Nokia is heading into the next decade with a smaller C-suite. The Finnish vendor, which has faced some pricing and supply-chain challenges and recently slashed its profit outlook through at least 2020, has discontinued its COO role and announced that Joerg Erlemeier, who currently holds that position, will leave the company after a 25-year run on Jan. 1.

Nokia said it will distribute the various COO functions to other leaders within the company. The reorganization of the company’s uppermost ranks is noteworthy because it reinforces the prevailing opinion that some significant changes must be made for Nokia to overcome its challenges.

COOs are effectively second in command and typically groomed to take over as CEO, so the move puts some distance between CEO Rajeev Suri and his potential replacements. But there’s no sign that Suri's 24-year run at the company is coming to an end soon.

“Succession planning is fraught with challenges,” but Nokia’s “bench strength seems strong and diverse,” said Will Townsend, senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

Nokia's removal of the COO position is the latest in a handful of executive moves made by the vendor. Earlier this year it lost Chief Legal Officer Maria Varsellona, who had served in that position since mid-2014. Nokia moved her functions to other executives.

“Nokia has some short-term challenges with relatively flat software growth, fixed wireless access, 5G radio, and competitive pricing pressures, but Rajeev Suri seems to have a solid plan to close the roadmap gap with a focus on system-on-a-chip and the right features,” Townsend added. “It may take a quarter or two but if they execute they can pull out of it, I believe they have the capability to do it organically and their 5G deployment pipeline seems strong despite the challenges.”

The perception that Nokia is far behind on 5G isn’t true, said Daryl Schoolar, practice leader at Ovum. “5G is just really still new and we always run into problems and hiccups when you launch something this advanced,” he said. “Obviously Nokia has been caught up in some of those but I don’t think they are something they can’t overcome and maintain their market position.”

Chris Nicoll, principal analyst at ACG Research, said that Nokia is addressing its challenges clearly and properly. He expects the company to reach a turnaround point around the halfway mark of 2020. “It may get worse between now and then, but I think the turnaround will happen by end of Q2 next year,” he said.

Without addressing the departure of Erlemeier directly, Nicoll noted that other Nokia executives left the company after marching out of step with the rest of the organization. “I can see Nokia adding some market-specific expertise, but I think they have a very strong and focused management team in place now,” he said.

“5G is all over the place globally, but Nokia seems to have strong relationships with its 4G customers and will build on that,” Nicoll said. “Are they late with 5G? Yes and no. Build outs are still in the early stages except for South Korea, China, and maybe Japan. But the core is the next battle and I think they are well positioned there.”