

Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop is so Full of Shit - strongfist36
http://www.techanalyzer.net/2012/11/19/nokias-ceo-stephen-elop-is-so-full-of-shit/

======
potatolicious
Slightly OT, but I'm a bit annoyed at HN's recent... scatological shift.

Since when did it become vogue to, pardon the pun, shit all over people in
your blog posts/titles?

Apparently entrepreneurship is better known as entrepreneurshit. Then we find
out that _that_ itself is bullshit. And now Elop is full of shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit. And more to the point, can we as a community and industry
_not_ do anything except put down others with sensationalist linkbait titles?
Can we not criticize companies and people without acting like a bunch of 12
year-olds who just figured out some cuss words?

Where is the decorum and mutual respect? Why is it that every. single. day I
come on hacker news and every. single. day I find some blogger slagging
another blogger? Why do we act like the macho-male version of Mean Girls?

~~~
rimantas
This is an original title. I will take shitty idiom over censorship and
prudery any time.

~~~
potatolicious
This post would be equally annoying had "shit" been replaced with something
classier like "pompous idiotic blowhard". The issue is not with swearing, it's
with the fact that a large portion of HN's front page every day is filled with
one tech industry personality (or wannabe personality) slinging metaphorical
poo at another.

The pointless overuse of swear words really just makes an already juvenile
situation even more childish.

------
bitwize
"He's not just a regular moron. He's the product of the greatest minds of a
generation, working together with the express purpose of building the dumbest
moron that ever lived. And YOU just put him in charge of the ENTIRE facility."

Elop's mismanagement of Nokia was tragedy in 2011; farce in 2012. I don't
remember something this bad since Commodore's management decided to ram it
into the ground, turning "Amiga" into an orphaned platform and target for
brand necromancy.

MeeGo wouldn't have been, _ipso facto_ a flop; they just needed to market it
and commit to it. An excellent, GNU/Linux-based OS running on Nokia's superb
hardware with a responsive UI that some say trounced even the iPhone's -- it
could have been the thing hackers and consumers alike would have said "shut up
and take my money" to. And even if MeeGo never got off the ground, Nokia had
more in-house Linux experience than most of the major players in the handset
space; they were perfectly positioned to use Android as a fallback and deliver
AMAZING Android hardware.

So many missed opportunities. It seems as if Elop is hell-bent on augering in
the smoking remains of what was once Finland's strongest brand, instead of
trying to salvage it. All for what, a little bit of money? Some buttpats from
his friends at Microsoft? Is this some sort of elaborate pump-and-dump scheme?
To crib another _Portal_ line, it would be funny if it weren't so sad.

~~~
lotso
After reading the story behind MeeGo (<http://taskumuro.com/artikkelit/the-
story-of-nokia-meego>), I'm not sure you could really blame Elop for the steps
he took. Nokia sounded like a disaster even before he came.

~~~
bungle
Well, of course it was a disaster long before Elop. If it wasn't, there
wouldn't be Elop in a first place. What happened after Elop, is how we should
evaluate Elop. And that is really really sad tale. It's not something like "my
strategy works, but the company refuses to follow that", type of a thing. It
is just, that Elop has hurt Nokia so much more. It's not even funny anymore.
It is really hard to understand why he is still allowed to continue. Probably
he is, because all who had critic voices have already left the building or
kicked out. Elop has hired his fellows in the company. And Elop also sits on
Nokia's board. It's quite common situation these days. Weak board, strong
management. Elop is a strong leader, but his decisions are horrible. There are
no indication anywhere that shows that Elop has succeeded in something. He
hasn't. It's a total disaster.

------
bungle
Correct. Elop is Full of Shit. Period. My faith is back in Nokia, when they
supply a phone with Google, Nexus by Nokia. Now that would be something. Elop
still doesn't seem to understand that Android is "The Windows" of the mobile
devices. We don't need yet another closed ecosystem, that is Microsoft's. If
there is ever going to be the third ecosystem, that would be in lines of
MeeGo/Tizen/Jolla.

------
karimmtl
This saga between Microsoft, Nokia, Elop and Ballmer reeks of the foulest deal
making and corporate strategy. First of all, I can only comment on the deal i
think occurred since I unfortunately, like you all, don't have any of the
important details of this deal.

Nonetheless, I can't really understand what exactly was going through Elop's
head when he made that deal with Microsoft. How, as a CEO, can you make such a
move? The guy cornered himself, or gets cornered (or persuaded even) to only
make phones for the least popular OS on the mobile phone market (maybe not the
least popular, but certainly not the leading), which not only is a
strategically weak situation with no maneuvering, but ensures that you're
company is going to lose.

Microsoft has shown this year that it doesn't care, it's part of the deal is
open, it can get any OEM to make phones for it's platform, but, Nokia
cannot!!! Does this make sens to you? Not in the least bit!

Then when all fails. And it has failed. When the company is losing money like
crazy, he can't jump ship and make phone that consumers want i.e. Android
phones. Why is this, is he prohibited by the deal, or is he riding it out to
see what happens? It has to be the first former.

How can a person, who pretty much commits business suicide, continue to lead
this company? Where is the board on this? Why aren't people resigning or
getting fired?

This is even more dire for Nokia as they don't make tablets or laptops, as
opposed to Asus, Samsung and Sony. So they can't leverage the conditions of
their deal throughout a product line.

So as a consumer I don't particularly care much for Nokia proper, although it
is a shame that they suck at business because they're really good at making
actually products. This being said, consumers are losing choice and
competition, me included, and despite this I hope that the market SEVERELY
punishes Elop and Nokia for their awful decisions (and, it is).

------
cardine
I'm currently short on Nokia and have been for a while. If you believe your
post, put your money where your mouth is and do the same.

------
Toshio
Slightly un-HN-y title?

