Adventures in Innovation

INSIDE THE RISE AND FALL OF NORTEL

R&D was the genesis that launched Northern Electric from the sleepy Canadian branch plant to a publicly traded company with a market cap of more than $300B, $30B in sales, and 100,000 employees worldwide. The lessons learned from my Nortel experience... “Innovate or Die“

 

By John F. Tyson

7 - Changing the Optics

"Working early one morning in my Atlanta office, I received a call from the Managing Director of Design for Philips in the Netherlands.. Stating he was soon retiring, he asked if I was interested in being interviewed for the position reporting to the Board of Management. Following an extensive discussion I said yes. The next weekend I flew to Los Vegas to meet him for dinner and a tour of a private suite exhibit used for restricted distributor disclosure at CES, The Consumer Electronics Show. Following a second interview with the top executive recruiting agency Heidrick & Struggles in New York City, my Dutch wife Yolanda, and I were quietly invited to Eindhoven for a final interview."

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