As this is officially my last day employed at Nokia, I thought it would be nice to look back over a period that has covered so much of my adult life - almost 8 years.
Starting back in 2005, and over 3 different locations.
I came back from Uganda to join Nokia in their Johannesburg office - for a few months only.
It was during that initial period that I prepared for the roll-out of Nokia's operations in Mozambique to support the business in Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands.
In Mozambique the team we built achieved some pretty spectacular results. In less than 2.5 years we had grown the markets share from less than 60% to over 90% (GFK). In most urban retail a 100% share of shelf was maintained, and the biggest network operator procured almost exclusively from Nokia. Many of the team would go on to work for me for a number years in new teams, which was fantastic. I also had some of the best managers during this period!
I also got to travel the world with Nokia - extensive business travel across Africa, going to countries that as a South African we would normally not think of traveling to. And what a great experience it turned out to be, I met such great people and got to understand the differing cultures and business environments.
Some highlights of travel for me was the 2008 Beijing Olympics that we took customers to, and in 2006 a trip to Lapland that we took the B2B sales team from MCel.
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I wish all at Nokia well, but tomorrow I embark on an exciting new personal journey.
