[sangnoir]

> He is vilified simply because he became the last CEO of a beloved empire which was already gasping for it's last breaths

That's being overly generous to Elop. The 'Burning Platform' memo was by his own volition and it played a big part in the decline. This essay nails what Elop did wrong[1] (a bit over-the-top though). Namely, he called his own product crap, and when he distributed the memo, Nokia had no solution ready - they were waiting on Microsoft (Osborne effect). "Hey guys, our phones are currently crap. That Maemo phone you're about to buy - we're discontinuing it. We will have awesome ones sometime in the future though. Remember to by a Nokia ;-)".

1. http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/08/coining...

[snowwrestler]

> The 'Burning Platform' memo was by his own volition and it played a big part in the decline.

He wrote the memo but the question is to what extent it simply described the situation as it actually existed. If he had never written that memo, would Nokia be a competitive mobile platform ecosystem today? I find that hard to believe. I don't think it's realistic to blame so much on a few hundred words.

[sangnoir]

By describing 'the situation as it actually existed', he did a massive disservice to the company he helmed. I am not saying it was the reason Nokia failed, only that it was a huge contributing factor.

You do not expect a company CEO to do negative PR - he damaged Nokia's brand and greatly harmed the confidence developers/consumers had in Nokia.

> I don't think it's realistic to blame so much on a few hundred words.

From the article I previously linked: "Gerald Ratner[1] was CEO of British jewelry group Ratners (since renamed Signet Group). He made a famous speech in London to the Institute of Directors in 1991 in which he said his company products were sold for such low prices "because its total crap." This remark was then published and caused his company to collapse and was only saved by his departure - and the rebranding of the company to Signet."

Ratner destroyed his company in 43 words (relevant part of speech is on Wikipedia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ratner

[cwyers]

The burning platform memo was leaked. It wasn't as if it was sent out as a press release.

[JoshTriplett]

It's completely ridiculous to send a memo to any significant fraction of the employees of a 60+k person company and not make plans for it being the top story in tomorrow's news.

[cwyers]

If it was impossible for him to communicate with the people who worked fine him about the need for changed strategy without dooming the company, they were already doomed.