CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Team Assignment

Case Analysis for Project Managers

Course Number DPS 51046 1601

Project Management-September 2015

University of Winnipeg, PACE
June12, 2016
Instructor: Jeff Henry

TEAM MEMBERS Abhijit Kadam, Arshjot Kaur, Ashwin Virupaksha,

Prachi Tuteja, Rafael Vitorelli, Rushna Begum, and Zankit Patel

1
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction

3. Statement of Problem & Root Causes

4. Summary of Problem

5. Fish Bone Cause & Effect Analysis

6. Quality Aspect

7. SWOT Analysis

8. Situation Analysis

9. Risk Register

10. Recommendations

11. Conclusion

12. Lessons Learned

13. References

2
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Executive Summary

The technology in the world is highly rapid rated and businesses who might adjust to quick

changes in the electronic market can struggle. Nokia once dominated the market, and was a

synonym for the mobile phone industry for a long time. At present, Nokia phones no longer exist

and has been sold to Microsoft in 2013. They have been the leader for fourteen years, losing their

title at the beginning of 2012. Nokia, which overtook Motorola in 1998 to take the crown of

biggest phone manufacturer of world, lost its prestigious crown after struggling for last 3 years,

and was acquired by Microsoft in September 2013.

In the past, mobile phones were seen as expensive devices, now the smartphones have become

accessories that bring a different spin to costumers lives. In this hi-tech and fast-past

environment of mobile phones and technologies change, Nokia-the once dominated company

has been overtaken by its competitors Apple, Samsung etc. This market loss was mostly

because of Nokias lack of effective strategy combined with product design. Falling average

sales prices (ASPs) and market share have had an impact and forced Nokia to further re-think its

strategy towards developed and emerging markets (free, n.d.).

This paper document will utilize techniques and knowledge learned in the Project Management

diploma program to analyses and understand Nokias case with depth, considering that this was an

unsuccessful case as Nokia have never regain its market position since then.

We as a team, contributed to insights on how a company with an active innovation policy, product

launch and market segmentation strategy failed to maintain its dominance on the mobile handset

market.

3
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Introduction to the Company

Nokia, its organizations performance and information about sales and size: Since January 2004,

Nokia has four different business groups: Mobile Phones, Multimedia, Enterprise Solutions and

Networks. In addition, there are two horizontal groups that support the mobile device business

groups: Customer and Market Operations, and Technology Platforms. In the year 2004 Nokias

net sales for mobile phones were 18.507 million euro, which went down 12% from 2003. Nokias

market areas were Europe/Africa/Middle East (55% of net sales), Asian Pacific and China (25%)

and Americas (20%). Nokias market share in Europe was 45,8% in 2003, in 2004 it was 34,8%

and in the third quarter of 2005 it was 36%. Nokias turnover for the third quarter of 2005 was

8403 million euro from which mobile phones brought in 62%, multimedia 17%, Enterprise

solutions 2% and Networks 9%. The year 2004 was demanding for Nokia. In response, the

company set five top priorities in the areas of customer relations, product offering, R&D

efficiency, demand-supply management and the company's ability to offer end-to-end solutions.

Nokia is making good progress in these areas, and is now better positioned to meet future

challenges. The Nokia Strategy continues to focus on three activities to expand mobile

communications in terms of volume and value: expand mobile voice, drive consumer multimedia

and bring extended mobility to enterprises (Free, n.d.).

The actual scenario in 2016 is really different and worse when it comes to Nokias market share,

mobile technology and smart phone sales. The year of 2016 will not be the focus of this case

analysis but will reflect the decisions made in the past by Nokia that drove the company to the

point it is now.

4
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Statement of the Problem & Root Causes

- How Nokia failed in Connecting to People

Apple redefined smartphones with touch screens, Blackberry with email, and Samsung with

Android. Mainly, Android weakened the roots of Nokia. Android proved that software matters

more than hardware. While, Nokia was slow in responding to these trends. When every

manufacturer was engaged in producing touch screen technology, Nokia felt that touch would

not have a scope in future.

