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Timothy Dempsey
No Fear: Tales of a Change Agent, or, Why I Couldn't Fix Nortel Networks
No Fear: Tales of a Change Agent, or, Why I Couldn't Fix Nortel Networks
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A business memoir that explains Nortel Networks' demise from the perspective of Organization Development, by the former head of OD.
In January of 2009, Nortel Networks, a hundred-year-old company with a market capitalization of over $200 Billion, that had peaked at $30 Billion in sales and employed over 100,000 people worldwide, declared bankruptcy!
Unable to restructure, it liquidated its assets, bringing an astounding $10 Billion into the estate, mostly from the value of its intellectual property, its patents and products. Unfortunately, this money languishes in escrow, hurting retirees and pensioners, while bondholders and other creditors vie for a larger share.
As recently as 2001, it had been a Fortune 50 sized company, one of the most prestigious companies in Canada, its capitalization comprising almost a third of the Toronto Stock Exchange.
It had been highly respected, innovative, generous to its employees and focused on its customers. It was an exciting place to work and Dempsey stayed there for 17 years. Like thousands of others, he was proud to do so.
How could such an established, successful company, filled with so many smart, dedicated, loyal, hard working and driven employees have failed so completely?
Dempsey explains a piece of the puzzle by gathering his personal experiences and observations into a business memoir.
He had been the Business Librarian at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill when he saw the ad for a Technical Librarian, for a new R+D lab called BNR (Bell Northern Research) in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He was about the 30th person hired, stayed for 7 years, having become the lab's HR Manager, when he was enticed to "cross the street" to the parent company, then known as Northern Telecom. The lab had grown to a thousand employees.
For the next 11 years, he worked continuously, relentlessly, to try to improve the company. He held both line and staff roles, led over a thousand people at one point, and yet spent several years in an individual contributor role, as an internal organization development consultant, working with the most senior executive team.
He was well rewarded and appreciated, receiving promotions, bonuses and awards. But he was also frustrated, worried that the fear based culture would eventually doom the company. He tried to affect culture and leadership, the foundations needed to build large scale successful organizations in the Knowledge Age.
He often succeeded, but only locally, with individual leaders and business groups, never enabling enough change at the company-wide level and never gaining access to the most senior governing body, the Board of Directors.
He negotiated a severance agreement in 2001, having realized that he was no longer being effective in his mission, and then watched the company's death spiral from a distance.
During his journey, he had promised many employees and colleagues that he would never stop trying to leverage the learning that he was getting from all the painful transitions, be they failed projects or downsizings.
Dempsey captures the essence of that learning in this book. The book should prove enlightening to ex-Nortel employees, customers and shareholders, but also to Organization Development and other Human Resource professionals.
In January of 2009, Nortel Networks, a hundred-year-old company with a market capitalization of over $200 Billion, that had peaked at $30 Billion in sales and employed over 100,000 people worldwide, declared bankruptcy!
Unable to restructure, it liquidated its assets, bringing an astounding $10 Billion into the estate, mostly from the value of its intellectual property, its patents and products. Unfortunately, this money languishes in escrow, hurting retirees and pensioners, while bondholders and other creditors vie for a larger share.
As recently as 2001, it had been a Fortune 50 sized company, one of the most prestigious companies in Canada, its capitalization comprising almost a third of the Toronto Stock Exchange.
It had been highly respected, innovative, generous to its employees and focused on its customers. It was an exciting place to work and Dempsey stayed there for 17 years. Like thousands of others, he was proud to do so.
How could such an established, successful company, filled with so many smart, dedicated, loyal, hard working and driven employees have failed so completely?
Dempsey explains a piece of the puzzle by gathering his personal experiences and observations into a business memoir.
He had been the Business Librarian at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill when he saw the ad for a Technical Librarian, for a new R+D lab called BNR (Bell Northern Research) in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He was about the 30th person hired, stayed for 7 years, having become the lab's HR Manager, when he was enticed to "cross the street" to the parent company, then known as Northern Telecom. The lab had grown to a thousand employees.
For the next 11 years, he worked continuously, relentlessly, to try to improve the company. He held both line and staff roles, led over a thousand people at one point, and yet spent several years in an individual contributor role, as an internal organization development consultant, working with the most senior executive team.
He was well rewarded and appreciated, receiving promotions, bonuses and awards. But he was also frustrated, worried that the fear based culture would eventually doom the company. He tried to affect culture and leadership, the foundations needed to build large scale successful organizations in the Knowledge Age.
He often succeeded, but only locally, with individual leaders and business groups, never enabling enough change at the company-wide level and never gaining access to the most senior governing body, the Board of Directors.
He negotiated a severance agreement in 2001, having realized that he was no longer being effective in his mission, and then watched the company's death spiral from a distance.
During his journey, he had promised many employees and colleagues that he would never stop trying to leverage the learning that he was getting from all the painful transitions, be they failed projects or downsizings.
Dempsey captures the essence of that learning in this book. The book should prove enlightening to ex-Nortel employees, customers and shareholders, but also to Organization Development and other Human Resource professionals.
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