America's Worst Board Members: Jorma Ollila Of Nokia

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) chairman Jorma Ollila really should not be on the 24/7 Wall St. America’s Worst Directors List. Nokia is based in Finland, but it is traded on the NYSE and is often in the news. It has also been one of the largest failures among big global corporations.

Ollila has been a director of Nokia since 1995 and its chairman since 1999. He clearly has no shame. If he did, he would have left and let someone more competent take his place.  Ollila’s argument for remaining as chairman is probably that he does not have an executive role; the CEO runs the company. He would also claim that he was partly responsible for the recruitment of new CEO Stephen Elop. But, Elop was brought in too late. Nokia’s new alliance with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) might have worked–if it had been put into place two or three years ago when Nokia still had a chance to challenge Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and Microsoft had the opportunity to flank Google’s (NASDAQ GOOG) Android mobile operating system.

Nokia traded above $40 the year that Ollila assumed the chairman’s position. The stock is worth $7 today and hit a 52-week low of $6.79.

Nokia recently said:

Nokia now expects Devices & Services net sales to be substantially below its previously expected range of EUR 6.1 billion to EUR 6.6 billion for the second quarter 2011. This update is primarily due to lower than previously expected average selling prices and mobile device volumes.

Shares dropped as much as 10% due to that news. The market believes the Nokia’s problems cannot be solved, at least as the company is constituted today.

Nokia has had one constant among its senior-most personnel over the last decade–Jorma Ollila

Douglas A. McIntyre