Elop, the greatest hero the tech world has ever seen.

the_tyrant

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I'm cross posting my own thread from the verge.

r_medium.jpg



via s3.reutersmedia.net





Introduction




Someday, we will talk about
Steve the Great as one of the greatest conquers of history, the great
man who managed combined the great Microsoft and the Powerful Nokia in a
personal union. Steve the Great will be known as one of the greatest
political manipulators of our time, one whose achievements far exceeds
those of the greatest political manipulators in history. Emperor Elop
will be known as the great political mind who has surpassed the
achievements of Otto von Bismark and Klemens von Metternich.

He
strikes at a moment of vulnerability, like a great pickup artist, he
seizes the vulnerability, and exploits it masterfully to squeeze himself
into somewhere where he doesn't belong. Stephan will always be known in
the future as the great hero of Microsoft, vanquisher of Lotus, crusher
of Symbian, destroyer of Meego, protector of Pureview, lord of fried
chicken, master of Macromedia, and the emperor of the Microsoft-Nokia
union.



Part One: Elop Begins


Hailing from a small town in
the frigid norths of Ontario, Elop was a promising young man. He must
have been an intelligent young man, he was admitted into McMaster
engineering, and completed his studies in engineering. McMaster has the
distinction of being one of the very few schools on earth with an active
nuclear reactor on campus. Stephen must have soaked up quite a bit of
radiation in his university days, and this provides the backdrop for for
our hero's origin story.

Every hero has that great event
early in life, that defines his career. For Alexander the great, he
subjugated the Greek city states when he was 16 that showed him the
awesome power of a heavy cavalry charge. For Cecil Rhodes, it was his
experience in the American Civil War that taught him the capabilities of
modern weapons and tactics. For our hero Stephen, it was his
involvement in introducing internet into Canada that helped define him
as who he is. He was one of the pioneers who layed internet cable
connected into the IBM global data network, bringing internet to Canada.



Elop started his career at
Lotus, in the consulting department. It was here, when he first faced
off against the Office legions. The Microsoft Office legions was the
greatest force of the time. Elop was a top lieutenant in the rag tag
rabble that Lotus called an army. At best, Lotus could only conduct a
holding action, staving off final defeat. But alas, people should known
when they are conquered, and when the tide began to turn, Elop jumped
off the burning platform for the first time, and became a lord of fired
chicken.



After jumping out of the
failing enterprise that is Lotus, Elop joined the fried chicken industry
and became the CIO of Boston Chicken. But alas, all the "informations"
and the "synergies" can't save the joke that is Boston Chicken, Boston
Chicken went bankrupt in 1998, and Elop jumps off the burning platform
the second time, into Macromedia.


Part Two: Charge of the web brigade


Stephen had a very successful
run at Macromedia, it was at Macromedia where he first became one of the
most influendtial figures in tech. Remember the .com bubble? Elop was
one of the central figures. He was responsible for the strategy that led
to the creation of flash, dreamweaver, and cold fusion. 3 technologies
that are fundamental in the development of the internet and the creation
of the .com bubble.

Elop's brilliance in his
online strategy allowed the early internet to flourish. Sure, nowadays,
with all the "ASP.nets" and your "PHPs", you might think that meh,
Elop's creations were not such a big deal. But back in the day, there
were people out there who thought of him as a visionary, as a savior,
and as the future king of the world. Hell, ask any 90s .com man to
choose between Steve Jobs, and Stephen Elop, 9 out of 10 will choose
Elop.

Elop's strategic underpinnings
in his vision of the world wide web is impeccable. His support of flash
meant that for the longest time, the world had a standard platform for
rich applications. Elop's push for Dreamweaver as the industry standard
meant that for years, both hobbyists and professionals had a powerful
and easy to use tool, that allows anyone and their mothers to create
their own websites. And as the "inventor" of Cold Fusion (ok, Elop
"invented" Cold Fusion in the sense that Jobs "invented" the iPhone),
Elop led the charge in spreading the dynamic web, and was instrumental
in the "Pax Macromedia" of the late 90s to the early 2000s.



After years of hard work, our
friend Stephen finally became the Lord of the Internet (aka, CEO of
Macromedia). However, at the time, a takeover was on the horizon, and
soon after becoming CEO, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe. Our hero Elop
than jumped ship to the mighty republic of Microsoft, taking control of
its elite office division.



Part Three: Clash of the Titans


For the longest time, there
was an uneasy peace between the two titans of tech, IBM and Microsoft.
After acquiring Elop's old company, Lotus, IBM did not really attempt to
challenge Microsoft in the office arena. Microsoft on the other hand,
never really attempted to battle IBM in their core competency,
enterprise middle-ware.



But alas, with the really
controversial Office 2007, IBM fired a shot across Microsoft's bow with
the launch of Lotus Symphony. Lotus Symphony was the first product in
years that even attempted to challenge Office's domination, something
that hasn't been done by a major company in years. It was common
knowledge that such a challenge must prove to be futile, and thus for
over 10 years, there was no credible competition to Microsoft Office.



