Housekeeping

Well, this next post is a little delicate, but it seems as though an over zealous HR lackey has accidentally fired my blogging editor, who takes my Great Thoughts and has been transcribing them onto the web for you, my loyal Team Nortel.

So it looks as though Fake Mike Z may not have full access to all the inside goings on at Nortel. Perhaps some loyal employees would like to help out with this one - you can forward your correspondence to fakemikezed@gmail.com, no questions asked, or leave a comment on this thread. Suggest a topic, ask a question, keep us informed. After all, I'll have more time to blog now!

Motivation

A kind commenter really enjoyed my GIS on the 25th. Thanks! I'm glad you're with me on the path to stabilizing Nortel and turning it around into a vibrant, go-ahead company with vibrant, go-ahead customers, vibrant, go-ahead partners and vibrant, go-ahead suppliers.

For myself, my favorite part of the GIS was where I told you that less than 50% of companies successfully emerge from CCAA proceedings. Not everyone would have thought of mentioning that up front, but that's the kind of motivational stroke of genius I picked up at GE. Thanks again, for all I do for Nortel.

ZBlog : Answering Your Questions

It's been a busy week at Nortel. Let me just quickly run through the highlights:

• We didn't win the Verizon LTE deal.
• We sold most of our Alteon unit for $17.5 million. Roth paid $7.8 billion for it, so I feel pretty good about the deal.
• We announced another 3,200 job cuts in the coming months.

Obviously, with all this on my plate as well as flying commercial back from Barcelona, I've been unable to communicate as transparently and openly with you all as I would have liked. But now that I'm back, I'm pleased to be able to share all this news with you personally. It's all part of the transformation of Nortel, and part of the great progress we've made. It's part of the momentum that is building to carry Nortel forward on a sound footing. It's part of the long list of achievements we can all celebrate together, because Nortel is really its people and innovation. Take those away and we really wouldn't have Nortel. Well, that's not quite true, because we're taking 3,200 more away and I'll still have Nortel, but it's not a good idea to say that in front of the staff. Makes them restless.

I've had lots of employees email me over the past month and a half, mostly to tell me what a great job I've been doing and how they're dedicated to the turnaround of Nortel. A few of you have some questions, though, so I thought I'd take the chance today to adress some of those.

1. Why should I stay with Nortel through this process?

Well, that's a good question, and let me say this. First off, as Hackney told the guys on his team, you start looking for other work, we'll fire you first. Secondly, what part of we'll fire you first did you not understand? Now, I know that's not easy to hear, but it really is the most motivating thing I can think of to answer this question.

2. Why should we believe you when so many predictions you've made have been shown to be completely wrong?

Well, that's a good question, and let me say this. It was pretty hot in Barcelona, but we had a lot of traffic through the booth. Our customers are standing by us - too close for comfort sometimes to be honest - those booths get pretty sweaty. Our partners and suppliers are with us in this most crucial phase of stabilizing the business. We have to continue to deliver for our customers. I hope that answers this question for you.

3. How should employees who are laid off and have lost severance deal with the financial burden?

This is a tough question, and let me say this. We've had to make tough decisions. I feel their pain - I'm still getting over the jet thing and will be for some time. But at the same time we have to stabilize our business to execute for our customers and keep our partners and suppliers standing with us. I know that the notified employees will take a lot of comfort from seeing how stable we are when we've finished stabilizing. And I know that they will be happy to see how closely our customers are standing by us, when we're standing on the firm financial footing. So even though things might look grim for them, with no money coming in and families to support, I think even those employees must see the silver lining in all of this - a Nortel on a sound financial footing, once and for all, going forward with customers, partners and suppliers. And of course if things get really tough, I can certainly advise those employees to seek creditor protection for themselves.

4. How are you coping with all of this?

Well, thanks for your concern. I'm doing just fine - $5,000 a day seems to be just about keeping my family.

I hope that's given you a good insight into my thinking at this stage. I'll have more of your questions answered in the near future. You can always email me suggested topics at fakemikezed@gmail.com.

We're Getting Closer

Well, it's been a blur here in Barcelona. I've hardly stopped - no sooner do I reach the end of my 'customers, suppliers, partners' mantra with one set of people than I have to do it all over again with more. It's actually a lot of work, but it seems to be what's expected. It's pretty hard after a commercial flight, let me tell you. 

As I confidently predicted in my last blog posting, Verizon has chosen Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent to be their initial vendors for LTE. This is obviously great news for Nortel and vindicates my strategy completely. I am glad that my executive team has been able to bring this about and give our hard-working LTE team the recognition they deserve. Of course, I don't personally know any of them. Don't tell anyone that. 

There will be lots more great news to come, and leading Nortel to more of these great successes is just the least I can do. It's still a busy time so this will have to do for now. I look forward to talking to some of you in person and spreading the inspiration around next week.

Industry Update

Customers, partners, suppliers, peons and Nortel watchers: I know I am a little late getting to this most recent update on the great success story that Nortel continues to be. Fact is, I have been travelling - as I type this I am in Barcelona where I am attending Mobile World Congress, which is some kind of big event related to wireless phones, or so it seems. My Spanish is a little rusty and I am very tired from the journey. I flew commercial, and it's hard. I heard that Nortel was sending a good size team to MWC but it's odd, I didn't see anyone from Nortel in the front cabin on the flight. Maybe they flew a different airline.

