Keldogs

What Would John Chambers Have Done for Nortel?

The major change Chambers would have brought to Nortel is a cultural one – being marketing. One thing Chamber's knows is that the best technical solution is NOT needed to be the winner.. Just as Ray Norda knew how to propel Novell over the technically superior Banyon. Chamber’s is well aware that while Cisco does not have technically superior gear – he has created the Cisco image - everyone knows the name, students at high schools, colleges and trade schools are being taught the CLI and technology - and created the "no one gets fired choosing Cisco" mantra. John did that while competing with companies offering a more scalable and extensible architecture.

The fall of Nortel and it’s gene pool (which includes Synoptics, WellFleet and BayNetworks) were all engineering driven companies, all of which have/had the failed philosophy that the best technical solution wins..
While I agree with many comments of what changes are needed inside Nortel –I believe Chamber's biggest challenge and ultimate victory would happen by making Nortel in to a Marketing company... creating a culture where customer requirements actually take precedence of some technical Phd buried in the labs and being out of touch with the customer base.. I have two examples – 1. Wellfleet routers while technically superior to Cisco did not have a CLI – the techs rebelled and always purchased Cisco. 2. Synoptics tech founder was bent on ATM and refused the sales departments (screaming) requests to put an FDDI connector on a 10mbit enet swich – all because ATM was the technical direction of the day --- Two classic examples where technology was allowed by CEO to ignore the market…. Chambers would not have made that fatal mistake..