It’s official Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is out as CEO of Nokia NOK1V and in his place on September 21 is a former high level software executive from Microsoft, Stephen Elop.  Liberum has been talking about the need for change at Nokia going back to October 16, 2009.  The change at the top of Nokia was essential.  Many analysts have been delighted with the change.  The selection of 46 year old Elop has merit.  He was in charge of Microsoft’s Business Division and is extremely well versed in software which is the area the Nokia needs to focus on to get its smartphone business at a point where it is capable of competing again with the Apples, Motorolas and Google phones.  Elop also has had experience working with Nokia while at Microsoft and in his previous job at Macromedia.

The real question remains can Nokia without a true visionary at the top of the firm make the leap  to effectively compete on high end with Apple, RIM, Google and even Motorola.  I am somewhat skeptical.  Change is certainly afoot at Nokia.  Just a few hours earlier, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s smartphone chief and a one time candidate for the CEO position, announced his resignation from the firm. Elop will now have a chance to appoint someone to his own specific liking.  The firm desperately needs a visionary at the helm and in some of the key management positions if it has real hope to get back near the top.

Investors must keep a very close eye on new management at Nokia.

Can Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ (NYSE) CEO, Bill Weldon, survive the firm’s repeated recalls?  First it was a series of small recalls then it turned into a flood.  Johnson & Johnson failed miserably to handle the public relations and the actual manufacturing related deficiencies in many of its McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division.  As time passes it is hard to believe, the somewhat bewildered CEO Bill Weldon will be able to hang on as CEO at J&J.  Mina Kimes wrote a terrific piece for Fortune that lays out the difficulties Weldon faces going forward.  According to Mimes’ story,

Weldon, who has kept a low profile for the majority of his eight-year tenure, must now fight to salvage not just McNeil’s reputation — but his own. Surveys of business executives conducted by CoreBrand show that favorability ratings of J&J’s management have dropped from 88.3% in 2006 to 80.9% last quarter. That’s a significant decline, according to Jim Gregory, the branding firm’s CEO. “There’s something not right here that needs attention,” Gregory says. “[Weldon] needs to change it — or there needs to be a change of management.”

… Though some corporate image pundits have called for the CEO to resign, insiders say Weldon is unlikely to depart before next year, when he will be 62, the age at which J&J leaders typically retire. In fact, two former executives say Weldon may stick around even longer. He has reportedly told his board, one says, that his two younger heirs apparent, Sheri McCoy, the head of J&J’s pharmaceuticals sector, and Alex Gorsky, the head of medical devices, aren’t prepared to assume his role.

Only time will tell.  Make sure to keep a close eye on the firm going forward.

Beckman Coulter BEC (NYSE), the biomedical testing company, announced today that its CEO, President and Chairman, Scott Garrett, has resigned.  Garrett, who has been CEO since 2005 found himself under increased pressure as the firm failed to meet analysts expectations in it second quarter results.  The firm has also found itself missing FDA quality standards on some its products.  Back in June the company received a warning letter from FDA regarding the marketing of one its products.  The combination of all these factors appears to have been what made for the resignation.  Beckman Coulter’s stock took a hit a few months back and so far nothing has happened to make for the stock’s revival.

The company also announced that an interim CEO J. Robert Hurley a current employee would take charge as the firm’s interim CEO until a successor to Garrett is found. This executive change takes place as the company is still working on integrating the acquisition of Olympus’s diagnostic’s business into the firm.  Hurley, the interim CEO was directly involved in the Olympus integration.  Hopefully, his expertise will come in helpful in making this integration more successful.The company can be expected to continue struggling to work out all these problems while the CEO search goes on.  Investors should keep a very close eye on the firm’s moves going forward.

For more:

Bloomberg 

Press Release

Eric Herrenkohl has written a book on hiring top talent that is a must read for top executives and HR specialists.  The book entitled, How to acquire a team of “A players’ was recently reviewed by Canada’s Globe and Mail.  According to the review,

It might well be that nothing has a greater impact on your business than hiring top people – “A players,” in the vernacular of the business world. But most of us worry when we start recruiting for an opening that we could unwittingly end up with a “C player” because it can be hard to differentiate through the normal recruitment process. Hiring seems like a crap shoot – sometimes we win big, and sometimes we lose.