Anyway, at an event like this it seems like a good time to address the criticism I sometimes hear (or I should really say that Alepian slides onto my desk, as I don't really hear criticism myself). People say (so Alepian says) that I don't know the telecom industry. Well. I ask you this: Did Rockefeller know the telecom industry? Did J.P. Getty know the telecom industry? Did Bill Gates know the telecom industry? Did Carnegie, the Rothschilds, Queen Elizabeth II, or Imelda Marcos know the telecom industry? Did they? Enough said.

It's also a great time to share the tremendous progress we've made at Nortel, which continues to be ... tremendous. We've come a long way, although there are some questions about in which direction. Here at MWC we're expecting Verizon to confirm they're going with Nortel for their LTE deployment. That's Long Term Enrichment for executives like me. Personally I believe that the fact they're making this announcement so soon, while Nortel is still stabilizing from the bankruptcy and has no business plan, is a great sign for Nortel. It's going to be a tremendous vote of confidence that before they've even seen my plan, Verizon is going to put their confidence in Nortel.

I recorded a video before I flew out here, to give our customers, partners and suppliers the great news about the progress we're making. You should check it out at nortel.com. It's open and transparent. Alepian said he thought it was very transparent, which I see as a really great sign.

I have a few cocktail parties and some tapas to get to, so this will be a short entry. Thanks for reading and being a part of the great story that is Nortel.

Sorry Seems To Be... An Inaccurate Word

I've been doing a lot of media recently - I guess the great success I've had has made them want to get a glimpse of me close up. I prefer to do my interviews by video conference, especially for TV. It's much easier to look really sincere when you're just looking at a webcam. They never raise eyebrows, or look sceptical. I was asked recently if I was sorry about that business of cancelling severances - incidentally, what is it with that? Why can't the media get over that? My employees are all soundly behind the decision... but I'm digressing. I actually had to cough to hide a laugh at the question - I mean, me, sorry about anything? - but I said that I didn't think sorry was an accurate word.

Notice what I did there? I actually said no, but I said it with such long words it didn't sound like no. 

That's a great skill to have. Verbosity really works for me. I use it in my ZMails too. It's one of the reasons I work such long hours, because typing those things two-fingered really takes a long time. And the longer you take to answer a question, the less questions you get asked.

Alepian is telling me I have to go up to this Ottawa place later this month, for the sake of appearances. I don't know how that's going to work. It looks like a real long way in the atlas. How do ordinary people travel those kind of distances? 

When we get there I might get asked some tough questions, although I doubt they'll be too tough - it's mostly egghead types up there, I'm told. I'll have my talking points of course... all I really care about is customers, suppliers, partners .. oh and you lot... but mostly I'll be counting on my verbosity to carry the day. Let's hope noone ever does a Lean Six Sigma on my ZMails! If things look like they might turn nasty I'll bring Hackney along. He's good in a fistfight.

Well, that's another quick lesson from ZSchool. Remember, never say 'no' when you can say 'not accurate' and never, ever, ever, ever, be sorry. Oh, and thanks Jack.

Tomorrow I'm tackling the very unfair criticism that I don't know the telecom industry. Hello??? I use the phone all the time.

I'm Leading, They're Behind Me

I read in the paper today that I exercise for 55 minutes each day, now that I'm 55. That kind of precision metric is just what's made Nortel the company it is today. Without that kind of passion for measurement, I wouldn't have been able to drive Lean Six Sigma, Own It! and all the other great initiatives that have accelerated Nortel's trajectory. But I'm not here to talk about that.  History will record how those initiatives were the Real Thing and not just another management fad.

I was pleased with one answer I thought up today though - for some reason the press keep asking about my salary, as if that was relevant to anything. Anyway, today I told the reporter that the fact I'm keeping my $1.2 million is great news for Nortel, for the employees, the shareholders, the customers and partners - why? Because it's $1.2 million, not $50 million. How great is that? If only I'd thought of that one earlier, I could have kept the jet.

Anyway, my top priority right now is customers. They're the ones that give us money for our products, right? Or is that stakeholders? I get mixed up sometimes. I've been calling around other executives at other big companies, who I think are customers, and I have to say they've been great. Lots of commiseration about the jet and invitations to golf. Fantastic news for the company, all of this. It makes the future look really bright. 

When all of this inconvenient stuff blew up, I had my PR guy Alepian draw up a list of talking points and I've managed to keep most of the team 'on message'. It goes like this. Talk to customers, talk to partners, talk to employees. Now, that might make it sound like employees are the lowest priority for me and my boys, but let me tell you, we've managed to keep that just between ourselves. In my last few Z mails, I've listed my talking points and then I've remembered to put in that being third on a list of three doesn't really mean being last, it just looks that way.

I have to say, Alepian is a genius because right now I have the whole company solidly behind me. Every Nortel employee just loves the open, transparent, forthright communication they're seeing from their leader. Sometimes when I send a Zmail to the troops, I feel like Obama, like I'm The One, you know? Having this kind of respect and support could place a burden on a lesser man, but I am pleased with how I'm able to handle the adulation.

And now I must get to my 55 minute workout. I'm working a calorific burn rate monitoring and improvement program and I'll share those slides with you another time.