Nokia

Nokia Mission

Nokia’s mission is simple: “Connecting People. Our goal is to build great mobile products that enable billions of people worldwide to enjoy more of what life has to offer. Our challenge is to achieve this in an increasingly dynamic and competitive environment.” The mission of Nokia is to provide the customers with the durable, economic, stylish and reliable cell phones with better features of common use. Nokia believes that connecting is about helping to feel closer with others no matter of the distance. By using
technology to make people feel close to what matter, then growth will follow, everyone can be connected, a very human approach to technology. ?

Analysis of stakeholder

Minimal Effort – People in this level are used to have low power places few demands on the products comments and stakeholder management, like customers who are not using Nokia product, they might not give a new try.

Keep Informed- People in this level are used to have a high interest in what you are doing, but relatively low power, like employees, they are work for this company, might have plenty of ideas, but low power of make a new change.

Keep Satisfied – People in this level are used to havea high level of power but low level of interest need to be kept satisfied, like government, they have high level of power to control your operation, in this way company have try to maintain the plans to make this level of stakeholders satisfied.

Manage Closely – People in this level are used to have the key focus of your stakeholder management time and effort, like owners, managers, they will control the whole organize operation.

Identification of existing strategies

Nokia plans to form a strategic partnership with Microsoft to build a global mobile ecosystem based on highly complementary assets. The Nokia-Microsoft ecosystem targets to deliver differentiated and innovative products and have unrivalled scale, product breadth, geographical reach, and brand identity. With Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform, Nokia would help drive the future of the platform by leveraging its expertise on hardware optimization, software customization, language support and scale. Nokia and Microsoft would also combine services assets to drive innovation. One of the planshas a broad strategic partnership with Microsoft to build a new global mobile ecosystem; Windows Phone would serve as Nokia’s primary smartphone platform. Also, renewed approach to capture volume and value growth to connect “the next billion” to the Internet in developing growth markets. Try to expand the market that by having now, to create more value.

Focused investments in next-generation disruptive technologies, try to raise more capital to have develop on their product; or to innovate a new product to have a perfect competition with others competitors. A new leadership team and organizational structure with a clear focus on speed, results and accountability, try to get a group of people intensive to make a corrective of their product, minimize the error, and make something unique. The renewed governance will expedite decision-making and improve time-to-market of products and innovations, placing a heavy focus on results, speed and accountability. The new strategy and operational structure are expected to have significant impact to Nokia operations and personnel. Read also where in business writing, the main idea of a written work should be located

Internal audit

Resources audit
Human resources: It’s about the skilled or unskilled staff in the company. Nokia do hire highly skilled staff to work on their nature of technology work and provide them a training, to keep them updates and opportunities of program developers who can work from home to compete in a competition to win prices and even offer those jobs.

Physical resources: These kinds of resources of company can be seen in the form of building, equipment and factories all around the world.

Intangible resources: Nokia has many trademarks which are worth a lot. It’s because Nokia has a strong brand name among his competitors and loyal customers.

Competences

Competences of the company are the things of that hard to trace like customers loyalty or customers behavior. It will be changed by time to time. Nowadays, a lots of company are trying to get better than Nokia, in this way, Nokia have to think a new ways to get the edge on its competitors by introducing a new product to the existing market and also selling the new product to the new market, which is hard to trace and trying to give most for consumers money.

Corporate culture

Nokia is the market leader of mobile industry in India. Nokia is multinational company. The official business language of Nokia is English. All documentation is written in English, and is used in official intra-company spoken communication and e-mail. Nokia corporate culture is one of the company’s strategic and competitive advantages. Even the company’s catch phrase, `Connecting People’, is symbolic of the culture, and helps define the purpose of its physical facilities. The company’s buildings feature lots of natural wood, large windows, warm colors and fabrics, open floor plans, pedestrian bridges, game/recreation areas, fitness centers and saunas. From the beginning, Nokia has been develop a phone that can call in and call out, which made people live more easily, and done what they said, “connecting people”, Nokia really helping others to get closer. By time-to-time, mobile are more developed, which can be send text massages, reply e-mail, and more and more go on. A few years ago, Nokia are killed by the touch screen mobile marking, which is I-phone, its make their sales drops a lots, under the plans, they have to face to the new market, try to develop their phone as in touch screen, its surprise a lot people , made their company work brand stronger as before. They had achieve making things that suit best customers randomly response to change in customers’ needs, which is two more steps than others.

