John Roese’s Blog CTO, Nortel

Location: Flying from SFO to LAS en route to Ottawa

I wanted to post a quick note today not about technology or some interesting product but rather about the great response to the launch of my blog this week. I posted my first entry a few days ago while I was in Las Vegas at Nortel’s first-ever global sales conference (they’ve historically been regional) and, I must say, I’m truly amazed (and delighted) at the number of comments and the passion behind them. I wanted to take a few minutes to share my reaction to that.

First, thanks for the comments and response. External blogs are a new thing at Nortel and the fact that we had comments and observations from employees, customers, partners and others means that the medium has great potential for creating an on-going dialog with a broad audience of interest. Second, I want to acknowledge the level of passion in the comments. It was fantastic… from employees getting excited that we are communicating in this way with the world, to customers and others with strong opinions about what Nortel must do to succeed (and providing that advice quite forcefully, I might add). And, third, I note that all of the constituencies pointed to the need to move forward and execute. And, quite frankly, that’s very good news because it means we are on the same page in terms of focus and urgency. Focusing on the story we need to tell and the actions we need to take to execute on the strategy is clearly top of mind. I appreciate the opening salvo of dialog and hope it only grows.

Looking at some of the comments and observations, I thought it might be useful to provide some of my views on them…

One theme that came through was the observation that visions without execution are hallucinations (another one of my favorite Albert E quotes). I totally agree with this. The key to Nortel and its reemergence is to first define what we want to be to the industry and then to execute with such intensity that we get there ahead of others.

My first few months have been focused on making sure we know what we want the telecom world to look like and where we need to focus our efforts and innovation to make that happen faster. That vision is in place today. The next phase, which is well underway, is the focus on changing the structure, culture and intensity to out-execute our competition in this race. Internally, we have made huge shifts in how we are organized to execute better, both in terms of innovation and profitability (the dual pillars of great companies, in my opinion). I encourage any of you who have not viewed the video presentations from our recent investor conference in Toronto to spend a few minutes to hear that part of the story. It’s less sexy than a new product or a telecom revolution but it gives you a flavor of the fantastic behind-the-scenes effort that is going on in Nortel to make sure we are about more than just having a great story or a vision.

A second theme of the commentary was around the Microsoft-Nortel Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) and the fact that it is a must-win battle for us. I’m in total agreement here. In previous roles and companies, I have been involved in quite a few collaborative efforts with Microsoft. I was a JDP partner for Windows XP and .NET at prior companies, and was even the guest speaker at the media reviewer meeting for Windows XP prior to its launch (where I spoke to a large cadre of press on the good and the bad of XP). On the technical side, I was co-author of 802.1X/EAPOE with a group of industry leaders, including one of Microsoft’s key technical inventors, and I even collaborated on delivering one of the first security routers to natively support their VPN client. So, I have some experience with Microsoft and my relationship with them has always been good. At the same time, I’ve also had the luxury of being involved in collaborations with many other leading technical companies, so I think I’m in a pretty good position to gauge their effort and effectiveness versus others.

As some of the comments indicated, Microsoft is a demanding partner. They have high standards and a focus on delivery that they expect their partners to execute to. When we announced the ICA, I shared with Nortel colleagues my past experience with Microsoft and my comments were to the effect that “this is a good thing for us, but realize that when you align with Microsoft to deliver technology and solutions that will impact customers and create opportunity, they will expect nothing short of world-class commitment and execution.” I personally feel that the Nortel team is up to that task. From the direct CEO relationship between Steve Ballmer and Mike Z, to the fact that the engineering teams from both companies are world class, to the financial and human capital commitment (demo sites, marketing, events, training, certifications, joint labs…), this is a priority one effort for Nortel. The impact on the enterprise experience of making true unified communications real is so enormous that failure cannot be an option. The proof will be seen with execution and results, but I share many of your opinions that this is a partnership that is critical to Nortel and must be a priority focus for us. For me personally it is, for my teams it is and, I believe, for the rest of Nortel it is as well.

My final comment for this week is to thank you for the dialog. We have much to do, but with $11+ Billion in revenue, almost $2B in R&D, some 33,000 employees, great partners world-wide, and an exceptional customer base, I think we have the scale and ability to execute. Couple that with a vision of the future that focuses on change and improvement of the experience and effectiveness of telecom and the formula is in place to succeed.

I appreciate your indulgence in this blog entry given that I’m not talking about technology but, in the spirit of dialog, I thought it would be good to share these thoughts.

Now I’m off to my home in Ottawa, where it is a balmy -30 degrees Celsius.