Nokia changing its USA business strategy

This press releases is littered with vagueness. Let’s take a look at it:

Nokia today announced that it will realign its North America sales and marketing organization and the management of its device business there. These changes are aimed at improving the organization’s alignment with its customers in North America in order to better meet their needs.

In a move towards building a more channel-focused organization, Nokia is redefining the roles of its device sales teams for North America and relocating most sales support people closer to customers. The device sales organization will move most of its support functions from Irving, Texas, to Nokia’s corporate facilities in White Plains, New York.

As part of the changes, Mark Louison, the current head of Nokia’s networks business in North America, has been appointed to head Nokia’s devices business in the area as of July 1, 2007. As of April 1, Mr. Louison will also become President of Nokia Inc., the North American arm of Nokia. After the realignment and relocation is complete, Tim Eckersley, the current head of Nokia’s device sales in North America, will leave his current position at the end of June. His future plans will be announced at a later date.

"The changes we announced today are designed to align us more closely with our customers in order to drive improved business results in North America," said Robert Andersson, Executive Vice President, Nokia Customer and Market Operations. "We believe these moves will enable us to reinforce our sales and marketing activities in this important market and allow us to provide our customers with some truly compelling product offerings."

All the changes announced today will start immediately, with completion expected by the end of June.

Break it down sentence by sentence:

"These changes are aimed at improving the organization’s alignment with
its customers in North America in order to better meet their needs."

Which customers? Smart phone customers? Prepaid customers? What needs do said customers have?

"In a move towards building a more channel-focused organization, Nokia
is redefining the roles of its device sales teams for North America and
relocating most sales support people closer to customers."

They used the term devices, does that mean we still aren’t going to get N series "multimedia computers?" Relocating support closer to the customers? Does this mean Nokia has a lot of support in NY? That’s funny because when I was living there everyone was on Verizon. Channel-Focused? That could mean many things.

"We believe these moves will enable us to reinforce our sales and
marketing activities in this important market and allow us to provide
our customers with some truly compelling product offerings."

Most generic corporate statement … ever. Almost as bad as the over use of the words "synergy" and "unleash."

All the changes announced today will start immediately, with completion expected by the end of June.

So basically this press release is a change of address form and employee game of musical chairs?

My fellow S60/Nokia bloggers are probably going to chime in later today. I’m left wanting to know more details. What strategy does Nokia have that will make them gain market share here in America. Will they truly begin selling directly to consumers aka not via operators?

Too many questions left unanswered. I’m excited. They’re showing an interest.

That is always a good thing.

Photo is from 1000 Heads. From left to right we have: Steve Garfield, Rafe Blandford, Darla Mack, Teo Bartulovic and Delon Ho. They are standing in front of the Nokia Flagship store in NYC. I’m going to be there in less than 2 weeks!

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

Viipottaja

Let me try to help you a little (Sorry for the CAPS but the easiest way to differentiate my stuff from yours):

“These changes are aimed at improving the organization’s alignment with its customers in North America in order to better meet their needs.”

Which customers? Smart phone customers? Prepaid customers? What needs do said customers have?

CUSTOMERS HERE MEANS MAINLY COMPANIES THAT PURCHASE NOKIA PHONES WHOLESALE. I.E. SERVICE PROVIDERS (MAINLY), BUSINESS/CORPORATE CUSTOMERS, SOME RETAIL STORES, WEBSITES ETC. ONLY SECONDARILY IT WOULD REFER TO END USER CUSTOMERS.

“In a move towards building a more channel-focused organization, Nokia is redefining the roles of its device sales teams for North America and relocating most sales support people closer to customers.”

They used the term devices, does that mean we still aren’t going to get N series “multimedia computers?” Relocating support closer to the customers? Does this mean Nokia has a lot of support in NY? That’s funny because when I was living there everyone was on Verizon. Channel-Focused? That could mean many things.

DEVICE IS A GENERIC TERM COVERING ALL NOKIA PHONES AND MULTIMEDIA COMPUTERS ALIKE, AS WELL AS INTERNETTABLETS. CLOSER TO THE CUSTOMERS PROBABLY MEANS CLOSER TO NETWORKS/SERVICE PROVIDERS WHO ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE FOUND HANGING OUT IN NYC THAN TEXAS… CHANNEL FOCUSED PROBABLY MEANS DISTRIBUTION/SALES CHANNELS. THEY MIGHT E.G. HAVE UNITS/DIVISIONS DEDICATED TO SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND OTHERS DEDICATED TO RETAILERS, AND YET ANOTHER DEDICATED TO BUSINESS/CORPORATE CUSTOMERS.
Stefan Constantinescu

those are your assumptions Viipottaja. Last time I checked you weren’t a Nokia employee
romeo26

can someone sugest nokia adopt a world wide warrenty service?!
Viipottaja

That’s why I say “probably” so many times. However, many of things I say are just common sense as well. E.g. “consumer” does not only mean the end user, right? Also, the meaning of the word “device” is rather clear.
James @ The Creative Life

How is Nokia perceived in the over there? It’s weird to think that there exists a nation where Nokia is not already known as the most progressive phone manufacturer!
Stefan Constantinescu

James: everyone thinks they are a japenese company and haven’t made new phones for at least 2 years. You should’ve seen peoples faces when I whipped out the N93i. They were literally gathering in a circle around me. If there is one thing I demoed on my N93i to hell it was probably the hinge mechanism.

“look it’s a camcorder! now it is a tv!”

oooooo ahhhhh