Value chain

Nokia is being a leader of mobile communications technology. Nokia must carry out value chain as a function and a crucial tool in corporate strategy of Nokia. The purpose of Nokia to labor development and sustainability of the wide mobility industry. It endeavors to reach people via innovative and user friendly mobile phones, tools and solutions for imagination. Being in front of its competitors and informed with the changing needs of Nokia’s customers is holding Nokia in front of mobile industry. Changes in the international business view can affect the value chain of Nokia during the next 5 years. It can be thought as matter as well value chain is not include consisted of the individual business just. It also concerns to the supply chains and distribution works. Telecom operators exert control in distribution, sales and marking. They might affect the total sales of the Smartphone’s, its might the part of the value chain for strategic analysis. Also, they device specific 3G plans for the each mobile manufacturer bundle the plan along with the Smartphone, and sell it through their distribution channel. And then the Smartphone will be set up and load full of data, and the telecom operators are willing to sell the Smartphone to increase their sales.

Summary of what delivers competitive advantage

Nokia has competitive advantage over Apple, as Apple’s I-Phones can’t connect to the newest networks of most European carriers. That creates a potential opening for Nokia as it seeks to claw back lost market share with new phones that can take full advantage of the fastest networks.Nokia is its ability to manufacture user-friendly mobile phones, the strong brand name Nokia, ability to successfully build Joint Ventures and the ability to use economics of scale. Nokia is the market leader in most of the markets across the work and as result is facing renewed competition from a variety of mobile manufacturers. Nokia needs to develop marketing strategy for each key segment of mobile users in order to face the competition.

Summary of Key strengths and weaknesses

The Strengths of Nokia, Nokia has long established identity, and lots of available resource like financial, which help their company develop. Also, they had huge market share in mobile sector. A perfect world-class research, design and engineering team as their back up. A global relationship with all major phone companies worldwide increase their well-known. A strong management team, has go through many crises, made them experience enough to handle the unexpected situation, the world’s fifth most valuable brand rated, made them more valuable. The weakness of Nokia, Nokia will likely be late in developing newly generation phone, its cause they can have the first mover advantages. High price of the product offered by the company, unbalanced price with others competitors with their similar product. Some of the product is not user friendly, might loss of customers. Their design to market takes more time than others, competitors might have chance to chase up. External audit

Remote Environment

Political environment are usually considered as one because they are enforced by the nation’s government. It is vital for Nokia’s operation because different nations with their respective government have different rules and regulation. Nokia operating on global level must have to stick with the ground rules and regulation in different markets. The way to be success, Nokia is limiting the scope of the Nokia investigation to isolate the prohibited act, regulations and assistance from the government in order to resist the international trade. Use and abuse of copyright law to keep Nokia mobile future, intrusion or misuse of its products for any space limitations Nokia, the Economic system is crucial, because it can control the organization of production, how to produce and recipients who should use their high-end product categories. International trade is important, Nokia’s global suppliers, on the other hand, knowledge about the country’s economic situation is equally important to improve entrepreneurship together to achieve personal and financial security of future plans. As incomes rise, people have more disposable income, so that consumers have more selective with their choice of mobile phone, looking into other factors, rather than meet the most basic needs of users (text messages and phone ) and prices, such a critical factor. Social and cultural, Nokia in a diverse cultural and social class levels simply because of the different models are often released to satisfy all individuals, despite their race, nationality, religion, income level or the difference between faiths.

