Nokia said Rajeev Suri will be the new president and CEO of the company. The new appointment follows the completion of the divestment of phone business to Microsoft in a $7.2 billion deal. It will now focus on three business areas: networks, location services and technologies.

He was elevated to the new position thanks to his managerial skills in turning around Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN), the telecom network business, by axing around 17,000 resources, divesting non-viable businesses and bringing clarity to its mobile broadband focus.

Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) brand will disappear as part of the new restructuring. It will be now known as Nokia Network business. Suri will continue to head this business.

Nokia, without the ailing phone business, will focus on networks, location and technologies. Nokia wants to lead in these three areas. Suri will draft fresh strategies for leadership position. In fact, NSN is behind Ericsson and Huawei in telecom network business.

Indian born Suri joined Nokia in 1995 and has held a range of leadership positions in the company. Since October of 2009, he has served as CEO of NSN, the former joint venture between Nokia and Siemens that is now fully owned by Nokia.

Suri was instrumental in creating strategic clarity, driving innovation and growth, ensuring disciplined execution, and delivering results.

Recently, enterprise IT vendor Microsoft picked up another Indian born Satya Nadella as its CEO.

Nokia business areas

Nokia believes that over the next 10 years billions of connected devices will converge into intelligent and programmable systems that will have the potential to improve lives in a vast number of areas: time and availability, transportation and resource consumption, learning and work, health and wellness, and many more.

This new world of technology will require connectivity capable of handling massive numbers of devices and exponential increases in data traffic; location services that seamlessly bridge between the real and virtual worlds; and innovation, including in sensing, radio and low power technologies.

“With our three strong businesses – Networks, HERE and Technologies – and position as one of the world’s largest software companies, we are well placed to meet our goal to be a leader in the technologies,” said Rajeev Suri.

Nokia strategy

Nokia’s strategy is to develop its three businesses to realize its vision of being a technology leader in a connected world.

“Where it makes sense to do so, we will pursue shared opportunities between the businesses, but not at the expense of focus and discipline in each,” Suri added.

In 2013, Nokia invested EUR 2.5 billion in research and development.

NETWORKS

Through its Networks business (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks, or NSN), Nokia will invest in the innovative products and services needed by telecoms operators to manage the increase in wireless data traffic which is more than doubling every year.

Nokia will invest in mobile broadband and related services and next-generation network technologies.

HERE

Nokia will invest to develop its location cloud to make it the leading source of location intelligence and experiences across many different operating systems, platforms and screens. Focus will be on technology for smart, connected cars; cloud-based services for personal mobility and location intelligence, including for the growing segment of wearables and special purpose devices; and location-based analytics for better business decisions.

TECHNOLOGIES

Nokia will invest in the further development of its innovation portfolio.

In addition, Nokia plans to reduce interest bearing debt by approximately EUR 2 billion by the end of the second quarter 2016.

NEW STRUCTURE

The new team will include: Rajeev Suri as president and CEO of Nokia; Timo Ihamuotila as executive vice president and group CFO; Michael Halbherr as CEO of HERE; Henry Tirri as executive VP, and acting head of Technologies and Samih Elhage as executive VP and chief financial and operating officer of Networks.

Nokia’s old team is leaving finally. Stephen Elop, Jo Harlow, Juha Putkiranta, Timo Toikkanen, and Chris Weber have already stepped down from Nokia. Louise Pentland, Juha Akras and Kai Oistamo will step down from Nokia next month.

[email protected]