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Nokia has yet another corporate reorganization, this time they’ve put Anssi Vanjoki back in charge

Categories: Nokia
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 at 4:27 AM

Ask any Nokia employee about their main frustrations with the company, and you’re not going to hear some sob story about the iPhone, or job cuts, but instead you’ll get an ear full about the yearly game of musical chairs. Some people are lucky enough to do the same job they’ve been doing all along, they just have to deal with remembering their new title every 12 months. Other people spend a year working their tail off to jump up the corporate ladder, only to be put on a team under a new boss who they’ve never met. It’s a royal pain in the ass.

Spring is here, summer is right around the corner, so it’s a ripe time to bring change. Nokia is now going to be split up into 3 units: Mobile Solutions, Mobile Phones and Markets. Mobile Solutions will work with MeeGo and Symbian devices and will be headed by Anssi Vanjoki, pictured above, a man who has no problem getting the job done, and whose talent was being wasted in the bowels of the marketing department. MeeGo Computers will be led by Alberto Torres, and Symbian Smartphones will go to Jo Harlow. Tero Ojanpera’s ass kissing of Hollywood stars and music legends will come to an end, and he’s now being put in charge of the Services Unit within Mobile Solutions.

Rich Green is the new Chief Technology Officer, and he comes from Sun Microsystems. He’s going to be responsible for making Nokia’s technology, both internal and external, work. Should be interesting to see what he does since he’s new to the company.

Mobile Phones, that’ll be headed by Mary McDowell, the lady who used to run the now ancient Enterprise Unit that gave us one of the most beloved portfolio of devices to ever hit the market: Nokia’s Eseries.

Markets will be headed by Niklas Savander, which proves one thing, the brass upstairs gave him a chance to do something with the Device Unit, and he didn’t do shit, so now he’ll be responsible for hiring a bunch of mid to late 20 creative types who understand the market, giving them a bunch of money, that said hipsters will then use to higher creative agencies, whose ultimate goal is to strengthen the presently tattered Nokia brand name.

Kai Oistamo will become Chief Development Officer and Head of Corporate Development. Not sure how I feel about this one. Not saying Kai isn’t a bright man, he’s very smart, but is he forward thinking enough to set Nokia’s future strategy?

And saddest of all, Rick Simonson is gone. The former Chief Financial Officer, turned Head of Mobile Phones, a title he kept for less than a year, has called it quits. He’s retiring.

Make no mistake, this is one hell of a reorganization, and it makes me wonder … what about the man on top? Why does Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo get to keep his job?

Anyway, good luck Anssi, it’s nice to see you back in a unit responsible for making devices. Seriously dude, what the fuck were you doing in marketing?

Update: And sorry for not making this clear, all the changes I’ve listed above go into effect on July 1, 2010.

[Via: Press Release]

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.

  • Lord Dextro

    Too bad you have to ruin your article with vulgarity. I would think that this website would have grown in maturity by now. Hopefully one day you guys at intomobile will discover the difference between creditable journalism and personal blogging. You guys are supposed to be above this garbage. Then again maybe not.

  • P.Erkele

    Jo Harlow cannot manage a sh*t in a cr*phouse, Anssi used to be great when Mobile Phones battled it out on 16 scales of grey. My god talk about people feathering their nests! Whats going on Nokia? All I see is bunch of corporate has beens playing their fiddles when Rome is burning. Give us proper visionary leadership not incompetent has beens. If Anssi REALLY loves Nokia he needs to step aside and let the Nokia 2.0 people take over, its time for Nokia 1.0 to move into history. (PS Anssi had nothing to do with Maemo, the only idea he gave to the project is the insane slow project time. We could have had GSM in N810 allready but that was vetoed by guess who?)

    I guess there goes my IIP to new targets. Wasting my time here

  • P.Erkele

    Please, this is not a church, this is the web… if you dont like it…. Disconnect

  • Raji

    If title has changed, its because we have grown in career, not because of reorg, teams dont change just like that, even this reorg, people are brough together structurally rather than any location or title movement. Once a while its also good to rotate and flush(though there is no flush associated with this reorg and very minimal impact or no impact to daily work for most teams). Nokians are adapted to change and we believe in our leadership strategy.

  • P.Erkele

    Raji.

    Please. We are getting flamed out in the market on all fronts and worst of all in the last two years some of the brightest stars in the company has left becuase they could not change anything. Our strategy is locked in Anssi's head and pity the fool who tries to be innovative without his consent. The author calls him Nokia's Steve Jobs and I believe that Anssi would like to think so but Steve has also surrounded himself by the best and brightest innovators in the market or won them over in the press. Anssi makes dumb, cute sounding statements like : We copy with pride. WTF is this kindergarten? The only thing I can think of is that this is an english speaking world and the Finns get lost in translation. Electronics is all about fashion these days NOT about enginering. The world is a hegemony and Nokia is still acting autocratic.

    I for one am actively looking outside , little old me who means nothing to the company and I know what a guy like Anssi will say: There are many to take your place… sure Anssi but the quality of your cohorts are going down the tubes and I can name 5 global Nokia sites where OUR employees have dual sims and their OTHER phone is an iPhone or Android.

  • P.Erkele

    Like I said get Jan Chipchase BACK tomorrow and make him VICE CEO or whatever. I can list at least 20 other names that Nokia has to get back TOMORROW and promote them andmake them fly in the organisation because this 20th century management style is just fucking us up and making the workers on the street feel like nothing they do is worth while

    They say change is good, and I agree but change with INTENT is better