One of the giants in mobile manufacturers sold itself to Microsoft. No doubt, it is a failure to

properly manage. Nokias demise is a lot about bad decisions, complacency and an inability to

respond to the emergent world of enterprise ecosystems.

1. Failure of Symbian System

Nokia launched its Symbian 60 series in 2002, which at the time of launch had a good market

response. The introduction and launch of Apple IOS in 2007, and Android in 2008, the OS

race was completely taken over by the two giants. The collapse of Symbian OS is lack of

applications and User Interface. They tried to improve Symbian OS with respect to IOS /

Apple, but failed to create something unique and meet the customer needs.

Plain and simply put Symbian feels like windows XP in front of awesome mac or brilliant

vista. Yes, it can work but its not a speed merchant and terribly outdated. One example is the

lack of portrait QWERTY in N8 series, I mean its such a basic feature that not having it is a

glaring miss. Another one is the lack of proper implementation of widgets, there is very

handful widgets and poorly implemented. All in all, outdated!

5
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

2. Outdated Interface

Interface usually leaves the first mark on the users mind. This is the one field Nokia or

Symbian have not moved at all. The interface is rather boring, and simply said very out

dated. The N97 interface is exactly the same as that of the flagship devices like the N8 or E7

which is rather a put off. There out to be some advances which even if made are very minor.

There is a lot depending on the Anne and Belle updates, so its all about wait and watch.

3. Lack of Applications

Apps have become the lifeline of a smart phone. Today its impossible to imagine a phone

which does not have games and apps that can just about do anything. Most of the

applications are slow, and have a horrible interface. And with Symbian probably off the

market now, it is difficult to see more developers wanting to develop for Symbian when

better options like iOS and Android are around.

4. Perpetual Hanging

It is a fact that we have become addicted to the smooth interface of the iOS or Android and a

delay or hang of any sort is a major turn off. With Symbian, hangs and late responses were

the concern. The touch is not as sensitive as the android or iOS, yes it has been greatly

improved since the launch of E7 and N8 but it still is not up to the mark.

5. Outdated Browser

Surfing the web on the go is the way we like to operate our phones these days and the default

browser on Symbian is slow to put it mildly. Checkerboard pattern are common to see while

6
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

fast scrolling the webpages. This can be solved greatly by downloading a third party app like

opera, but the internet surfing does leave a lot to be desired on Symbian.

6. Management Problem

Despite being an exemplar of strategic agility, the fearful emotional climate prevailing at

Nokia during the rise of the iPhone froze coordination between top and middle managers

terrified of losing status and resources from management. The company was wounded before

the battle began. Nokias fall from the top of the smartphone pyramid is typically put down

to three factors by executives that attempt to explain it.

1) Nokia was technically inferior to Apple

2) The company was complacent

3) Its leaders didnt see the disruptive iPhone coming.

Nokia lost the smartphone battle because divergent shared fears among the companys

middle and top managers led to company-wide inertia that left it powerless to respond to

Apples game changing device.

7. Problem in Strategy

Symbian was the most popular smartphone OS on a global average till Q4 2010 with Nokia

having Symbian as the OS in its all flagship phones. In June 2008, Nokia acquired Symbian

Ltd. under a decision to make the Symbian OS open-source platform so that more developers

can use it to develop their mobile apps. In February 2010, it was officially made available as

open source code. However, it was a little too late as Android, which was already open-

7
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

source and freely available, and iOS has already started to eat into Symbian market pie with

their advanced platforms & a huge number of support applications on the smartphones. On

February 11, 2011 Nokia announced partnership with Microsoft and carry their OS i.e.

Windows OS in their smartphones. A study in June 2011 showed that over 39% of the

mobile developers using Symbian had planned to abandon the platform for either Android or

IOS. By June 2011, Nokia had made a deal with Accenture for Symbian based software

development and support services through 2016 which also saw 2800 of Nokia employees

moving base to Accenture.

8. Wrong Deal with Windows

The Company made a huge mistake to adapt to Windows in 2011. That point of time, the

Company already faced competition and was in the declining condition, and trusting

Windows which was new in the field to regain its status was the biggest mistake. The phones

Nokia launched at that time were comparable to their competitors, but OS was the problem

which lead to the ultimate collapse of the Company.

