Of the many responsibilities that were thrust upon me during my 14 month stint at Nokia, my favorite was writing an internal newsletter that was read by thousands of employees. I’d spend all day reading the news, picking out the four or five most important stories, and then explaining why said news items were important and how they impacted the company. Some days I’d also include a little rant at the bottom of the newsletter, writing about anything and everything that was on my mind and asking for people’s comments. One day, and I’ll never forget this day, I wrote about near field communication (NFC) and how Nokia should become a pioneer by including the technology across their entire product portfolio. After all, Nokia did the same thing with GPS technology, so why not with NFC? Less than 15 minutes after hitting send on that day’s newsletter my phone started to ring; Jeremy Belostock was on the other end. While I was working at Nokia he was the Head of NFC, and boy did I piss him off. After politely suggesting Nokia become a leader in NFC he tore me a new asshole, asking who the hell I was telling him how to do his job, and demanding that I send out a new email saying Nokia was already head and shoulders above everyone else when it came to the new technology.
According to NFC World, Jeremy doesn’t work for Nokia anymore. He quit this month. His new role, according to his LinkedIn profile, is “Director Group Strategy” at Neopost. Never heard of them? Neither have I. They call themselves a “worldwide provider of mailing and shipping solutions” and say they are “the number one producer of mailing and shipping products in Europe”. In other words, Jeremy left his role managing the rollout of an exciting new technology at one of the world’s largest mobile phone makers to lick stamps and weigh envelopes.
How about them Apples?