Nortel Bloggers Go AWOL

By Mark Evans | Published: January 3, 2008

Picture 1-31
Hey, where are the Nortel bloggers?

John Roese hasn’t written a post since Dec. 5, while Phil Edholm‘s last appearance was Dec. 20. If they’re going to build an audience, they need to be write more frequently.

Of course, Roese and Edholm are senior executives with a lot of responsibilities so blogging on a regular basis may not be top of mind, especially during the year-end period. One piece of advice I would offer is rather than write lengthy posts, Roese and Edholm should focus on doing more shorter posts. They not be as insightful or in-depth but it would probably engage people more.

Still, the lack of activity demonstrates one of the challenges of corporate blogging. Unless you have a personal stake (financial, brand, profile, etc.) and the time to do it, blogging can easily become less of a priority. Don’t get me wrong; this isn’t something limited to Nortel but all companies that want, in theory, to embrace social media. The problem is many social media projects die on the vine unless there’s a corporate commitment to make them happen as part of a marketing/branding strategy.

The question, I guess, is whether blogging a few times a month is worth it. How much value are you offering customers, employees, suppliers and investors if they’re not sure when and/if you’re going to write? If you’re talking the talk but not walking the walk, why blog at all.

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  • jayemmay

    You have me baffled. Why so much concern about Roese’s blogs. His blogs were not likely to reveal much about Nortel’s prospects as a company.

    I hardly think he was going to explain why Nortel’s stock is falling like a rock. Nor was he going to explain why executives, other than Zafirovski, do not buy Nortel stock.

    I have a bad feeling about Nortel that a Roese blog is not going to eliminate.

    What is going on? Some of the posters on your blog say the reasons are simple: chaotic organization; inadequate product; poor employee morale; incompetent management.

    What do you think?

  • Mark Evans

    As an enthusiastic blogger, I have a strong view on what should be involved. Maybe my expectations for Roese and Edholm are too high. Given Nortel’s challenge, I’m sure both have better things to do other than blog. Maybe the middle ground is have multiple-writers on a single blog as opposed to a variety of blogs. My sense is Nortel is trying to do both right now but it’s not working well.

  • nortel hand

    Not working well is being too kind Mark!!

  • http://deleted Nortel Watcher

    Why would Nortel’s approach to blogging be inconsistent with its approach to UMTS, Wi-mesh, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Six Sigma, OLPC, PBT, ICA, etc., etc.. Lots of up front “we’re leaders” jibber jabber but inadequate follow-through when it’s time to get around to the the hard work of execution.

    Nortel shuts down over the xmas break so we’ll probably hear that the bloggers were on vacation. Note that the value of the company eroded another 6% or so while they were out.

  • Edward

    So Does that Mean every Christmas the company
    value erodes Six percent?
    Hmmmm…you should win the equivalent of the nobel prize for the “Nostradamus” Accouting award.

  • Casual Observer

    I’d say the slowdown in blogging is to due to the slowdown in the overall economy. Judging from this week’s numbers, the US is plunging into housing and consumer led recession and will likely take many export led economies with it. A by-product of this will be slower business spending and even negative earnings growth and a bear market. Outside of Cisco and Juniper, basically every other company in carrier/enterprise networking will be in trouble and will have to either shutdown or have massive layoffs like Alcatel/Lucent. We’re about to head into the second leg down in the credit crisis which will have massive repercussions on the global economy.

  • McArthur

    This is clearly because there is no further innovation of note occurring. Roese’s last posts are so far off the mark in regards to mobile it is for the best that he’s not continuing to blog.

  • many

    I think both John Roese and Phil Edholm had envisioned a platform/bully pulpit for product and veiws of technology. Unfortunately it hasn’t turned out that way.

    It seemed to me that Phil lost a lot of enthusiasm when he threw the gauntlet down to cisco over their VSS and the unfavorable comparison to SMLT. No responses of note and he must be left thinking either the blog is not being read or availability is not an important consideration (I suspect he concluded the former).

