical
Nokia has always been decent, however it’s been decades since anyone went ” whoa!” after they used a Nokia device. (If ever.) Apple (and Android) have won by totally leapfrogging the competition, that’s one of the vital reasons that Motorola, Palm, RIM, and Nokia were or are in so much trouble.

So Elop must push Nokia to do something truly amazing, and not just good-enough or mediocre. This isn’t the first priority, and one hit phone won’t save the company, nevertheless it can be on oversize help.

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This post is tagged: daring-fireball, disproportionate percentage, microsoft executive, mobile software, point of interest, revolutionary product, serious trouble