Shed a tear for Nortel? Absolutely
From leader to failure, and with perhaps no one to take its place
By Sarah Coombs
November 24, 2009
November 24, 2009
Nortel is the pariah of Canadian business. A combination of investment losses by hundreds of thousands of retail investors, years of mismanagement and countless restructurings have drained the storehouse of goodwill that corporations accumulate against threats to their reputation.
But the imminent demise of Nortel as a Canadian-owned global technology giant is cause for sober reflection, if not sadness. As a former employee of the company during the late 1990s, I feel we should mourn the loss of something great.
The federal government was criticized by Research in Motion, opposition parties and the Ontario government for not intervening in the liquidation of Nortel to foreign-owned Ericsson. However, federal Industry Minister Tony Clement dismissed these claims. Ottawa approved the sale of Nortel’s wireless unit to Ericsson, saying it was “very beneficial” to Canada. But this raises an urgent question: who will fill Nortel’s shoes as a champion of homegrown engineering skills and innovation, in a sector that is so vital to Canada?
Because while Nortel’s sins were many, so too were its contributions to our collective national skillset. From scholarships, student co-op programs and internships, research chairs and access to high-tech labs and equipment, Nortel has long been a generous patron to science and engineering in Canada.
In 2007 alone, Nortel spent $1.8 billion on R&D and was involved in projects at more than 20 universities here and around the world. The company was also a major employer of university graduates, many of whom gained precious international business experience working in Nortel plants and offices. Nortel hired me straight from graduate school and engendered my life-long passion for technology and the role it plays in our lives. While I am not an engineer, my immersion in this culture of technology innovation was a life-changing experience common to many who worked for the company.
Proud history
Nortel was a company that invested in the future; it researched and developed technologies that it knew may not have been marketable for the foreseeable future; the company had a culture that enabled its engineers, the real heroes of Nortel, to be entrepreneurial. Research on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), voice recognition, optical networks and next-generation wireless technologies was a part of everyday life at the company.
For Nortel employees, the future was limitless and the innovative spirit contagious. This was literally on display to those entering the HQ in Brampton, Ont.: behind a glass case near the entrance sat a PBX that powered the entire telephony system. And the customer presentation centre was like something out of a Star Trek spaceship, with the newest in enterprise telephony installed for prospective customers to try out. There was even a company museum, detailing the long tradition of innovation.
Founded in 1895, Northern Electric and Manufacturing supplied telecommunications equipment to Canada’s nascent telephone network. For the next century, the company built on Alexander Graham Bell’s legacy of innovation and propelled itself onto the world stage. It was a mainstay of Canada’s leadership in telecommunications, a remarkable achievement for a country better known internationally for its wealth of natural resources than for its knowledge workers.
Yet, the sell-off of Nortel, Canada’s largest contributor to R&D and a company that gave us rare advantage and bragging rights on the global technology playing field, has hardly raised an eyebrow on Parliament Hill.
And left unanswered is the question of who will fill the gap left by Nortel? Will it be RIM, which has already done so much in the Waterloo region to drive technology innovation? Can RIM do it alone? Will foreign-owned players like Microsoft, Ericsson and Nokia fill the big shoes that Nortel leaves behind?
The likelihood is that no buyer of Nortel’s assets, whether Canadian or foreign, will ever be able to recreate the cultural animus that drove Nortel to global technology prominence. But, as Yogi Berra famously said, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over. For the sake of Canada’s competitiveness, we can hope for a ninth-inning miracle, even if one is unlikely.
Sarah Coombs is vice-president of NATIONAL Public Relations’ Technology Practice and a former employee of Nortel.
But the imminent demise of Nortel as a Canadian-owned global technology giant is cause for sober reflection, if not sadness. As a former employee of the company during the late 1990s, I feel we should mourn the loss of something great.
The federal government was criticized by Research in Motion, opposition parties and the Ontario government for not intervening in the liquidation of Nortel to foreign-owned Ericsson. However, federal Industry Minister Tony Clement dismissed these claims. Ottawa approved the sale of Nortel’s wireless unit to Ericsson, saying it was “very beneficial” to Canada. But this raises an urgent question: who will fill Nortel’s shoes as a champion of homegrown engineering skills and innovation, in a sector that is so vital to Canada?
Because while Nortel’s sins were many, so too were its contributions to our collective national skillset. From scholarships, student co-op programs and internships, research chairs and access to high-tech labs and equipment, Nortel has long been a generous patron to science and engineering in Canada.
In 2007 alone, Nortel spent $1.8 billion on R&D and was involved in projects at more than 20 universities here and around the world. The company was also a major employer of university graduates, many of whom gained precious international business experience working in Nortel plants and offices. Nortel hired me straight from graduate school and engendered my life-long passion for technology and the role it plays in our lives. While I am not an engineer, my immersion in this culture of technology innovation was a life-changing experience common to many who worked for the company.
Proud history
Nortel was a company that invested in the future; it researched and developed technologies that it knew may not have been marketable for the foreseeable future; the company had a culture that enabled its engineers, the real heroes of Nortel, to be entrepreneurial. Research on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), voice recognition, optical networks and next-generation wireless technologies was a part of everyday life at the company.
For Nortel employees, the future was limitless and the innovative spirit contagious. This was literally on display to those entering the HQ in Brampton, Ont.: behind a glass case near the entrance sat a PBX that powered the entire telephony system. And the customer presentation centre was like something out of a Star Trek spaceship, with the newest in enterprise telephony installed for prospective customers to try out. There was even a company museum, detailing the long tradition of innovation.
Founded in 1895, Northern Electric and Manufacturing supplied telecommunications equipment to Canada’s nascent telephone network. For the next century, the company built on Alexander Graham Bell’s legacy of innovation and propelled itself onto the world stage. It was a mainstay of Canada’s leadership in telecommunications, a remarkable achievement for a country better known internationally for its wealth of natural resources than for its knowledge workers.
Yet, the sell-off of Nortel, Canada’s largest contributor to R&D and a company that gave us rare advantage and bragging rights on the global technology playing field, has hardly raised an eyebrow on Parliament Hill.
And left unanswered is the question of who will fill the gap left by Nortel? Will it be RIM, which has already done so much in the Waterloo region to drive technology innovation? Can RIM do it alone? Will foreign-owned players like Microsoft, Ericsson and Nokia fill the big shoes that Nortel leaves behind?
The likelihood is that no buyer of Nortel’s assets, whether Canadian or foreign, will ever be able to recreate the cultural animus that drove Nortel to global technology prominence. But, as Yogi Berra famously said, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over. For the sake of Canada’s competitiveness, we can hope for a ninth-inning miracle, even if one is unlikely.
Sarah Coombs is vice-president of NATIONAL Public Relations’ Technology Practice and a former employee of Nortel.
