ortel Networks can�t seem to shake off its problems. Just as the telecom equipment maker was putting two years of accounting woes behind it, two star executives walked out of the door. The company stunned observers last month with news that chief operating officer Gary Daichendt had resigned just three months after joining. The Cisco Systems veteran came to Nortel with the expectation of succeeding chief executive Bill Owens.

But the two had different management styles and different views about the business, and that led to Daichendt�s departure, according to Nortel. Gary Kunis, who had left Cisco to join Daichendt at Nortel as chief technology officer followed his boss out of the door. This parting of ways leaves a huge management void at Nortel, which has been struggling with one crisis after another ever since the telecom market meltdown in 2000.... more