Profile: Nokia marketing boss Loren Shuster

Loren Shuster (pictured) is a picture of calmness. As someone in a new global marketing role at the world’s largest handset manufacturer, you would expect him to be a bit more harried. Shuster confesses his calmness might be down to a recent trip to a rejuvenating yoga retreat in Bali. But, holiday aside, does he not find his huge responsibility a little overwhelming?

“It is too early to say what this will be like, as I’m just easing into the role,” says Shuster. “I am looking forward to it. I know all the key stakeholders - the people on my team are former colleagues. The global head of sales, Colin Giles, was my boss on two occasions.”

Shuster says he was selected for the global role because of his “diverse set of experiences across both sales and marketing in different geographies.”

Indeed, according to one agency contact, Shuster’s most impressive quality is his understanding and knowledge of different markets. “He keeps track of what is happening in each market individually. It is not easy to find people in regional roles who are so well informed.”

Prior to assuming his current position, Shuster headed up marketing for Southeast Asia and Pacific. Although he has been with Nokia for 10 years, it was only in 2009 that he took on a marketing role. His previous marketing experience is primarily confined to handling De Beers and MTV, both in Asia.

It is this experience that Shuster believes he will bring to the new role. “I was heading the business operations in Taiwan and have also worked at the regional office. My role is to translate the global marketing strategy into execution through local and regional teams. So I understand the challenges and complexities of getting that done.”

So what are the key challenges of executing a global strategy? Shuster says that, just like other international brand, Nokia has a common thinking that everyone buys into, but how that strategy is implemented must be tailored for every market.

“The challenge is how you ensure that you maintain a coherent and consistent strategy across geographies and, at the same time, deliver locally relevant activities.”

Even though global-to-local implementation is something that all international brands face, Shuster’s challenge is compounded by the fact that he is working on a category that thrives on technological innovation. He regards handsets as “by far the most dynamic category” he has worked in so far.

“I have worked in media, luxury goods and FMCGs,” he says. “What makes this so dynamic is that it is technologically driven, and technological changes can lead to major shifts in terms of product offerings. When I started at Nokia we did not have as many devices - none of our phones even had cameras. We were just introducing colour screens. And look at where we are now. Any of our high-end smart phones have digital cameras, music players, web browsing and email. It’s more powerful than computers were nine years ago.”

With the mention of online, it is hard to avoid the question of Ovi, Nokia’s internet services suite. Despite being a leading player in the handset category, Nokia has not had much success with Ovi. Could the company be doing better?

“We can always do better in everything we do,” Shuster says, refusing to be drawn into a discussion on rival iTunes. Ovi has only been in the market for 12 months, he points out, and Nokia has been promoting its services actively for just six months. “We are quite satisfied in terms of the momentum we have behind Ovi. We have 80 million users and we see the growth rate accelerating. It’s just a matter of time.”

While Shuster is no doubt excited to be taking on a global role, he sees his time in Asia - his base for the past 15 years - as invaluable. But does he think his Asia experience may have been instrumental to his promotion? After all, his predecessor Chris Leong, who will now be heading the China business, also had extensive Asia connections. Shuster says that Asia experience, in his opinion, is not a requirement in doing the job - more that Asia is an important region for Nokia. “It certainly is a valued experience.”

Clearly the work experience gathered in Asia has helped Shuster climb the global brand’s corporate ladder, but when he finally makes the move to Finland for the global role it will be the simpler things about Asia that he will miss most: “My wife’s family and the weather.”

Loren Shuster CV

2010 SVP, marketing, go-to-market, Nokia
2009 Head of marketing, SEAP, Nokia
2009 VP, sales, Sub-Saharan Africa, Nokia
2007 General manager, South and East Africa, Nokia
2007 General manager, Taiwan, Nokia
2004 Director, entertainment and media business, Asia-Pacific, Nokia
2002 Director, music and mobile services, Asia-Pacific, Nokia
2000 VP, brand development and research, MTV Asia

This article was originally published in the 28 January 2010 issue of Media.