Comments on: The Americanization of Nortel

By: Ronald

Ronald — Sun, 01 May 2005 05:23:43 +0000

Larry, I hear you and understand what you say as well (I'm also an ex-NT employee and had to report to a boss and often get data from Mission Park). But the point is: from a carrier and enterprise perspective, where is the money? Add the CAPEX spend of Bell Canada, Telus, MTS/Allstream, etc. and compare that with that of Verizon, SBC, Bell South and Qwest. Ditto for the wireless side, and now let's talk about enterprise… you get my point? Of course the exec briefings, etc. need to be held most often where most of the customers are. It does not mean there were none done over here in Canada. But most of the stuff happened there, and R&D needs to address the needs of customers there. As much as I would like NT to be as Canadian as possible… as it still is one of the big R&D spenders that we have in this country.

By: Larry Borsato

Larry Borsato — Sun, 01 May 2005 04:02:48 +0000

When I worked at Bay Networks (and then Nortel) years ago I was based in Santa Clara and then Ottawa. Throughout that time it sure seems like Richardson was the head office, as it was either there of Santa Clara where most of the exec briefings with key customers were held.

By: ronaldo

ronaldo — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 23:10:09 +0000

Hi Mark,
I would disagree with a few points that you make. First and foremost, in the highly competitive telecom marketplace, companies have to be agile and seek any economies of scale they can get. Labor here (for commoditized products) is still more expensive than elsewhere in the world. Even American companies are realizing that in order to compete against the Huaweis of the world, you have to partner, OEM, etc. - and sometimes even seek cheaper manufacturing elsewhere. Nortel is becoming no less Canadian than other vendors such as Lucent are becoming American.
Second, as far as high tech skilled workers, we are still better bang-for-the-buck than American engineers from Silicon Valley, although that bubble has burst somewhat. But the point is, they still command a better premium, so you won't see a major shift in R&D happening (other than what already did happen in the past, with NT R&D centers in Mission Park, Richardson and RTP).
Thirdly, the PEC acquisition strategy was to create a wholly owned subsidiary (Nortel PEC Solutions) that can be American based and be in a position to bid in all US government contracts, including those of a sensitive nature (defense). So yes, that subsidiary is American (as it has to be). But from there to making the whole company American, that's a bit of a stretch, wouldn't you think so?
Of course, on the other hand you make a few valid points in terms of top level management being American or based in the US. But I do not see the top brass thinking that the Nortel Canadian origin is a “bad” card to play.