In addition, Mobile World Congress, the industry’s largest annual showcase, wrapped up last week and we evaluated how CEOs who spoke at this massive conference compare and how well their employees think they are leading the company.

Mobile Device Manufacturer Comparison

According to research firm Gartner, Nokia sold the highest number of mobile devices to end users in 2010. However, as Gartner reports, strong smart phone sales in the fourth quarter of 2010 pushed Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) up in their 2010 worldwide ranking of mobile device manufacturers therefore cutting into Nokia’s piece of the pie. But it’s not just revenue that keeps these two companies ahead – their companies are also highly respected by their employees.

On a 5-point scale, Apple receives a 3.8 (satisfied) company rating and RIM receives a 3.6 (satisfied) rating and Steve Jobs holds a 97% approval rating (3% disapproval). RIM’s co-CEOs don’t fare quite as well — Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis bring in a 78% approval rating (22% disapproval). While the year started off rough for Nokia’s new CEO Stephen Elop, employees have given him an87% approval rating, 13% disapproval.

Wireless Network Operators Comparison

Networks are typically lambasted by users, and they don’t seem to fare as well in the eyes of employees as well. In a comparison of 10 wireless network operators, just one receives a ‘satisfied’ rating– ALLTEL (3.9). Not one CEO in this comparison receives greater than an 80% approval rating. Three of the highest rated CEOs, with 20 ratings or more, in this category all receive approval ratings in the 70 percent range: ALLTEL’s Scott Ford (77% approval, 23% disapproval), Verizon Wireless’ Lowell McAdam (71% approval, 29% disapproval) and Sprint Nextel’s Dan Hesse (71% approval, 29% disapproval).

Mobile World Congress: Spotlighted Industry Speakers

Among the several industry leaders who spoke at this year’s Mobile World Congress, three CEOs have less than a 50% approval rating with employees including: AT&T’s Randall Stephenson (43% approval, 57% disapproval), Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer (48% approval, 52% disapproval) and Yahoo’s Carol Bartz (49% approval, 51% disapproval).

Just one CEO receives above a 90% approval rating – Google’s Eric Schmidt — and he’ll be leaving his post in early April. (We wonder how Larry Page will do.) Four other CEOs speaking at this year’s Mobile World Congress also fare pretty well in the eyes of employees:  QUALCOMM’s Paul Jacobs (89% approval, 11% disapproval), Nokia’s Stephen Elop (87% approval, 13% disapproval), Cisco’s John Chambers (85% approval, 15% disapproval) and Intel’s Paul Otellini (84% approval, 16% disapproval).

Do you work for a company that’s deeply imbedded or that simply helps influence mobile? Tell us about your job, your company and how you think the industry is doing by sharing a company review on Glassdoor.

Mobile Companies & CEOs: Are They All Talk? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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To add in another perspective, is this partnership one that employees would have suggested for their respective companies? Was Intel’s entry into the mobile market the creative and innovative direction employees wanted the company to head? And was Nokia’s partnership with Intel the technological step employees thought the company should focus on?  Provided below is snapshot of advice employees at these respective companies have suggested for senior management.

Intel Employees Advice for Senior Management: Within Intel company reviews, employees suggest cutting out bureaucracy and improving the planning process, but what we find more telling is that they caution top executives to consider more of the long-term benefits and outcomes that a new partnership would bring.

“Be a foundry and leverage your advanced process technology. Short-sighted moves like partnering with weaker companies makes them better and you weaker.” - Intel Corporation Senior Process Engineer

“Poor project planning and constant re-orgs/shuffles are distracting to the individual contributing employees.” – Intel Corporation Component Design Engineer

“Get rid of the good old boy network before it negatively impacts Intel the way it impacted the Big 3 in Detroit. Some organizations within Intel are just world class…others need a lot of work.” – Intel Corporation Process Engineer

Nokia Employees Advice for Senior Management: Nokia employees, on the other hand, seem more supportive of finding ways to advance their product line, and it may be that this partnership is just the ticket. From some of the recent commentary, Nokia employees note the thirst for keeping the Nokia technologically competitive.

“Focus on technology, instead of becoming just a user experience company.” – Nokia Architect

“More money should be focused on understanding the latest technology, rather than on marketing in random movies or buildings.” – Nokia Product Manager

“The lack of direction is frustrating…We’ve forgotten our purpose, which is make life easier for the consumers of our products. Instead of constantly expecting them to adapt to our systems.” – Nokia Manager

As the partnership begins to take effect, we will continue to keep you updated on whether company and CEO approval ratings will rise or fall. At the time of the announcement, we observe the CEOs are relatively close in approval and disapproval ratings, and that there is significant room for them to improve according to employees. Stay tuned to see if the ratings for one company and CEO start to fluctuate.

Tell you us what you think about Intel’s engagement into the mobile foray. And if you work at Intel or Nokia, keep us informed as to what the impact has been on company and your job.

Nokia/Intel Partnership: Are the Employees in Support? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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When it comes to mentions of competitors among these three respective mobile manufacturers in the reviews at Glassdoor, we found that Apple is the only company of the three where employers don’t mention the competition. And even though it was reported last week that Nokia holds the largest market share among this list, the competition is creeping towards them so it’s no surprise that they also show the most concern. We found that in the Nokia reviews, employees mentioned both Apple and RIM. Whereas RIM employees, only express concern over Apple.

Here are some reviews from RIM and Nokia employees that show what they are saying about Apple: 

“Ignore the market and ignore Apple. We have a great product and the only thing holding us back is quality when we release” – RIM Senior Development Manager (Waterloo, ON)

“Go back where you were a few years back and remember the basics. You lost the “respect for the individual” value and replaced it with a meaningless “respect” value. Go back to leading edge user interfaces, that’s the reason for loosing market share to Apple.”-Anonymous Nokia employee  

“Nokia needs to put more attention to the upcoming USA competitor offerings from Apple, Google, Rim,” – Nokia Business Development Director (Boston, MA)  

When we look at the company and CEO ratings on Glassdoor for these companies, we found that all three companies have the same company satisfaction rating.  The big difference comes in their CEO approval ratings.  As you’ll see in the table below, Apple’s Steve Jobs has a 20 percentage point higher approval rating than  Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and RIM CEO Jim Balsillie.  

Perhaps what keeps Apple employees focused on things other than their competitors is the satisfaction they have with their CEO. It will be interesting to watch Apple during this time that Steve Jobs has taken to focus on his health. And, our eyes will be on Nokia employee reviews as the company fights for competitive ground.

Do you work at Apple, RIM or Nokia? Do you feel the push for innovation and/or the push to beat out competitors? Tell us what you think about your job.

Apple Envy? RIM and Nokia Employees Dish is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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