Nokia might've taken a risk in naming Stephen Elop as the new CEO but sometimes you need to look for the right talent if you don't have a specialist in-house already. Elop has no experience in the telecommunication industry but he's a solid software guy. He's shown leadership skills leading major brands from Juniper Networks to Microsoft -- he launched Office 2010, and made age old Microsoft mobile friendly. Nokia isn't really in trouble, but they have to act fast because Apple, Inc. is gaining a lot of traction in countries like India. Combined with that, Blackberry has recently expanded its brand presence so much so that even "cool" teenagers are using it.

Kevin C. Tofel of Gigaom speculated that Nokia is gearing up to be a software and services company rather than just being a handset maker. If that is the case, then the board at Nokia certainly thought of their business goals and objectives first before going out to hunt for talent. The same can be applied to your middle management hires. Here's how:

1) Flesh out your business goals: Don't just recruit because you need to fill in a seat. Recruit to meet your business goals. "Nokia has a communication problem," told John Strand, the head of Strand Consult, a telecommunications consultancy firm to the Guardian. "There is no doubt that Stephen Elop is a better communicator than Kallasvuo." Hire someone who can DO the job that you need to get done.

2) Search for talent high and low: Searching for the right talent is not good enough with just posting job descriptions. You actually need to go out there and look. You can bump into the right talent at a meeting, a conference, or an informal networking event. I’ve heard of many sales people who can convince a manager or business owner, and then getting job offers on the spot. You never know when your super star talent is going to show up, so keep your ears and eyes open.

3) Recruit on the basis of the skill set: Folks with a particular skill set can function and adapt to any industry. "Digital strategists" for example, are relatively a new job post for the Web 2.0 world. You won't get a lot of digital strategists looking for a job, but you will get a lot of talent that has experience with one form of online marketing or another. You need to look for those with relevant experience. Make sure your job postings are welcoming enough so people from cross industry with the skill set you're looking for can apply.

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