Former Nokia exec says Nokia's in trouble, Elop is to blame
Losing money, senior talent, and cash cow Symbian OS was the wrong move, a former Nokia executive tells CNET UK.
Here in the U.S., the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows phone has sold better than Nokia expected, but significant profit loss elsewhere has led to some vocal -- and colorful -- opinions from a former Nokia executive.
Speaking exclusively to CNET UK, Lee Williams, who served as Nokia's senior vice president of Symbian Series 60 OS from 2006 to 2009, paints a portrait of Nokia CEO Stephen Elop as a cost-slashing leader who lacks long-term vision.
Williams goes even further to accuse Elop of sacrificing Nokia's fat and healthy cash cow -- Symbian -- for the chance at "US cultural magic," at the expense of the company's Finnish identity.
In one tidbit:
"Elop is operating like a CFO [chief financial officer] -- CFOs are very practical, always looking at costs, always internally focused...I don't think he's really projecting anything forward or sitting around with his team imaging what the future looks like. I think it's 's**t how do I get rid of a third of this overhead in R&D?.'"
You can read the full interview at CNET UK.