IBM has launched the assault
into one of Microsoft's core businesses. They released Lotus Symphony,
and since it was built on open office, IBM poured their stacks of cash
and army of developers into Open Office. This was the first competition
office has faced in years, and when the competition is big blue, other
lesser men must have fled in the face of such staunch opposition.

Stephen stepped up to the
plate, and knocked a home run with Office 2010. It was hailed as the
best version of office ever, an amazing piece of productivity software,
and the greatest sequel ever. Elop just showed the developers of Call of
Duty and Dynasty Warriors how to make a real follow up to a piece of
block buster software. IBM saw the tide turning, and quickly folded
their hand. Lotus Symphony was dead, open office was fractured, and
Microsoft ruled productivity again.



Elop even managed to gain a
beach head in middle-ware. Long considered the core of IBM. Elop pushed
hard for Microsoft dynamics, sharepoint, and other pieces of enterprise
software. No longer can IBM rule middle-ware, they have to first tooth
and nail to defeat Microsoft on their own turf.



Late 2009, early 2010, Elop
was in discussions to bring Microsoft software to Nokia phones. This was
when he started to get to know Nokia, and allowed Nokia to take
interest in him, leading to his greatest battle, his Magnum opus.



Part Four: Nokia has fallen.


Ok, so this is where our story
diverges. Some say that Elop was the great infiltrator, the trojan
horse. Other say that he was acting in Nokia's best interests, and saw
the futility of Symbian and Meego. At this point, I would argue against
the trojan horse theory (If he is still on Microsoft's payroll, the
board of directors would have never approved of him taking over).



But alas, our hero arrives at
Nokia in late 2010 to see it in shambles. Under Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo's
leadership, Symbian has effectively collapsed. The coalition has
collapsed, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson have all abandoned
Symbian, and the rest of the Symbian OEMs adopted Symbian ^2, a
completely incompatible platform than Nokia's Symbian ^3.



As much as I love Symbian, I
cannot defend its position in 2010. Arguably, Symbian was in a worse
state in 2010 than webOS. Earlier in 2009, OPK once proclaimed that
Nokia was a software powerhouse, with more developers than windows
itself. Yet Symbian ^3 was so poor, Jo Harlow (head of smart devices)
herself had to come out and apologize to early adopters.



Elop's decision to go with
Windows Phone was an extremely controversial one, but I do understand
his decision. It is easily the best choice from Nokia's perspective.
After all, Nokia always thought of itself as a "cut above the rest",
never competing in "commodity" hardware. They would never, ever go into
Android, and use the same software as lesser OEMs like Samsung and LG.
Hell, even back in the old days, when Nokia was the ruler of Symbian,
they went with their own software platforms, and never bothered to
"compete" with Sony Ericsson, Motorola and the rest on UIQ. This level
of arrogance was probably unfounded, but that was the Nokia mentality
for the longest time. Windows phone allows Nokia to get out of the OS
making game, which I think was a great decision. If you believe the Elop
was a trojan horse, than of course, he would go with the Microsoft
solution. If you believe that Elop was genuinely working for the good of
Nokia, I would also argue that he made a good choice to go with Windows
Phone.



Elop really revitalized Nokia
innovation in his reign. Back then, there was an amazing amount of
innovation sitting in the labs, almost never making it into production.
Don't believe me? Look at the Nokia beta labs! There are tons of amazing
concepts in there that never made it into production, and that was just
Nokia's software division. Under Elop, an amazing amount of innovation
actually made it into production, and unlike the "old Nokia", where the
innovative stuff was on the absurdly overpriced flagships, Nokia became
price competitive in the high end for the first time since the n95 with
the launch of the Lumia 920. I picked mine up for 500$ off contract with
Rogers, an amazing price considering the piece of kit that I was
getting.



The rumors of an impending
acquisition of Nokia started early. The first time such a rumor broke
was back in June, talks supposedly ended, without any progress. But the
abdication of dictator Ballmer changed it all, Microsoft was now
looking for prime talent to take up a leadership role, and to lead the
company down a pathway to victory and glory.



In order to get Elop back, the
mad king Ballmer, in his last great decision, spent more than seven
billion to buy half of Nokia, and effectively made Elop his heir.



Part Five: Sunset Boulevard.


Elop is the perfect man to
lead Microsoft. He was one of the greatest figures of the internet
revolution. I am confident that of all the great websites that you see
today, like google, facebook, twitter, yelp, expedia, the verge, etc.
The majority was probably created on his creation, Dreamweaver. His
other creation, Flash, is on more than a billion devices, and is the
plugin of choice for online game and rich application development. Cold
Fusion was so successful, that during the .com bubble, it seems like
every single damned e-commerce site that was sprouting up was built on
it. How many people can proudly say that their creation led to one of
the biggest economic bubbles in history?



His great success in leading
the Business Division just shows his uncanny ability to maneuver and
manipulate himself into an unfamiliar front, lead the charge, and give
no quarter. Not even the forces of the big brother of tech, IBM can dent
the Elop led office legion. His assault into middleware and management
software makes even the most mighty SAP elite tremble. He even out
shined the entrenched Windows Division, the business division overtook
windows to become the most profitable in Microsoft.