Phone can be easily adapted to any kind of culture that can be used to support different aspects and existing models, the individual’s lifestyle or behavior. Telecommunications consumers are increasingly important, both in work and leisure. Users are more aware of the choice of mobile phone handsets and progress, due to increased information availability. Technology in mobile phones definition, we contact manner. It not only helps shape the culture, but also changed other aspects of internal and / or external organizations such as the need to upgrade the device to connect better end product manufacturing. Nokia’s success is based on human technology innovation. Nokia through enhanced communication, explore new ways to exchange information, connecting people, allowing users to get more out of life. Environmental factors, the climate and the weather change might affect the Nokia industries. The growing awareness to climate change its affecting how Nokia industry operate new models and the product-its is both creating the new market and diminishing or destroy the existing one. Legal factors, it’s including the different ground of law, like discrimination law, employment law…etc; it does can be affect Nokia. Operating environment

Microenvironment affected customers, employees, shareholders and competitors of internal factors. Nokia’s micro-environmental assessment is the best mode of Porter’s five forces model, because it need to be considered competitors, customers, suppliers and new entrants.

Threat of new entrants:

Nokia currently holds 29% of the global market for the entire mobile phone, a new competitor, and the market will get some of their own to take a very long-term plan or something that is truly innovative and unprecedented. This is because the reality of the new entrants will require a very high investment, R ; D and marketing, will be unable to publish positive results for a long time, because they are trying to build customer base and a name for himself, in a given market.

In short, the threat of new entrants is very low, rather than a factor that Nokia will have to worry about in the near future. Power of suppliers:

Nokia’s main argument is the fact that they are a global organization in the industry the highest market share, so the supplier does not want to lose such an outstanding organization. On the other hand, Nokia recently for their software will be considered a major coup over Microsoft Nokia and Microsoft alliance. Therefore, Microsoft will have a lot of power, because the deal when negotiating the price and market share, Nokia is more favorable than Microsoft.

In short, there is a moderate threat, from the supplier’s power, because although hardware vendors have very low power consumption, Microsoft in the software’s power is very high, because they are few other organizations have the expertise and skills comparable Microsoft. Powers of buyers:

The mobile phone industry is a highly competitive market; the number of choices is very extensive, causing consumers to have great power, because they can choose to go to one of Nokia’s many competitors, if they feel that Nokia is not good enough. Nokia does not sell directly to consumers in stores, making it difficult for them to sell Nokia phones have a direct impact. So this has created a very price sensitive market, because consumers are always looking for the best price.

In short, the buyers have a high amount of power, because they can buy another phone instead of Nokia. Threats of substitute’s products:

Mobile phones have become a necessity in daily life, in the life of the people, because they can do, is just one important feature of the phone. No other products have the ability to make calls, send messages, surf the Web and more in a single device. In constant communication with someone at any time and any place the idea of people making the phone a very important device. On the other hand, the mobile phone can be broken down into key function, there may be substituted, they can do a better job than the camera on a digital camera features such as a camera on a mobile phone alternative mobile phone functions.

In short, due to the fact that a cell phone is no longer just make calls, but all other functions, as well as expected on the phone at all threat of substitute products is very low. So, the only real alternative is to buy a cell phone all the features of the individual products would not be reasonable for a person at the same time around. No mobile phone consumers will find it very difficult to replace, because it can provide so many consumers in a piece of equipment, no matter what the needs of consumers. Many consumers rely on mobile phones will not be able to find a substitute, has all the features of the mobile phone. Competitive rivalry:

Competitive competition is very high, and Nokia must understand the threat of competitors, especially for their business growing popularity of Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry. Competitiveness Nokia is the biggest competitive threat, because in the smartphone market, they are very backward, increasing its market share, will require a lot of works in the market some of the biggest names in the business operations, such as Apple
and Sony.