9. Stephen Elops wrong decisions

Stephen Elop left Microsoft in September 2010 and joined Nokia, becoming the first non-

Finnish CEO in its entire history. He made decisions of moving towards Microsofts Mobile

platform and led the company into the abyss. During Elop's tenure, Nokia annual revenues

fell 40% from 41.7 Billion Euros per year to 25.3 Billion Euros per year. Nokia profits fell

92% from 2.4 Billion Euros per year to 188 Million Euros per year. Nokia handset sales fell

40% from 456 million units per year to 274 million units per year. Nokia's A ranking among

all three ratings agencies was downgraded repeatedly all through his tenure with no upgrades,

and when he left office all three ratings agencies rated Nokia as junk. Nokia's Fortune Global
8
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

500 ranking was 120th largest business on the planet when Elop started and by the time he

left Nokia it was at 274th position. Nokias share prices which were 7.12 Euros on the day

Elop was hired and dropped to 1.44 Euros, down by 81%. They rose by a small margin once

rumors of Microsofts acquisition plans reached the market.

In February 2011, Elop showcased a new approach for Nokia, shifting its smartphone policy

to Microsoft's Windows Phone, which also included the discontinuation of both of their in-

house mobile operating systems. The phase-out of Symbian was to be carried out during the

next years, expecting it to be finalized by 2013. All programs for others devices were

terminated immediately. The first Nokia Windows Phone smartphone was sold in Nov 2011,

the Nokia Lumia 800, was made in the form of a device design identically similar to the

Nokia N9, the first MeeGo mobile.

9
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Elop stated the reason for switching to Windows instead of Android: "the single most

important word is 'differentiation'. Entering the Android environment late, we knew we

would have a hard time differentiating."

10. Conspiracy model

During his tenure, Elop faced vocal criticism from both industry specialists and employees.

In 2011, Elop announced that some 11,000 employees would have to be laid off as part of a

plan to "restructure" Nokia's business, and in June 2012 it was announced that further 10,000

layoffs were in order and that many services would have to be closed down due to budget

cuts. Experts started to speculate that Elop could be a rouge agent, whose mission was to

prepare Nokia for a future acquisition by Microsoft. When confronted with this theory by an

anonymous attendee at the 2011 Mobile World Congress, Elop denied the speculation

stating.

10
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Speculators say that Elop indirectly prepared Nokia for Microsofts acquisition and

intentionally devalued the companys assets and image. More fuel was added to the fire,

when Microsoft announced a signing bonus of 18.8 million. Ironically, both the deals were

signed on the same day which further made investors furious.

11. Lack of Innovation

Lack of focus on innovation and stiff competition from Samsung and Apple, Nokia failed to

gain market share. The Company focused more on maintaining its position, rather than

innovating for new opportunities. They lacked the capability to combine the hardware,

software and service.

12. Lack of Market Share

They very lately realize their competition and lately launched their Asha series, but by that

time they already collapsed.

13. Failure to build the right Umbrella strategy

Apple and Samsung used the strategy of umbrella branding using iPhone and Galaxy S

series. Nokia used the N series, but they failed to create buzz among customers which Apple

and Samsung created.

Summary of problems

The above research digs into the role of Stephen Elop as a contributing factor in the failure of

Nokia as a company. The conspiracy theory states that even though Stephen Elop came from

Microsoft to Nokia but against all the ethical rules of professionalism but he continued to make

decisions which were beneficial for Microsoft. The argument is supported by the facts and

11
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

statistical data given in the paper on how Nokia went on a downward spiral after Stephen Elop

joined as the CEO. His decisions of only carrying the Windows operating system in all of their

phones & abandoning all other operating systems did no good for the companys performance in

the business. His decision of not going for the Android OS after Symbian while the other mobile

carriers such as Samsung, Sony Ericson did, eventually led to Nokia losing a major market share.

The sales of Nokia dropped over the period of his tenure which eventually led Nokia being sold

to Microsoft. Our research in this paper digs deeper into the role of Stephen Elop in the downfall

of Nokia. We wonder what would have been if Nokia would have embraced Android as it is the

biggest smartphone operating system in the world by far. Soon after being sold to Microsoft,

ousted employees are on the look for investors to manufacture same quality hardware devices

with a variety of Operating Systems other than Windows.