Finally, his success in bring
the legendary Nokia into Microsoft's fold must be considered as one of
the best political moves in technology. Only a great leader can bring
together the company that put a computer on every desk with the company
that put a phone in every pocket.



Obviously Elop with take the
reigns of Microsoft, and he WILL "crush all enemies, see them driven
before him, and hear the lamentations of their women!!!!!!"



Photoshop some tears into this please?



via static3.businessinsider.com



I can imagine him singing:



via i.i.com.com



"This worlds waited long enough,
Ive come home at last!

And this time will be bigger,
And brighter than we knew it.
So watch me fly, we all know I can do it..."
 

martinmc78

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Hmm bit of a man crush going on there. Or are you his publicist?

Copied the below from TechNet article and they do make some valid points about him not being the next MSFT CEO

His performance at Nokia didn't inspire much confidence in anyone. While Nokia was in decline when Elop took over, he hastened its demise by choosing to go almost exclusively with Windows Phone as the company's phone platform, alienating much the company's existing user base and having to lay off over 20,000 employees because of the company's poor financial results.On the one hand, you have to admire Elop's courage for taking a big risk and trying to move Nokia in a new direction. On the other hand, the move failed spectacularly as Nokia's smartphone market share plummeted from 37% to less than 5% and the companies stock price lost 85% of its value during Elop's tenure, falling from $10 to a low of $1.63.
 

rockstarzzz

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Hmm bit of a man crush going on there. Or are you his publicist?

Copied the below from TechNet article and they do make some valid points about him not being the next MSFT CEO

His performance at Nokia didn't inspire much confidence in anyone. While Nokia was in decline when Elop took over, he hastened its demise by choosing to go almost exclusively with Windows Phone as the company's phone platform, alienating much the company's existing user base and having to lay off over 20,000 employees because of the company's poor financial results.On the one hand, you have to admire Elop's courage for taking a big risk and trying to move Nokia in a new direction. On the other hand, the move failed spectacularly as Nokia's smartphone market share plummeted from 37% to less than 5% and the companies stock price lost 85% of its value during Elop's tenure, falling from $10 to a low of $1.63.

To be fair he did make a final decision that regained 35% in a day ;)
 

the_tyrant

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I have like a love/hate relationship with the guy. truth is, he is one of the greatest men in tech within the last few years. He created 3 major revolutionary products, and honestly, if it wasn't because of the .com bubble, Elop would be known as a great man, one whose vision matches or exceeds that of Steve Jobs.

But than, I also hate him sometimes. When supply of Lumia 920s were short near launch, I was so angry, I almost decided to storm his house (his Canadian home is close to where I live).
 

N_LaRUE

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Hmm bit of a man crush going on there. Or are you his publicist?

Copied the below from TechNet article and they do make some valid points about him not being the next MSFT CEO

His performance at Nokia didn't inspire much confidence in anyone. While Nokia was in decline when Elop took over, he hastened its demise by choosing to go almost exclusively with Windows Phone as the company's phone platform, alienating much the company's existing user base and having to lay off over 20,000 employees because of the company's poor financial results.On the one hand, you have to admire Elop's courage for taking a big risk and trying to move Nokia in a new direction. On the other hand, the move failed spectacularly as Nokia's smartphone market share plummeted from 37% to less than 5% and the companies stock price lost 85% of its value during Elop's tenure, falling from $10 to a low of $1.63.

I see we think along the same lines.
 

krayziehustler

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"Only a great leader can bring
together the company that put a computer on every desk with the company
that put a phone in every pocket."

Hard to argue with that
 

krayziehustler

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Hmm bit of a man crush going on there. Or are you his publicist?

Copied the below from TechNet article and they do make some valid points about him not being the next MSFT CEO

His performance at Nokia didn't inspire much confidence in anyone. While Nokia was in decline when Elop took over, he hastened its demise by choosing to go almost exclusively with Windows Phone as the company's phone platform, alienating much the company's existing user base and having to lay off over 20,000 employees because of the company's poor financial results.On the one hand, you have to admire Elop's courage for taking a big risk and trying to move Nokia in a new direction. On the other hand, the move failed spectacularly as Nokia's smartphone market share plummeted from 37% to less than 5% and the companies stock price lost 85% of its value during Elop's tenure, falling from $10 to a low of $1.63.

Would you prefer that he stuck with the dying Symbian further as it continued to decline and kept spending resources knowing that it won't succeed? Seems like bad business. I don't think it hastened its demise at all, he slowed it down.

Also to state the market share plummeting from 37% to 5% implies that a Symbian/Meego Nokia could have done better. There was going to be a decline regardless. Whether it happened in 2010 or in 2012, there was no way that Nokia on its own could have stopped that slip. Just look at Blackberry going from 47% market share to less than 2% now. Same exact thing just took them TOO LONG and now its TOO LATE for them. Elop realized this and that led to the "hastening" as you put it.
 

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