Former Nokia executive Tomi Ahonen has comprehensively blasted his former boss, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, in a 29,000 word angry letter.
In the explosive open letter, Ahonen accuses Elop of being “the worst CEO ever seen in corporate governance and he truly must be fired immediately”.
Among many other things, Ahonen accuses his former boss of allegedly damaging relations with phone carriers; squandering Nokia’s market position; conceding marketshare to Apple and Samsung; abandoning the Meltemi and MeeGo platforms; adopting Windows Phone (which he claims was inferior to Nokia’s own platforms); damaging staff morale; not selling the N9 smartphone in key markets; abandoning the N950 smartphone; eroding developer ecosystems; “iPhone envy”; and announcing the adoption of Windows Mobile in a manner that damaged the company’s existing products.
Ahonen’s tirade at one point even goes so far as to attack Elop for allegedly misquoting the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu:
“Sun Tzu never said anything even remotely like that. This sounds like some motivational rubbish written by some business guru trying to adapt Sun Tzu to modern life and somehow Mr I-read-a-lot-of-Sun-Tzu can’t even quote him anywhere near correctly.”
“His comments are of course read by Nokia staff – many of whom are actual officers in the Finnish reserves, some senior level officers even, and have actually studied and been tested on the real Sun Tzu, not this bullsh-t.”
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
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