Fish Bone

12
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Quality Aspect

Over the Years Nokia came up with many innovative phones that have given people wide variety

of features and amazing facilities. These phones are true masterpieces that are full of innovative

features. These handsets have great looks and feature easy interactivity that make them

extremely user friendly.

Nokia is the icon of immense success and huge credibility in the world of mobile phones. It is an

organization that has led the mobile industry to new heights with its innovative technology and

well organized strategic planning. Every product from this pioneer manufacturer is crafted with

great care and quality. It is the extreme hard work and customer oriented goals of Nokia that has

helped the brand to sustain in the highly dynamic and competitive world of mobile phones. The

mobile industry has taken enormous boom in the last few years. It has become one of the most

powerful and preferred brands across the globe. This brand has created a special place in the

minds and hearts of the customers with its emotional and human sensibility that creates a feeling

of belonging amongst the customers. Its slogan "Connecting People" has been able to create a

special relationship with the customers across the globe. Over the past few years, it has gained

immense credibility and adulation by the users. The company has been able to create special

place for itself in the minds and the hearts of the users by offering them amazing products with

great quality. Customers trust Nokia phones for their high performance and great utility.

The incredible handsets from Nokia offer great durability and awesome performance to the

mobile users. Nokia N series mobile phones are highly advanced and sophisticated. They offer a

complete array of innovative features along with great looks. Each Nokia mobile phone is an

example of great efficacy and style. High tech features, great looking designs, amazing camera

and user friendly interface make these handsets a much desired object of everybody.

13
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Failure of Symbian OS

- Lack of applications and UI (user interface) in Symbian.

- After facing competition from iOS and android, Nokia continuously tried to improve

their Symbian OS but was not creating something unique.

BL-5C battery
- There were events noticed, when early Symbian model batteries exploded because of

over-charging over-used batteries.

Dual Sim
- Developing Countries where cellphones demands were rising, other opponents introduced

dual-sim options, in which one phone can be operated with two sim cards. However most

of the Nokia phones didnt have dual-sim options. And the new introduced phones were

either dual-sim standby or single sim.

Windows phone
- All Lumia series with windows operating system had system crash problems, following

restart after data heavy data usage.

- Low quality of applications, also most of the games and applications provided by android

for free, were missing in windows store.

Nokia became slow in smartphone market

- Very late to introduce android phone which didnt match with the performance of other

android manufactures.

- Also android models were costly and less efficient compared to price categories of other

companies.

14
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Charts/ Graphs and position of the company

SWOT Analysis

In order to picture the exactly case scenario and trace the motive behind Nokias case, a SWOT

analysis was performed to identify external and internal factors that have driven Nokia into the

hurdles and difficulties throughout the massive technology market change.

Strengths

Strengths is first Nokias internal parts that were analyzed by the SWOT Analysis. Nokia had, at

that time, and still have a strong brand name and great market image. As it was mentioned before,

Nokia was the first player on the smartphone market, starting in 90s. Nokia entered the market of

all it had at the time, investing in development and skilled workers, building robust, friendly and

modern mobile phones. Nokia has a huge focus on innovative products, fact that make them come

with new functions on mobile phones and different technology, and this is also an important

15
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Nokias strengths. In 15 Nokia was producing phones for the past 15 years which brings a strong

background and a solid experience in process of developing, producing and innovating new

products (free, n.d.).

Weaknesses

This is the internal parts of the SWOT analyzes which consist of Nokias weak points discovered

by the analysis.

Regardless of the fact that Nokia was the top one in the phone market, Nokia was still covered

with weaknesses. Nokias smartphones originalities were not as good as the phones made by its

competitors. For example, in 2003 Nokia was too late with clamshell phones, while other

companies already had these models. Just after prosperity of these phones, Nokia had to start

making these models as well because otherwise they would have lost their market share

significantly. This is an important mark of the weaknesses analysis, observe that nowadays Nokia

has lost almost the entire smartphone market share because of their operational system which was

first made different from the competitors but not user friendly, what an irony, being weak because

of its lack in originality in the past and losing market now because of its new and different

operational systems (Free, n.d).

