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"Nortelization" of Ciena Seems Inevitable, According to Telecom Pragmatics

Over the last several years, former Nortel executives have slowly worked their way into the Ciena organizational structure, according to a report by Telecom Pragmatics. They appeared to have taken charge a while before the acquisition of the Nortel fiber optic assets. Ciena's ultimate survival may be dependent upon the ability of the veterans at the company to put down this "coup."

The study says, most people who work at Nortel learn how to become the consummate politicians. They are very good at climbing the corporate ladder and drawing high-level charts. They can be extremely convincing that they are better than the traditional Ciena people, even though the homegrown individuals have historically tended to execute much better as managers of the optical company.

The report further states, while some of these Nortel execs are sharp and likeable, they are used to playing in a different game. The bulk of their experience was being in situations in which there was, for all intents and purposes, unlimited funding. Any success that they had was mainly because of unrestricted budgets.

The consulting company published this information in a recent issue of Optical Switching/Transport Network Strategies Monthly. Its authors include Sam Greenholtz, Mark Lutkowitz, and David Gross.

Telecom Pragmatics is an independent research firm specializing in telecommunications markets and related technologies since 2003.