Nokia To Set Up A 5G Internet Of Things Lab In Bengaluru: CEO Rajeev Suri
Success in India is top of the agenda for Nokia, says Rajeev Suri, president and chief executive of the Finnish communications and information technology company. In his first media interaction after announcing the new leadership and organisational structure for the post-merger Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent entity, Suri tells ET's Romit Guha and Gulveen Aulakh that India is one of the top five priority markets for Nokia and it will also house a 5G Internet of Things Lab, the fifth such lab globally for the company. The first such lab to be set up in emerging markets will be ready by December, he says. Edited excerpts:
Question :- How Is The Alcatel-Lucent Integration Progressing ?
We are very much on track to close the transaction in the first half of 2016. We have approvals from all the major countries. We are waiting for approvals from China, the French government and a couple of tiny ones.
Question :- What Is The Impact On The Overall Combined Staff Strength ?
In a nutshell, what we said is that let's take the Alcatel-Lucent set-up for the businesses that do not overlap and let them remain in their current organisation construct.
We have announced (operating cost) synergies worth 900 million (about Rs 6,600 crore) by 2019. Naturally, that means that there will be some headcount impact. We do not know where yet, but broadly speaking the areas are G&A (general and administration), wireless radio, R&D (research and development), procurement and maybe some sales. And I don't have all the details of the countries.
Question :- What are the biggest challenges in integrating these two large companies ?
The challenge is always around culture. I think that's often underestimated because people focus on the substance and the practical, soft steps go missing.
Not many integrations of such scale have succeeded.
This one will succeed without a doubt. We were very clear that merger of equals don't succeed. So, we wanted clear governance. The chairman and CEO are from Nokia and the team has been selected on merit. So no politics, no nonsense.
Another big difference is the overlap in only one part of the business. Everything else is complementary. I don't have IP (internet protocol). I don't have transport. I don't have fixed (assets), so I don't need to integrate them. Radio is where the heavy lifting will take place in wireless and that's where we need to integrate and there of course will be some struggles during the process.
Question :- How Will The cwombined Entity Stand vis-a-vis Competitors Like Ericsson And Huawei ?
Our portfolio is more end-to-end than Ericsson's and it is more like Huawei. Both of us are more end-to-end because we have IP, fixed, transport, mobile and the applications and analytic business on top. If you think about Ericsson it lacks some of this. It doesn't have IP, doesn't have fixed, and doesn't have that credibility in transport. So we are the western alternative to Huawei.
Question :- Are You 3willing To Trade Margins For Business ?
Selectively, yes. You want to do it for strategic deals. We will invest in diversifying into new areas, move beyond operators, to public safety, to enterprise. We want to target cloud players like Google, Facebook and so on.
Question :- What Does All This Mean For India As A Business Opportunity? When Do You Expect Large Scale 4G LTE
Roll-out In India ?
The combined entity will be number one or as close to number one right when we begin operation. What I feel good about is that we have a complementary portfolio by the customers we have. They have Reliance. We have all the big guys. I feel good that we can now sell microwave, optical fixed, IP, which I didn't have earlier.
So, now I can make higher margin because it is my own product. When it comes to LTE, our aspiration is to be number one even here. Reliance may have given Samsung a head start simply because they are the selected vendor but when LTE roll-outs happen in the mainstream, in the next couple of years, there is no doubt in my mind that we want to compete to be number one.
Nokia to set up a 5G Internet of Things Lab in Bengaluru: CEO Rajeev Suri - The Economic Times.
Have A Look At It:-
http://economictimes.com/opinion/interviews/nokia-to-set-up-a-5g-internet-of-things-lab-in-bengaluru-ceo-rajeev-suri/articleshow/49330696.cms
Success in India is top of the agenda for Nokia, says Rajeev Suri, president and chief executive of the Finnish communications and information technology company. In his first media interaction after announcing the new leadership and organisational structure for the post-merger Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent entity, Suri tells ET's Romit Guha and Gulveen Aulakh that India is one of the top five priority markets for Nokia and it will also house a 5G Internet of Things Lab, the fifth such lab globally for the company. The first such lab to be set up in emerging markets will be ready by December, he says. Edited excerpts:
Question :- How Is The Alcatel-Lucent Integration Progressing ?
We are very much on track to close the transaction in the first half of 2016. We have approvals from all the major countries. We are waiting for approvals from China, the French government and a couple of tiny ones.
Question :- What Is The Impact On The Overall Combined Staff Strength ?
In a nutshell, what we said is that let's take the Alcatel-Lucent set-up for the businesses that do not overlap and let them remain in their current organisation construct.
We have announced (operating cost) synergies worth 900 million (about Rs 6,600 crore) by 2019. Naturally, that means that there will be some headcount impact. We do not know where yet, but broadly speaking the areas are G&A (general and administration), wireless radio, R&D (research and development), procurement and maybe some sales. And I don't have all the details of the countries.
Question :- What are the biggest challenges in integrating these two large companies ?
The challenge is always around culture. I think that's often underestimated because people focus on the substance and the practical, soft steps go missing.
Not many integrations of such scale have succeeded.
This one will succeed without a doubt. We were very clear that merger of equals don't succeed. So, we wanted clear governance. The chairman and CEO are from Nokia and the team has been selected on merit. So no politics, no nonsense.
Another big difference is the overlap in only one part of the business. Everything else is complementary. I don't have IP (internet protocol). I don't have transport. I don't have fixed (assets), so I don't need to integrate them. Radio is where the heavy lifting will take place in wireless and that's where we need to integrate and there of course will be some struggles during the process.
Question :- How Will The cwombined Entity Stand vis-a-vis Competitors Like Ericsson And Huawei ?
Our portfolio is more end-to-end than Ericsson's and it is more like Huawei. Both of us are more end-to-end because we have IP, fixed, transport, mobile and the applications and analytic business on top. If you think about Ericsson it lacks some of this. It doesn't have IP, doesn't have fixed, and doesn't have that credibility in transport. So we are the western alternative to Huawei.
Question :- Are You 3willing To Trade Margins For Business ?
Selectively, yes. You want to do it for strategic deals. We will invest in diversifying into new areas, move beyond operators, to public safety, to enterprise. We want to target cloud players like Google, Facebook and so on.
Question :- What Does All This Mean For India As A Business Opportunity? When Do You Expect Large Scale 4G LTE
Roll-out In India ?
The combined entity will be number one or as close to number one right when we begin operation. What I feel good about is that we have a complementary portfolio by the customers we have. They have Reliance. We have all the big guys. I feel good that we can now sell microwave, optical fixed, IP, which I didn't have earlier.
So, now I can make higher margin because it is my own product. When it comes to LTE, our aspiration is to be number one even here. Reliance may have given Samsung a head start simply because they are the selected vendor but when LTE roll-outs happen in the mainstream, in the next couple of years, there is no doubt in my mind that we want to compete to be number one.
Nokia to set up a 5G Internet of Things Lab in Bengaluru: CEO Rajeev Suri - The Economic Times.
Have A Look At It:-
http://economictimes.com/opinion/interviews/nokia-to-set-up-a-5g-internet-of-things-lab-in-bengaluru-ceo-rajeev-suri/articleshow/49330696.cms
