Читать книгу Against All Odds - Jorma Ollila - Страница 32
ОглавлениеONCE AGAIN FATE INTERVENED. When Nokia’s lightbulb subsidiary Airam became part of a management buyout, a vacancy for a finance director arose. Simo Vuorilehto wanted me to take it. I knew about finance from Citibank. I was a professional, and Nokia’s ambitious European plans demanded a new approach to finance. As well as looking after its acquisitions Nokia needed a higher profile on the stock markets and among investors. I took on this new role with enthusiasm.
At this time – 1986 – Kari Kairamo embarked on a radical restructuring of the company’s governance. Powerful figures such as the chairman and deputy chairman of the board had to yield to Kairamo’s wishes. The board that had represented the shareholders became the supervisory board. In practice this meant that the actual owners of the company were moved further away from everyday activity.
When this change was made it was stated that the supervisory board would retain the key responsibilities of the previous board. The firm’s leading executives would form the board of directors. Kari Kairamo would lead this body in his role as the chairman and CEO.
Kairamo also established an executive committee to oversee Nokia’s day-to-day operations. I sat on this in my new capacity as finance director. It was presided over by Simo Vuorilehto, which gave him greater responsibility for operations. Kairamo used his role to concentrate more on making Nokia’s influence felt in Finland and more widely in Europe. His most important vehicle for this was the Confederation of Finnish Industry, where Kairamo was chairman from 1985 to 1987.
Nokia’s complex governance model turned out to be a millstone around its neck at the end of the 1980s. The company couldn’t deal promptly or decisively with the many issues it was facing. The difficulties with this mixed-up management model were among the reasons Nokia’s management was made much simpler in the 1990s.