Opportunities

Opportunities is the external parts of the SWOT analysis and it brings the positive external point

that can become an advantage factor. Find below a graphic where it shows clearly that mobile

technologies have overcome desktops from 2007 on, this is an integral part of Nokias

opportunities (External) (Chaffey, 2016).

16
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

(Chaffey, 2016)

Additionally, few companies were competing in the mobile market and even fewer were capable,

financially and technologically wise, to compete against Nokia.

Nokia has and had a huge costumer base in more than 90 countries along with a complex and well

developed business infrastructure (Erraguntala, 2010).

Threats

Threats are another external part of the SWOT analysis and it focus on the negative points that can

cause loss and disadvantage. In 2006 companies such as Motorola and Sony Eriksson were

entering the market with a low cost penetration strategy.

17
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

On the other hand, big players such as Apple and Google were focusing in quality products with

newer and better technologies and materials (Erraguntala, 2010).

Situation Analysis

1. Management of Nokia should have known about the Murphys law: If anything can go

wrong, it will

2. They should have not been over confident on their Software, and neglect the status /

position of Apple / Samsung and other competitors

3. Organizations need to be constantly making decisions to grow and prosper, or in

challenging times, simply to survive

4. Decision at that period of time should have been made considering the growing demand of

the User interface / software's that the competitors were offering

Risk Register

As per research, Nokia did not have a Risk Register in place. Some companies end up forgetting

how important it is to invest now and save future money, tons of money. A risk register well

developed along with a risk management plan can save companies. However, it also cost a

significant amount of money to be developed. In this analysis we developed a risk register focusing

in the weak points that took Nokia down. Notice that the risks were divided into sections and they

are being treated together by section, not individually.

18
 CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Risk Identification Rating Response

Category Description Probabilit Imp Risk Owner Action
y act
(1-10) (1-
10)
Technical Battery accidents 5 10 Product Quality review
Outdated Systems and Developer to mitigate or
models managemen avoid along
Voice level/ Ringtone t with user
sound was very low Department feedback to
Lumia series, against identify
android phones were less
efficient, less attractive
and costly
Innovation Very late to introduce 4 8 Innovation Strategy reviews
android and Market to mitigate or
Windows system was Research avoid along with
ineffective Department user feedback to
Not enough application identify
No dual-sim options was
available
Organizational Lack of business strategy 2 7 Higher 360 degree
focus Managers: assessment and
Communication barrier CEO, CFO, strategic
due to micromanagement VP and etc. planning to
avoid and or
mitigate
Legal Market was filled with 5 7 Higher Strategic
duplicate parts of Nokia, Managers: planning and
in countries with high CEO, CFO, legal investment
revenue. VP and etc. to mitigate
Tax problems in India.
Had patent issues with
HTC.
Plenty of complains
logged for busy service
centres by unsatisfied
customers
External Similar models from 6 8 Higher Implementation
Samsung and other local Managers: of risk
companies were more CEO, CFO, management
cheaper VP and etc. plan to mitigate
Gradual decrease in
revenue, after 2008 crisis

19
 CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Financial Lack of strategic 5 6 CFO Financial

investments Strategic
Planning to
prevent or
avoid

The probability is a fictitious value, as all these risks mentioned above already happened and they

are now facts of negative events, in this list no positive risk were analyzed as per the case focus.

The Elop Effect

Stephen Elop, the then Nokia CEO, had issue an internal memo to Nokia Staff, written in February

2011. The memo as described by Elop, saw how Nokias business turned out to be during his entry

in the organization. He described the business as, an oil rig thats on fire, forcing the workers to

jump into the North Sea. In Elops thinking, burning platform only means certain death. The

memo mentioned warning about the joint venture between Nokia and Microsoft, where the worlds

largest phone maker was about to adopt the worlds largest software developers Microsoft

windows phone platform. This memo which turned Nokia's profitable smartphone business into

losses, and ended in Nokia being forced to sell the business to Microsoft. The following year in

Nokias Annual general meeting, Elop admitted that his memo, did damage Nokias handset sales.

