A week after CTO John Roese unveiled that Nortel’s R&D activities would be re-focused, Nortel provides some more details about what’s happening.
The highlight – and this should come as no surprise – is that more R&D will be happening in China involving all four of the company’s business units. For Canadians worried about Nortel’s extensive R&D operations, Ottawa and its 5,000 engineers will remain a “full service unit” for the carrier, business network, software and service units.
Meanwhile, nine centers have been identified in the U.S., Ireland, England, Turkey, India and Korea while four “specialty sites” with a narrow focus will be in Canada, the United States and France.
So now for the quote of the day:
“We’re not trying to be all things to all people,” said David Hudson, Nortel’s vice-president of portfolio management. “That kind of focus, around a core set of technology assets, I think is important. It says we’re … going to matter for a few really important things and we’ll work with partners for the rest.”
Trying to be all things to all people has been one of Nortel’s biggest strategic issues since the telecom boom went bust. Why it took the company so long to embrace this reality is puzzling but if you’re one of those people looking for good news, this could be something to get excited about.
come back when you get some more 'nortel' experience.
shortterm
so the walmart of telecom now wants to focus. good. however need to see commitment on this long term. usually these strategies change very quickly as we have seen in the past. products getting canned. getting out of access and then trying to rush in. hope the shrinkage will be focused and profitable.
only issue with partners. too many of them as well which should shrink too so that key profitable partnerships are kept, nourished and harvested. presently even the partnerships are so many to stick their fingers into everything.
pretty much bad news 2-5 year term for Canada. narrow focus translates to very niche specialized skills. sense a move out of the crown jewel Ottawa campus to a smaller site.
Nortel new hire
Shortterm, I believe your interpretation of the ottawa campus is incorrect. Even though the rest of Canada (Belleville and Calgary) will become NT's specialty sites, Carling campus in Ottawa will remain a full service R&D centre: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id...
Currently as far as I know, the Belleville location does R&D for Enterprise Solutions only, and I know the calgary location has a lot of RF and wireless related research.
Onlooker
Why it took the company so long to embrace this reality is puzzling -- Give it a rest. There is no puzzle here. 4 CEOs in 8 years itself is a strategic issue. You can blame the board for this. This time it looks like they are finally headed in the right long term direction. Remember good companies don't make 2 year plans but 5, 10 and even 20 year plans.
Nortel Quote of the Week
A week after CTO John Roese unveiled that Nortel’s R&D activities would be re-focused, Nortel provides some more details about what’s happening.
The highlight – and this should come as no surprise – is that more R&D will be happening in China involving all four of the company’s business units. For Canadians worried about Nortel’s extensive R&D operations, Ottawa and its 5,000 engineers will remain a “full service unit” for the carrier, business network, software and service units.
Meanwhile, nine centers have been identified in the U.S., Ireland, England, Turkey, India and Korea while four “specialty sites” with a narrow focus will be in Canada, the United States and France.
So now for the quote of the day:
“We’re not trying to be all things to all people,” said David Hudson, Nortel’s vice-president of portfolio management. “That kind of focus, around a core set of technology assets, I think is important. It says we’re … going to matter for a few really important things and we’ll work with partners for the rest.”
Trying to be all things to all people has been one of Nortel’s biggest strategic issues since the telecom boom went bust. Why it took the company so long to embrace this reality is puzzling but if you’re one of those people looking for good news, this could be something to get excited about.
For more coverage, check out the Ottawa Citizen.
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