Nokia's Mobile Solutions head Anssi Vanjoki gives his six months notice

One of Nokia's most senior managers, Anssi Vanjoki, has given his six months notice of resignation to the company. He was the person who recently laid out the strategy for Nokia to get back on track, after he was appointed head of the new Mobile Solutions division. Mr Vanjoki was very excited at the time, and revealed that he has been waiting twenty years for this moment.

Now, we can only guess what the reasons for him leaving the company are. It might be the needed thorough shake-up in management after the arrival of the new CEO Stephen Elop. Take the old guard out, bring new faces in, and start from scratch. This scenario would mean that Nokia might change the course, undertaken under Mr Vanjoki - MeeGo for its high-end devices, and Symbian^4 for the rest of its phones. It is, however, difficult to believe that the board would approve such a seismic shift in strategy. Former CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo lost his mojo for Nokia, after ramming the ill-fated $8bln NAVTEQ acquistion through, bur Mr Vanjoki has been well-regarded in Nokia during all that time. He started there in 2001, and has been holding various management positions since. His salary for 2009 was 2.1 million euro.

Much more plausible is the fact that the 54 year old Anssi Vanjoki has been preparing for the role of CEO himself, and when Nokia brought in an outsider, he decided to quit. The wording of his resignation press release also doesn't suggest he was forced to resign. Usually code word for that is "to spend time with his family", when a high-ranking manager goes down in the corporate world. However, Anssi Vanjoki says "I felt the time has come to seek new opportunities in my life... ", which usually means the manager is not happy with where things are heading against his will, or feels unappreciated.

Mr Vanjoki will stay at the helm of Nokia's Mobile Solutions division six more months, and will take part in the events at Nokia World 2010, which starts tomorrow. It is getting very interesting at Nokia - that's what happens when you lose two thirds of your profits for three years to a company who has never been in cell phones, and has only 3% market share - heads will have to roll. We hope it is not the case that Anssi Vanjoki has lost faith in Nokia's ability to turn the ship around.

source: Nokia