Nokia's employment of ex-Microsoft Stephen Elop provides a great example of strategic hiring, demonstrating that there is often more to executive recruitment that experience or skills. Executives must be ready to offer expansive business networks, specific product knowledge and inside connections that will help drive business partnerships and generate new clients. There is no better example of fulfilling these additional requirements than Stephen Elop.
For those who may not have caught the news, Stephen Elop moved from President of Microsoft to President of Nokia in September 2010. Five short months later, the two giants announced a massive, multi-layered partnership in February 2011, with Nokia powering Bing's mapping service and Microsoft powering Nokia's smart phone devices.
A partnership that much of the media is being treated as a post-Elop move, yet working together across mobile devices dates back to August 2009 and beyond. Thus, when Nokia began looking for a leader to make tracks on ground lost to Apple and Google, who better that Stephen Elop with his vast experience of the Microsoft platforms and his deep business network at the target partnership organization to fill that gap.
Nokia are not the only winners. Microsoft is also in desperate need to make headgeway in the smartphone market after the long delayed release of Windows Mobile 7, a move that current Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, has prioritized by shaking up senior management by looking to hire more executives with engineering and technical backgrounds.
Now the entire business world will be looking to see if Nokia and Microsoft can catch up for lost time and add another true contender to the future smartphone market. If successful, Stephen Elop could be seen as one of the top hires in the last decade.
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This article was written by Christian Pielow from the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC).
BlueSteps is the exclusive service of the AESC that puts senior executives on the radar screen of over 6,000 executive search professionals in over 70 countries. Be visible, and be considered for up to 50,000 opportunities handled by AESC search firms every year. Find out more at www.BlueSteps.com.
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