"They brought in Elop, from Microsoft..."
Duh!!! That in itself seems it is pretty unavoidable linear ? (And, I'm noting I was ignorant of that fact.)
Like, "What did you think was probably going to happen when you hired a guy from Microsoft" ?
Without excusing anything, I'd suggest that actually deflects "some" of the responsibility from him...
Clearly, "They" brought him from MS... and "they" are responsible for that choice...
Which doesn't mean that what you can see happening already in the wake of the hire does anything other than show that it was the wrong choice... in so many ways.
So, they did an extensive internal analysis of their own strengths and weaknesses, determined exactly what things that meant they needed in an executive with the skills to best address those... and then did the opposite ?
I think your analysis that "they panicked" is clearly enough borne out in the evidence I see... at least that which is visible in the sequence of events occurring AFTER the fact of the management implementing their new core principles in the corruption of the Teedy Roosevelt policy to "speak loudly first, and get whacked by a big stick"...
Didn't take them "very long" to come to a new arrangement with Assscentsure on the new plan and the announcement that they'd continue supporting Symbian out until 2016... but, then, there's that issue of horses and closing barn doors after you whack the horse with a big ass stick...
The market had already long since bolted by then, of course...
The events don't cover that long a time span... but, the responses, in context, do appear to show that they were complete stunned by the natural impact of what they did, and, more, HOW they did it...
The HOW is the biggest NOK on the CEO... because, if they'd had a plan to do exactly what they are that they'd implemented smartly instead of insanely... there probably wouldn't ever have been a market response to be stunned by or to have to contend with.
Having looked a bit more closely at this in some detail only over the last few days chatting here, I think I'm probably seeing it not unlike you are...
I don't think the CEO is likely to survive the debacle... not because "no one can ever make a mistake" in business and survive, but because the NATURE of the mistake made is so revealing of a level of cluelessness about things that no tech CEO can be clueless about and survive...
It also, of course, say volumes about the board... leaving it uncertain whether they have the balls to do what they need to do to save their company, or if they're simply going to allow it to be driven over a cliff, because they can blame the other guy as the driver... |
