Going from strength to strength for our customers

What strengths do Nokia and Siemens bring to the new company?

Bosco: For starters, each company brings to the relationship a successful heritage in the field of communications. The combined number of customers that Nokia Siemens Networks now serves is over 600, and in every region of the world.

Our company unites two great engineering and R&D organizations that believe deeply in the power of innovation.
  

The two companies also contribute complementary product focuses that address both sides of the convergence equation – Siemens, on the fixed network side, and Nokia on the mobile network side. Nokia’s deep understanding of the mobile device market and end-user behavior is also a notable advantage.

And critically, we are merging two great global organizations with people who share many of the same values – respect, integrity and a deep sense of responsibility toward their customer relationships.

What is happening in the communications market that supports the creation of this new company?

Bosco: We are seeing a very clear shift in end-user behavior that is changing the way service providers and equipment manufacturers do business.

Consumers are forming into communities as Web 2.0 emerges. At the same time, mobility is playing a larger role in their everyday lives. These shifts are driving the convergence of services and networks and impacting service providers’ business models.

To be a partner in this convergence going forward, our solution portfolio needs to stand much stronger across the different customer segments.

Moreover, scale has become an important requirement. It contributes to controlling costs and meeting our customers’ demanding roll-out schedules.

As a united company, we offer a more comprehensive solution portfolio while enjoying the advantages that our scale gives us. This means that we are more capable than ever to respond to our customers’ evolving business models.

An underlying foundation of any company is its values. What are the values of Nokia Siemens Networks?

Bosco: We have invested a lot of time on this issue, what we call ‘creating our cultural direction’. This is very important because it influences our choice of leaders, workplace structure, objectives setting, assessment process and so many other things.

Based on the work we have done so far, we have identified five cultural rallying points for our new company. They are Customer Focus, Open Communication, Being Valued, Achieving Together, and Innovation Leadership.

Sharing these cultural directions will take time. We are currently going through a dialog process with our 50,000 employees, who are helping us further refine and give living substance to these values. But getting this right has the highest priority. We are aware that some two-thirds of all mergers fail because the partners cannot resolve their cultural differences.

And what about the company’s Code of Conduct?

Bosco: This is something we take very seriously.

We have a very clear Code of Conduct, which is being communicated to all of our employees. Among other things, it addresses respect for ethics and the law, and our commitment to workplace best practices.

But in a much broader light, it goes well beyond compliance issues. We see it as an enabler for other issues like diversity and equitable workplace practices.

Are there certain brand attributes you would like to associate with the company?

Bosco: Yes.

While we are the product of two great names in the communications business, above all we are a new company that is creating a new brand identity.

We believe that the essence of our brand is about uniting communities. That is to say we are enabling both geographically networked communities and virtual communities.

The promise that we want our brand to convey is that we deliver flexible solutions suited to service providers’ dynamic and competitive business environment.

The attributes of our brand are what we promise to be: Pioneering, Passionate and Pragmatic - in everything we do. So what do we mean by this?

Being Passionate to us is about emotion. It starts with inspiring leadership and continues with engaging people. It also addresses how our company is going to make a difference, how it is going to bring new value to our customers, because it matters to our employees.

The Pioneering attribute speaks to innovation leadership, being out there, trying new things, taking risks and having the guts to be entrepreneurial - knowing that not everything will go well, but for sure learning from your mistakes.

And on the Pragmatic side, we recognize that the speed at which our industry is changing requires people to be empowered, so we extend a high level of trust in them to act boldly for the benefit of our customers. But with that empowerment comes the responsibility to make customer-driven decisions in a pragmatic way. We want to avoid an unnecessarily formal and bureaucratic way of doing things.

What is your reading so far from the market about this merger?

Bosco: It’s been amazing!

I have spoken with many consultants and people who have been part of so-called ‘mega-mergers’ before and the consensus is one of astonishment at how fast Nokia and Siemens found each other.

It is no longer about ‘us’ at Nokia and ‘they’ at Siemens; it will be about ‘us’ going forward as a new company, and ‘they’ as the competition.

This is a positive signal for our customers who want business-as-usual as fast as possible. They want to see that we care about them and can be trusted to deliver on our commitments as before.

We are doing that now, by finding each other in the new company and building our team for the future.