He was hired to stop the disease from spreading and he did a great job; he lopped off the infected limb. Nokia is better today because of it.

In 2006, my girlfriend at the time worked in HR at Nokia's US headquarters in Irving, Texas. The writing as on the wall and the company was preparing for a major layoff because Nokia's mobile phone business in the US was tanking. Luckily for her, she was able to transfer to Nokia-Siemens Networks. This was before the iPhone was released and before Elop joined the company in September 2010.

If your company is dependent on the CEO to make 100% correct decisions, 100% of the time then it’s not the CEO that’s the problem - it’s the company. A strong, resilient, adaptable, agile company can weather a poor leader, a weak, brittle, rigid one cannot.