Let's hope Rajeev Suri is getting plenty of sleep and taking his vitamins as he takes the reins of Nokia as its newly appointed CEO come Thursday.
The 46-year-old former leader of Nokia's Solutions and Networks, who's been with Nokia for 18 years, has his work cut out given the big changes Nokia's undergone in just the past year.
The news comes as Nokia has sold off its mobile smartphone hardware business to Microsoft for $7.2 billion and is making shareholders happy with a special dividend and Suri's leadership appointment.
But Nokia's recent earnings report isn't likely making investors too happy given revenue dropped though net loss was a bit less than compared to a year ago.
Nokia stated it will invest big to enhance capital structure, distribute more capital to shareholders and continue building out the network business.
"Nokia's strategy is to develop its three businesses in order to realize its vision of being a technology leader in a connected world and, in turn, create long-term shareholder value," said Suri.
Suri is credited with turning around Nokia's network business but the challenge ahead is much bigger given the ultra competitive industry climate. But industry watchers are clearly optimistic.
"Mr. Suri has done a very commendable job in turning around NSN, in our view. Thus, we see the market being positive about his appointment," JP Morgan Cazenove analysts said.
Reports on the recent earnings claim one of Suri's top strategies may be acquiring rival network vendors, such as Alcatel-Lucent, but Suri was quoted as stating future acquisitions will likely be focused on buying smaller players.
Suri is just one of nearly a dozen new leadership appointments in the network, computing and smartphone space, as vendors tag new gurus to drive sales, revenue and brand.
In the span of a week some of the brightest, smartest and most innovative minds behind today's advancing technologies in mobile, smartphones, computing and search have taken leave to jump to new employers or move out on their own.
As Tech Times reported last week HTC has hired on Paul Golden, the ex-marketing chief at Samsung, HTC guru Scott Croyle is downgrading his role to consultant to pursue personal projects and HTC's Senior VP of Design, Ford Davidson, is leaving for his own projects. Meanwhile Apple has finally found a new VP to head up its retail and storefront business.
Then came news that Vic Gundotra, the man behind Google+, announced he is leaving after eight years with the search titan. He is cited as the mastermind behind the Google 'circle' strategy. Over at Apple Angela Ahrendt, a fashion executive, will be filling the role of senior VP of retail and online stores, a job that has been vacant for some time.
