A Glass Half Full View

By Mark Evans | Published: November 6, 2008

It has been brought to my attention from time to time that AAN has a tendency to highlight Nortel’s shortcomings while not giving enough attention to positive news and developments.

I’m not going to provide too strenuous of a defense other than to say there’s been far more negative news than positive news over the past year or so.

That said, I’m rooting for Nortel to find its way.

I’m hoping CEO Mike Zafirovski can deliver a new strategic direction that gives Nortel a good shot at being successful. As a proud Canadian, it’s important for Canada and our high-tech community for Nortel to be a vibrant player that employs thousands of people – many of whom go on to create and work for high-tech startups.

For Nortel to fail or be gradually sold off would be sad for Canada, Nortel employees and the ecosystem that Nortel supports in Canada. It would also be a tragic ending for one of the world’s oldest telecom suppliers with a history for innovation.

What I’d like to see – hopefully, Monday – is Nortel decide what it wants to be, and then go for it. It can’t continue to be all things to all people because it’s a strategy where you’re a mile wide and an inch deep.

If Nortel decides its fate is enterprise, software and services, it should aggressively embrace this strategy even if means eliminating thousands of jobs and selling non-core assets. If this is the strategic direction that Nortel wants to go,it should get its house in order and do what it needs to do to make it happen – be it strategic alliances, acquisitions, joint ventures, etc.

The old Nortel isn’t working; long live the New Nortel.

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  • Anubhav Wahie

    Agree with you Mark… If Enterprise is the way to go.. So be it.. The idea is to make a strategic decision and stick to it… Making too many changes on a decision made undoes the rationale of making that decision in the first place.. Hope Nortel gets back into action, soon… and then there is no looking back…
    Long live Nortel..!!

  • NewBlue

    “I’m not going to provide too strenuous of a defense other than to say there’s been far more negative news than positive news over the past year or so.”

    Reality can be a difficult pill to swallow sometimes, as evidenced by the old saying, “Denial is not a river in Egypt.” Some people also believe in the power of crystals to influence their lives. Regardless, Nortel's current plight will continue to be what it is regardless of whether a crystal pyramid is placed just so in the sunlight or AAN publishes pie-in-the-sky happy thoughts on the declining value of Nortel's stock, the lack of analyst enthusiasm for Nortel's vision and future, or Mike Z's continued fumbling of the company's direction and cost cutting initiatives.

    It's not you, Mark, or the blog; it's your critics who can't seem to grasp that Nortel is in fact circling the drain, and time and circumstance are not on its side.

  • Spotticus

    Mark, I'm going to have to call you on this. While yes there is more bad news in the market these days (which you are quick to share) there are also many positive events that never seem to make onto your blog.

    1. Still no mention of the London 2012 win
    2. Gartner still ranks Nortel a leader in UC
    3. Still #1 market share in Carrier VoIP (6 years running)
    4. No mention of HSBC win
    5. Lauren Flaherty named best marketer by BtoB magazine
    6. Wins in Dubai
    7. Wins in Russia
    8. VSE wins best in show at ATCA Summit

    It's not all doom and gloob

  • http://www.allaboutnortel.com Mark Evans

    Spotticus,

    Guilty as charged. I appreciate the input.

    Mark

  • BeenThereDunnThat

    Well put. Till next week….

  • Lonely Ops Guy

    Spotticus:

    Nicely said. However, in contrast with what you are saying, why is NT still in this situation? Is it only about all the good points you have laid out? Or is it something else? Our customers love our products and services. Still…..that means nothing to the stock….What is it then?

  • exnt

    Don't forget:

    1. 2008 Elbonian crosspoint switching win.
    2. Nortel named most profligate Press Releaser of 2008 (The CorpSpam award)
    3. New VOIP system for Canadian Quillted Yakmen
    4. Firewall win in North Korea
    5. 2008 Mike Z award for best hairdo for CEO of company with market cap under $1B
    6. 2007 Mike Z award for best hairdo for CEO of company with market cap under $10B
    7. 2004 Bernie Ebbers award for Innovative Accounting
    8. Indymac bank Subprime Call Center win
    9. Most senior execs who completed community service in North Carolina
    10. Most ex-employees on LinkedIn

  • The Left Behind

    Unfortunately the glass is getting emptier every month… where are the large contracts $2B with Verizon, Sprint, CableCo…. they are gone… those were the fuel for this machine… the Enterprise wins are so small that even tough they are great wins those can't cover the fastest drop in the CDMA (only profitable) business. The lack of decisions (or best put lack of execution) on the strategic moves like acquiring enterprise competitors to gain volume to bulk up and drive synergies didn't happen so now the cost structure is so high compared with revenue that they have to cut SG&A/cost which is the path of the death spiral.

    Investors and employees have to be very proud of those wins / market presence because the employees are the ones that have made that possible despite of the paralysis at the top.

    So, no doubt that looking at the glass half full is better… but we have to also look at the reality of the trend in the liquid within the glass, there is a leakage somewhere and nobody seems to find it…

    Wait and see how many press releases are being (will be) issued that are really small… barely a ghostly image of the press releases of 2 years ago…

  • MissingNorthernTelecom

    YES WE CAN!

  • MissingNorthernTelecom

    YES WE CAN!

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