The Elopcolypse and Sun Tzu: Tomi T. Outdoes Even Himself ...
... but at least Tomi provides fair warning at the beginning of his latest entry in his ongoing blog epic chronicling the Elocalypse although he undercounts the number of words he writes ...
"WARNING - I often write long detailed blogs. So be prepared, this is not something usually found on a blog. 29,000 words would be three chapters in a regular printed book. This article could even be published as a booklet or definitely as an ebook all by itself. So this is massive even by my blog standard. I am serious, get a big cup of coffee before you start, this will take you maybe half an hour to read. But if you are interested in Nokia, or of management failure, or the competition in smartphones, or of Microsoft's mobile strategy, this will be worth your while."
It took me the better part of 5 minutes while I consumed a half cup of coffee just to skim this entry. Worth my while ... worth anybody's while? Its the usual mix of fact and fiction that Tomi is famous for, but perhaps I'll give it a full read over the weekend to see if any unmined nuggets of knowledge emerge. Sheesh! ... He can't even give the entry a concise title. The most interesting parts of his post (at least for military history buffs) may be his abstracts of some of the great battles of the last few centuries.
>> The Sun Tzu of Nokisoftian Microkia - Mirror mirror on the wall, who'se the baddest of them all - Waterloo, I was defeated you won the war - a long trek blog in search of the worst CEO ever (spoiler alert: Elop)
Tomi T. Ahonen
Communities Dominate Brands
July 06, 2012
tinyurl.com 
Hey! I don't mean Waterloo Ontario Canada (RIM). Yes, lets think a bit about the worst. Ever. And yes, on my mind I have the song Waterloo, that launched Abba 38 years ago - boy was that really so, so very long ago? Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war. So yeah. Napoleon had the perception of being an invincible commander, yet at Waterloo he was defeated. You probably have to be a bit of a war history nut to remember the name of the commander who beat him - that was the Duke of Wellington (and as his ally, from the Prussian army, von Blucher). Waterloo has become one of the classic synonyms of total defeat. The reality is not quite so obvious. Did you know that Napoleon faced considerably larger forces. He brought 72,000 French troops to the small town in Belgium, while the Duke of Wellington and von Blucher amassed 118,000 troops. So the Duke of Wellington had a 63% bigger army. Perhaps its not such a surprise then that Napoleon went down in defeat that time. ... <BIG SNIP: a 2,600 word snip before Tomi first mentions Elop> ...
... I think you see my point why the story. There can only be one 'greatest battlefield commander of all time' just like there can be only one 'greatest business leader of all time' (not Henry Ford or Bill Gates, obviously that was Steve Jobs). And there will only be one 'worst battlefield commander of all time' just like there will be one 'worst CEO of all time'. And now we get to Stephen Elop of Nokia. So just one quick thought. I am a Finn, fiercely proud of our history and that truly astonishing feat of Siilasvuo and his 11,000 men who attacked, fought, encircled and utterly defeated 45,000 Soviet troops. I will return to the Battle of Suomussalmi at the end of this blog for a few afterthoughts. But lets now talk about Elop. ... <HUGE SNIP of the last 33,100+ words of this epic> ... ###
In my initial read I didn't catch who Tomi considers to be the 'greatest battlefield commander of all time' ...
- Eric - |
