Kamis, 14 Juni 2012

Nokia to Slash 10,000 More Jobs, Changes Executives


Today, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced a series of changes to its operations, some of which will involve slashing up to 10,000 jobs by the end of 2013.

The company claims that these changes are meant to help it sharpen its strategy and improve its operating model, while also returning it to growth and profitability.

As such, the handset vendor will focus on reducing costs, which will result in layoffs among its Devices & Services personnel.

A series of research and development projects will be shut down, which will include the closing of Nokia’s facilities in Ulm, Germany and Burnaby, Canada.

Moreover, some manufacturing operations will be consolidated, which will also involve the closing of its manufacturing facility in Salo, Finland. It will, however, continue to work on Research and Development.

Overall, 10,000 positions within the company will be affected globally by the end of 2013.

"These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia's long-term competitive strength," Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO, stated.

"We do not make plans that may impact our employees lightly, and as a company we will work tirelessly to ensure that those at risk are offered the support, options and advice necessary to find new opportunities."

However, the company will continue to focus on the development of Lumia handsets. Nokia plans to target more price ranges with these devices, while aiming at making them stand up in the crowd though packing new materials, technologies and services.

One step in this direction was announced today with the planned acquisition of Scalado, a imaging specialists with technology powering over 1 billion devices today.

Along with the aforementioned round of layoffs, Nokia also announced a series of changes to its executive team.

As part of these changes, Juha Putkiranta will serve as executive VP of Operations, Timo Toikkanen will be executive VP of Mobile Phones, Chris Weber as executive VP of Sales and Marketing, Tuula Rytila senior VP of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer, while Susan Sheehan will become senior VP of Communications.

Jerri DeVard will no longer serve as chief marketing officer, Mary McDowell will step down as executive vice president of Mobile Phones, while and Niklas Savander will leave its position as executive vice president of Markets.

“Putkiranta, Toikkanen and Weber will join the Nokia Leadership Team effective July 1, 2012,” the mobile phone maker announced. DeVard, McDowell and Savander will advisory roles, but will step down from the Team on June 30.

"We are increasing our focus on the products and services that our consumers value most while continuing to invest in the innovation that has always defined Nokia," said Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO.

"We intend to pursue an even more focused effort on Lumia, continued innovation around our feature phones, while placing increased emphasis on our location-based services. However, we must re-shape our operating model and ensure that we create a structure that can support our competitive ambitions."

Via: Nokia to Slash 10,000 More Jobs, Changes Executives

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