The board of Directors of Nokia took this memo as an act of misjudgment. This report was been

leaked to the media who saw it as a wakeup call for Nokia, while most others sat it destructive and

damaging to Nokia.

The end result of this Memo, was just like replicating the infamous Ratner Effect, where a CEO

of the Company, calls his own products bad. This causes the customers to believe his statements

and thus stop buying their products.

20
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Market Share of Nokia Due to Elop Effect (Ahonen, 2009)

Q1 2011 - 24.2 M smartphones - 24% market share (Elop Effect in February)

Q2 2011 - 16.7 M smartphones - 15% market share (smartphone unit plunges into loss-

making)

Q3 2011 - 16.8 M smartphones - 14% market share (N9 launches on MeeGo but Elop also

kills MeeGo)

Q4 2011 - 19.6 M smartphones - 12% market share (Lumia launches) Nokia fallen so fast, is

half the size of Apple and half the size of Samsung in smartphones.

Q1 2012 - 11.9 M smartphones - 8% market share

Q2 2012 - 10.2 M smartphones - 7% market share

Q3 2012 - 6.3 M smartphones - 4% market share (Nokia smartphone unit profits so bad,

lose 49% for every smartphone sold)

Q4 2012 - 6.6 M smartphones - 3% market share (revised Lumia on WP8 launches) Nokia

now so tiny in smartphones, Apple is 7 times bigger, Samsung 10 times bigger(in this same 24

month period, the global smartphone market had exploded, growing 130% in size)

21
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Short term Goals

Increase Spending on R&D and Innovation - Rapidly changing market place for innovation

technology leaves great room. Enables differentiation through technology. Nokia should utilize

staff rather than wholesale redundancies. Technologically innovative products to drive market

success, new applications that would blow people's mind could be introduced. (Garg, 2016)

Learn from competitors, as the new players were emerging and adopting the change, Nokia should

have learnt from its competitors.

Follow 80-20 rule, find the root cause of the problem and concentrate on the core issue rather than

solving other issues that would least likely solve the problem.

Incentive internships, could be encouraged to implement new ideas from the younger generations.

Because the younger generation represent the market requirements, so the company should

encourage students through incentive internships. (Garg, 2016)

Long term Goals

Feasibility:

The shift in operating system would benefit the company as the growing requirement for android

market was at its peak. Symbian was losing its importance and lack of functionality was causing

the downfall.

Factories can be set up easily, especially in partnership with specialists such as Foxconn. Nokia

had the financial resources available to make the capital investments, creating jobs in a time of

economic uncertainty.

22
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

Market demand for handsets remains high and is increasing, capacity will be utilized providing

additional market share can be captured.

Suitability:

Nokia could have focused on a limited number of brands, like Apple, because Nokia had a wide

range of products it was unable to concentrate on one model and develop the same. In line with

core strategy (Differentiation with focus on additional cost efficiency). Exploits and extends

breakthrough resource of production capabilities / capacity. Could be cost efficiency through

economies of scale via differentiation and subsequent market share growth. Reduce risks of supply

chain issues affecting supply of crucial high-end components. (Garg, 2016)

Acceptability:

Low/medium risk as remaining in existing markets. Medium risks as, if market share declines,

capital investment in capacity would be waste. Enables flexibility for Nokia to react to change

rapidly, which has been an issue in the past.

Recommendations

What Nokia could have done to prevent the downfall; which strategies they should have adopted

to remain the leaders in the market-

Strategy is 5 percent thinking, 95 percent execution. Strategy execution is 5 percent

technical, 95 percent people-related

It means success and failure of a strategy is directly related to people/stakeholders and happy

23
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

employees lead to a successful company so the major problem that led to Nokias demise was the

Management. Better Management would have allowed top managers to get more accurate

information of Nokias software capabilities and development speed. Elements of better

management includes

Top managers sharing honestly their fear of losing against the new competitors to a limited

set of middle managers, and engaging these middle managers to work with top managers to

counter the rising threats might have created healthy external fear and reduced internal fears.