Eric Herrenkohl, who advises companies on recruiting, says it doesn’t have to be that way. But you may have to change your recruiting practices to improve your odds. That will involve sharpening your understanding of where you are likely to find future top performers, and perpetually being in recruiting mode –even when you don’t have an opening, indeed even, he argues, when you’re in an economic trough and cutting back on staff.

… Understanding what you are looking for in recruits can be subtle.

Herrenkohl lays out a clear approach to hiring and finding the right top talent.  Check out the book.

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company GAP (NYSE), often referred to as as supermarket chain A&P, has appointed Sam Martin its new CEO and Chairman.  The company has been struggling.  Martin who just left his position as COO for Office Max replaces Ron Marshall as the CEO.  Marshall, according to the press release,

left his position just after five months at the helm.

The struggling retailer is faced with another key management change at the top while trying to right itself.  Just yesterday as part of the CEO announcement the company also announced its quarterly earnings which were far from reassuring.  The firm reported a fiscal quarterly loss of $122 million. While the selection of a CEO at the firm has been an example in how CEO selections should not be made, Martin’s selection may actually be the medicine the firm needs.

Martin, who some speculated wanted to become the CEO of Office Max and may have known he was going to be passed over, has the requisite qualifications to help The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company right itself has both high level operational expertise and a background in the food/supermarket business.  Prior to his stint as COO at Office Max, which began back in 2007, Martin served as an executive at Wild Oats before it was acquired by Whole Foods.  Prior to his work with Wild Oats Martin served with a number of other supermarket/food chains (Shopko stores and Fred Meyer).

Supermarket chains in general have been struggling during the economic recession as consumers seek out new ways to reduce their food bills and still get convenience shopping.  Martin has a real challenge ahead of him but he appears to have the right type of expertise and business acumen to make a go of it.   Keep a close eye on the company there may be some positive surprises over the next year.

For more:

MarketWatch

Businessweek

NASDAQ

Over a month ago we briefly examined the continuing problems Nokia NOK1V, the world’s largest phone manufacturer, has found itself  facing with the explosive growth of the smartphone market.  Nokia unlike Apple and even Motorola, HTC, Samsung etc. has been a true laggard in this marketplace.  With this growing competition in the smartphone marketplace Nokia’s share price has declined a whopping 67% in the three years since Apple introduced the iPhone (according to an article in Bloomberg).  For some time some shareholders and analysts have been calling for the CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo’s head.  The CEO has recognized the problems facing Nokia and recently has made some internal management changes to address the issues.  Time is running out as shareholder and now possibly board member patience is dissolving.  It is hard to see at this point in time as the iPhone4, Google Android phones, Blackberries and other sophisticated smartphones are coming into the marketplace what Nokia can do to reverse its problems.  Nokia needs a big winner and it needs it soon.

Fair or not it, looks as if Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo’s time as CEO may be limited.  It may be the right time for the Finnish based firm to hire a seasoned CEO from outside the firm.

For more:

Business Insider

Executive turnover in the second of quarter of 2010 continues to decline as the financial crisis and the related recession still impact executives at companies large and small.  While overall worker employment has remained a serious problem, companies have done little to change top executives during the economic crisis.  This is not to say there have not been major executive changes at public companies but rather the totals have been lower than in the past.  Investors need to  keep on top of executive changes as a way to monitor their investments or investments they might be considering.

Second quarter 2010 CEO and CFO overall changes both dropped 16% when compared with the second quarter totals for 2009.  Overall C-level changes (defined by Liberum as covering board of directors, CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CIOs, presidents, EVPs, SVPs down to VPs) for the second quarter of 2010 dropped a whopping 37% when compared with the second quarter of 2009.  The drop in C-level changes for the second quarter of 2010 was much smaller when compared with the first quarter total for 2010 – the drop was only 7%.  The percentage drops for CEO and CFO changes for the second quarter were also much smaller when compared to the first quarter of 2010 than the totals for the first quarter of 2009.  Below are three separate graphical representations of the quarterly change totals for CEO, CFOs and C-level executives.

