Nokia Case Study

Introduction

Nokia began as a simple forestry business, moved quickly toward diversification, invested in new technologies, and implemented a global focus strategy under Jorma Ollila (CEO from 1992 to 2006) in the early 1990's and in the 2000’s becoming a global technology star. A little more detail about Nokia’s colorful history is mentioned in Appendix A-1 and A-2.

Company Profile

Nokia Corporation, incorporated on December 19, 1896, invests in technological devices. The Company is focused on three businesses: Nokia Networks, Nokia Technologies and HERE. A detailed company profile, including information about Nokia’s divisions is provided in App. A-4.

Nokia’s Mission Statement

Nokia's mission statement, "Connecting People," has guided the

A-6. Furthermore, App. A-7 gives some impressive facts and figures from Nokia’s financial statements of 2007 according to International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS. At that time, Nokia was riding high as master of its own mobile hardware and software, and a hugely profitable business. To figure out what Nokia’s ‘secret formula’ for success, one needs to delve a little deeper into the inner workings of the Nokia Corporation. Analysts often attribute Nokia’s success to the following reasons: i) Nokia is very lucky; ii) Jorma Ollila is very smart; or iii) something about the way Nokia works makes it more pragmatic, more focused and more flexible than any of its competitors. No doubt, Nokia has been very lucky, especially with timing, but chance is a fickle success factor. Nor can one wholly attribute Nokia’s success, or for that matter any corporation, on its CEO. If neither these reasons are responsible, then one may conclude that it were internal decisions and policy-making that resulted in Nokia becoming the largest phone manufacturer of the ‘Pre-iPhone’ era. According to Dan Steinbock in his book, The Nokia Revolution, by going through Nokia’s history one learns the following things that contributed to Nokia’s success, the details of which can be found in App.

In 1992, Nokia Mobile Phones in Finland received the National Quality Award. Since 1996, a Current State Analysis (CSA) is used to identify the gap between the actual and planned level of business performance, with main attention to the areas of Leadership, Customer, Planning, Processes and People. Nokia also received the European Quality Award in 2000. Nokia used the European Foundation for Quality Management’s (EFQM) Excellence Model to shape its organization and daily routine. Refer to App. A-9 for more information about EFQM’s Excellence Model. After so much investment into quality applications, it is no surprise that Nokia grew into one of the most successful technological organizations