Another way of amplifying healthy external fear might have been to require middle managers

to use the new competitors products extensively, like Samsung did, to ensure that the middle

managers developed a sufficiently deep understanding of their strengths over Nokias

products along specific dimensions, such as usability.

Adopting a culture where telling bad news is a good thing would have overcome the

collective fear that so seriously affected Nokias ability to develop new, leading products

fast. Just telling the truth could have saved Nokias fortunes. Nokias unfortunate decline

proves that companies succeeded because they did something better than others. But they

declined because they forgot to do common sense things, such as managing collective

emotions maintaining a positive organizational culture during tough times Managing a large

business can be overwhelming; to keep things from deteriorating, one needs to maintain a

culture of honesty, humility, and cooperation inside the organization.

Better Technology: Nokia would have saved itself from sinking, if more attention would have

been paid on improving the existing technology such as the touch, processor, OS and other

important features. Nokia failed in connecting to people. Apple redefined smart phones with

touch screen and Blackberry with email, Android proved that software matters more than

24
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

hardware. Nokia was slow to respond to these trends. When every manufacturer is busy in

making touchscreen mobiles, Nokia felt that touch wouldn't have a scope in the near future but

customers overwrote their expectations.

Reduce Product Portfolio: Nokia should have focused on upgrading their existing series of

smart phones like Apple did rather than launching Windows Phone (Lumia series), N series,

Asha series which divided their focus and led to the decrease in sales. They were jack of all

trades and master of none

Conclusion

After analyzing, we feel Nokia failed as a whole and not due to an individual aspect. Life is a

cycle, and only thing that is permanent is change. Nokia had reached the peak of its glory and the

only way from there seemed to be downward unless they changed their processes. Change did

come but was late and futile. Nokia had its ups and downs and now soon enough we hope it will

recapture its glory. Although this is just the beginning only time can tell us what lays ahead for

Nokia.

Lessons Learned

1. Examples of failure and steps to recover Good Planning and forecasting

2. Concept of Risks in analyzing the case

3. Team Work

4. Gap analysis between present and future goals / should have clear vision

5. Importance of Management and Communication

25
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

References

Ahonen, T.T. (2009) Nokia final Q4 Smartphones as expected: 6.6M total means market share
now 3% (from 29% exactly 2 years ago),Available at: http://communities-
dominate.blogs.com/brands/2013/01/nokia-final-q4-smartphones-as-expected-66m-total-means-
market-share-now-3-from-29-exactly-2-years-ag.html (Accessed: 12 June 2016).

Erraguntala, M. (2010, April 24). Abhay Sapru. Retrieved June 9, 2016, from
http://pt.slideshare.net/merragun/nokia-strategy-presentation
(Erraguntala, 2010)

free (n.d.). Nokia case study: How can Nokia maintain its market position in the mature
European market? Retrieved from http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/52193/nokia-case-study-how-
can-nokia-maintain-its-market-position-in-the-mature
(free, n.d.)

Chaffey, D. (2016, April 27). Mobile marketing statistics 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016, from
Mobile marketing analytics, http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-
analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/
(Chaffey, 2016)

Garg, R. (2016) A strategic plan Nokia,

https://www.academia.edu/6572038/A_Strategic_Plan_Nokia

http://knowledge.insead.edu/strategy/what-could-have-saved-nokia-and-what-can-other-

companies-learn-3220

http://www.gsmarena.com/the_rise_dominance_and_epic_fall__a_brief_look_at_nokias_history-

blog-13460.php

http://www.cnet.com/news/farewell-nokia-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-mobile-pioneer/

http://knowledge.insead.edu/strategy/who-killed-nokia-nokia-did-4268

http://www.techrez.com/4-embarasing-mistakes-that-led-to-nokia-downfall/

26
CASE ANALYSIS- NOKIA

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/08/nokia-stephen-elop-operation-new-book

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/09/elop_new_history/

http://www.computerweekly.com/photostory/2240110068/Photos-The-downfall-of-Nokia-11-
reasons-why-it-is-doing-so-badly/1/The-downfall-of-Nokia-11-reasons-why-they-are-doing-so-
badly

27