    There is so much to discuss on these topics i.e. what happens to cisco’s business as ipv6 reduces the need for NAT and PAT?) Will telecommuting provide a partial solution to energy use and pollution? How will service providers be able to solve the issues around wireless handoff (especially billing) between the wireless networks?

    John honestly disappoints me. He really dropped the ball in responding and encouraging some conversation on his posts which would have increased the readership. IMO he really revealed how powerless the CTO position is inside nortel. The blog was (I think) a good idea poorly executed.

    In the end, I think nortel self-esteem is being further damaged by the half hearted execution.

  • Casual Observer

    we can talk about Nortel, but the point is moot given that even Cisco’s stock is down almost 25% from its high just a few months ago. That tells you that macroeconomic issues are unfolding and even the strongest of companies will have to deal with a slowing economy and sales. Macroeconomic issues will always trump the micro issues of running any company.

  • Boddicker

    Shutdowns or massive layoffs like alcatel lucent..lol.

    So nortel has gone from over 100,000 to under
    30,000..much more drastic than Ala lucent.
    Give your head a shake.
    Define “Shutdowns”?

  • Casual Observer

    Boddicker – that news is 6 years old. We’re into the next down cycle and this time its Alcatel/Lucent in the same place Nortel was in 2001. Unlike Nortel they will get a lot more help from their government while laying off workers in Canada and the United States. That’s not good for Ottawa.

    Shutdowns: going out of business or selling to any bidder that comes along. Also closing divisions or closing down sites and laying off workers.

    2008 will be a challenging and competitive year. Good luck to all.

  • Boddicker

    You mean France will help out Alcatel/Lucent
    Workers in France.
    The North American Division will get no help.
    Is that what you are saying?
    For the record nothing has happened yet at
    Alcatel Lucent in Ottawa except for the production shift workers who were canned last spring. They have not tapped out engineers like was previously done at Nortel in the past and continues to happen at a much slower rate,
    since most of it has already happened and
    they realize they need to kill more admin, managers, Sales, SG&A and marketing in favour
    of people who do the work and contribute to revenue.

  • http://blog.tmcnet.com/the-hyperconnected-enterprise/ Tony Rybczynski

    In response to “where are the Nortel bloggers?”, I’m here at
    http://blog.tmcnet.com/the-hyperconnected-enterprise/

    I’m also from the shorter-is-sweeter school of blogging with 2-3 postings each week, leaving longer pieces to my column in Internet Telephony magazine.

    Before you comment on my posting frequency, I let my blog rest during the last 2 weeks for an extended holiday;)

  • many

    Tony,

    I have to ask; why is your blog not at least mirrored on blogs.nortel.com? I seems you have a fair amount to say on the industry, and would be able to bring both incite and insight :)

  • many
  • http://deleted Nortel Watcher

    Tony – appreciate the pointer to your blog…but nobody appears to be reading or commenting. Why is that? And why are you only just now converting to a Microsoft-based converged desktop when Nortel has been pushing and selling a SIP-based solution for years? Are the silos in Nortel that deep?

  • http://blogs.nortel.com/enterpriseblog/ Phil Edholm

    Sorry about the lapse…..I went on vacation at the beginning of the month (my better half threatened severe bodily harm if I logged in while on a cruise) and the had the sales conference and a trip to Europe. Quite frankly, I never saw this as a “bully pulpit”, but rather an opportunity to communicate some views and interact. My intent has always been to make the posts something that would be of interest and/or educational. You will see a number of new postings now at http://blogs.nortel.com/enterpriseblog/. Actually the comment on VSS was interesting…I did expect more reaction…but sometimes there are more reactions (for example the LSS posting).

    Look forward to interacting. I will try to keep the content fairly regular, even though this sometimes comes at the expense of the posting being groundbreaking or insightful…..

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