"It's the strongest financial position we've had in the last five years. In Q1, we made 11.4% operating margin on the continuing operations. If we include devices, we made 0% — no one wants to work for a 0% margin company," Suri told ET on his first visit to India since taking over as CEO of the new Nokia on May 1.
The 46-year-old said his message to the company's employees was: "Don't hold on to the past, it won't help in moving forward. Dare to dream big." However, he adds, "When it comes to our cultural values, I would love to hold on to the past because Nokia had some of the best spirit ever. Having grown up in the company, I loved it for the value and culture, which matched my own."
Suri has the responsibility for making sure that this latest makeover is a successful one for the Espoo, Helsinki-based firm, which had been the pride of Finland all these years before it fell upon hard times under stiff competition from the Samsungs and Apples of the world, and had to sell off the devices business.
He was entrusted with the job after turning around the group's ailing networks business that he began heading in 2009, 14 years after joining Nokia in 1995 as a systems marketing engineer.
"I didn't dream that I would become the CEO of the company when I joined as a systems marketing engineer back in 1995. Sometimes, I don't really reconcile to it, it's a bit of an odd sensation which is under the surface," Suri said.
The electronics and telecom engineer is now running a company that has three main focus areas — supplying equipment for telecom networks, navigation and patents. In May, Nokia again became the most valuable company on the Finland stock exchange.
This isn't the first time that Nokia has changed its business profile though, having begun as a wood pulp mill 148 years ago, becoming a maker of rubber boots in 1898 and emerging as the world leader in mobile phones a century later.
Nor will it be the last. The new Nokia doesn't have a direct consumer connect any more with the sale of the devices business, but under Suri, that could well make a comeback.
"Maybe, we will do something else that will relate to the B2C business. We just launched a Z launcher — a predictive app for Android devices, which got 100,000 activations when it was a beta. That's (B2C) an area where we want to move fast, fail, move fast, fail, learn and move forward to new products," Suri said.
Born in Delhi, Suri has been a global citizen, having lived in the UK, Nigeria, Germany, Singapore and Helsinki city in Finland, where he's based today.
But he has a special connection with India, having graduated from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) in Karnataka, and also starting his career here. A movie buff, with interest in both Hollywood and Bollywood flicks, he said he enjoyed watching Salman Khan-starrer Kick in a London theatre.
He met employees and clients on his three-day visit to India, which apart from being close to his heart, is very important for business too.
"I feel some of the best of India is in me, which has made me successful — I can be street-smart, focused and engaged. At the same time, I'm also grounded. Humility is also in us." Despite a slowdown in investments in telecom over the past few years, India is still a key market, having contributed 6% to global networks' business revenue in 2013. Suri is optimistic not just about the company's business prospects in the country, but also about the South Asian country's economic prospects in general, which, he feels, has the global investor community enthused — this despite Nokia's over Rs 20,000-crore tax dispute still remaining unresolved.
"The new government is driving things hard, is more business-friendly. I like the 'Digital India' views and ideas... It's right up our alley since we're specialists in mobile broadband and related services," said Suri.
He said with the BJP having a majority, decision making would be faster, but said it was too early to judge the government's performance. "There is huge expectation and I have a feeling a lot of it will begin to get fulfilled, because the regulatory overhang will ease — that's important for any company in the telecom sector," he said. Suri said the company has met officials in the government on the tax dispute and was watching the situation.
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