This Canadian telecom had a massive problem. Once the market dominator in telecommunications, it had been devastated by accounting scandals and reduced to a third of its original might. Nortel’s clunky website was driving their corporate customers batty. And meanwhile, Cisco Systems had taken most of their market share.What did they have left?
Nortel had a 100-year legacy of innovation. They not only excelled at developing systems, they invented the parts and switches these systems relied on, including the early structure of the Internet. Research discovered the bright spot: people still thought highly of Nortel engineering.
Brainstorming a strategic handle for this superiority, I came up with Nortelligence—the invisible goodness baked into every piece of Nortel technology. It is 100 years of innovation and research. It is the people at the company. It’s the answer to the question “What does Nortel offer me that XYZ competitor does not?” And it’s the compelling reason behind their tagline: Business Made Simple.