Microsoft MSFT (NASDAQ) and particularly Steve Ballmer, the firm’s CEO, continues to find itself on the hot seat. More and more analysts and tech pundits are beginning to question the firm’s direction and leadership.  Yesterday, Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital examined some of the problems facing Microsoft and it’s chief executive in her piece entitled, What to make of the Microsoft-Is-Falling-And-Can’t-Get-Up Meme. Swisher is by no means in the camp seriously worried about the firm’s immediate future but she suggests there is a real need for some change at the firm.  According to Swisher,

Microsoft, as all tech companies do, needs to change, and a lot faster than it has so far; the company has been trying mightily to do so in search and recently, in mobile, where it is woefully far behind; its leadership under Ballmer, who took over from co-founder Bill Gates, has been meh enough to keep its stock moribund.

But, by no means recently–even if there is a better CEO for Microsoft out there than Ballmer–have I found the company execs ignorant about the tougher issues or unwilling to consider changes needed.

In fact, in its high-flying days, Microsoft did have a tin ear to criticism. No longer, and I would call its execs appropriately concerned about fixing its issues, although their efforts do suffer from the company’s massive size and inertia in making the right moves.

Thus, they certainly might not be successful at innovating, although these are the very kinds of problems Apple CEO Steve Jobs solved when he returned to a rotten company in what, in its current glory days, seems eons ago.

And Microsoft has been getting the same questions that are beginning to be asked about Google.

… That’s why–at this point–I can see no need for panic to set in about Microsoft…

… As for today, even though we are all terminal, the sky looks like it will remain intact at Microsoft for a little bit longer.

Swisher is rather pragmatic about Microsoft’s situation but pragmatism does not always reign particularly when you are talking about one of the largest and formerly most successful tech firms in history.  Keep a close eye on Ballmer and Microsoft.

The gap in succession planning at corporations continues to raise serious problems for companies.  The Stanford Graduate School of Business’ June issue examined research on CEO succession planning conducted by Heidrick & Struggles, the executive search firm, and Stanford’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance.  According to David Larker a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business,

“We found that this governance lapse stems primarily from a lack of focus: boards of directors just aren’t spending the time that is required to adequately prepare for a succession scenario.”

To get a summary of the research’s findings go to Stanford’s GSB News.

We have resisted putting Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s MSFT (NASDAQ) CEO, on the Liberum CEO Watch List for sometime now.  Ballmer’s ongoing startling statements about Microsoft and the industry along with his lack of innovation over the last number of years has begun to be examined by a number of specialists in the field.  Rumors even are heard about bringing Bill Gates back.  While it is hard to believe Ballmer is really at risk, maybe he should be.  Just today, Adam Lashinsky, the Senior Editor for Fortune wrote a piece in which he said,

He (Ballmer) is presiding over the umpteenth reorganization of the company he has run for years, having succeeded his pal, Bill Gates. His online business, whose Bing search engine is making modest gains against industry leader Google, lost more than $700 million last quarter.

Yet here was Ballmer traveling down a semantical rabbit hole over the future of the PCs. In Ballmerworld, it doesn’t matter that the PC is shrinking in relevance. Any device is a computer, and people will want to use Windows because they’re so familiar with it. By the way, Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest release, is crushing it, further proof that computer users love Microsoft.

CEOs certainly are paid to put on a happy face and represent as well as possible. But hearing Ballmer at the Wall Street Journal’s D conference left me with one question: What is the guy smoking? Windows 7 has been a “success” in part because Microsoft’s previous effort, Vista, was such a stinker. Businesses the world over held off so long on upgrading their PCs that once Microsoft got it right they had no choice but to start replacing obsolete equipment.Semantics aside, Ballmer knows as well as anyone that the future of personal-computer industry is in mobile devices. Here, Microsoft’s hand is so weak that its most important global equipment partner, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), is buying a beleaguered smartphone maker, Palm (PALM), for its superior mobile operating system.

Ballmer really needs to show he understands his marketplace and his competition and how he expects to deal with it.  So far, in this regard he has been a dismal failure.  Under his tutelage the stock has not really shown much shine either.Stay tuned.