Boston Matrix

Stars: appliances (a appliances use for the Smartphone)
Question Marks: LCD (The type of television)
Cash Cows: Mobile phones and telecommunications (The type of Smartphone) Dogs: oil ; gas division

Summary of Key opportunities and threats

Opportunity factors of Nokia, Nokia has the opportunity to increase their presence in the code division multiple access market, which they are just entering as well as 3G. There is a possibility to grow in new countries like India or other small countries. Also, they have growing replacement advantage and also, supplement television market. Threat factors of Nokia, Nokia was among the latest mobile phone companies who created the 3G, so there is a risk that to be displaced by competitors like LG, Motorola etc…

Identify strategic option

Nokia-centric product line diversification multidimensional matrix that different strategic options, as well as new and existing products, new and existing markets to provide part of the strategy of choice. Choice depends on the company’s focus or priority. This choice involves the sale of existing products and new markets to develop new products that enable Nokia to respond to market expansion strategy. Another activity is the introduction of new products in the market based on the current market context, problem solving strategies to ensure the continuity of the replacement cycle. Many from outside the industry enterprises to enter the mobile phone industry, such as Microsoft and Apple (2008) diversification. Nokia can do the same to diversify into other sectors, and use their technical ability to develop new products and take advantage of its brand value, its existing marketing and promotion of these new products. Nokia choose this strategy because it is already built into the technological innovation capability, and has strong brand equity.

However, this could be very feasible, acceptable, because different products in the business market uncertainty risk. This is like a thin across different industries considers Nokia has complicated the strategic direction and management resources scattered. However, there are concerns implementation needs to ensure a successful accrual of benefits and prevent possible shortcomings. Achieve problem-solving part of the acquired business units and adjust the resistance. Although this is a much smaller problem, which may affect the results of implementation of the strategy.

This means that after the acquisition phase of Nokia, the effective integration of new business units, as part of the company to ensure a smooth transition. Finally, the implementation of resource management is another problem. Nokia chose thorough, focused on technological innovation, will help the company in the short and long-term major business units. This means that the acquired business units should strengthen Nokia’s existing capacity important capabilities, helping the company’s future innovation with a promising potential. Nokia achieve continuous accumulation return, it is necessary.

References

(2011), Nokia’s mission is simple: Connecting People… Available from: http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/about-us/about-us/ [Accessed: August 28, 2013].

(2011), Nokia plans to form a strategic partnership with Microsoft to… Available from: http://press.nokia.com/2011/02/11/nokia-outlines-new-strategy-introduces-new-leadership-operational-structure/ [Accessed: August 28, 2013].

(2011), Strategy . Available from: http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/investors/events/sfb/strategy-and-financial-briefings/ [Accessed: August 28, 2013].

Corporate culture of nokia (2011). Retrieved September 12, 2013 from http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/akchauhan-1191559-nokia-culture/ Competences (2011). Retrieved September 24, 2013 from http://http://www.indt.org/category/about/competences/?lang=en

Nokia’s official corporate culture manifesto (2012). Retrieved September 24, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia#Corporate_culture Nokia is the market leader of mobile industry in India. Nokia is multinational company (2012). Retrieved September 24, 2013 from http://zh.scribd.com/doc/33100253/Corporate-Culture-nokia Nokia is being a

Introduction

In the summer of 2006, the global competitive landscape in which Nokia was operating was changing at an astoundingly fast pace. Market growth was shifting to emerging countries, mobile devices were being commoditized, handset prices were declining, networks were combining (Nokia had just merged its own networks infrastructure business with that of Siemens, forming Nokia Siemens Networks, or NSN), Microsoft and Apple were making moves toward mobile devices, new technologies were being developed, and new strategic opportunities were arising as mobile phones were becoming the gateway to the Internet.

To win in such a fast-paced and intensely competitive environment, the company had to move with speed and do a superb job of satisfying consumers. Decision-making would have to occur at the lowest possible level to reflect the peculiarities of the local markets while leveraging the power of Nokia’s diverse people, its brand, its financial resources, and its technology and design expertise. Collaboration between locals and headquarters and among multiple cultures and partners was paramount.

Nokia conducted extensive interviews with people inside and outside the company, including partners and suppliers, to understand how Nokia was perceived and how it might have to change. That research informed a number of actions and renewed the focus on Nokia’s culture and, in particular, its values. From Paper Mill to Conglomerate to Global Brand Nokia, headquartered in Espoo, near Helsinki, Finland, is the world’s largest mobile handset manufacturer. It holds some 40 percent of the global device market as of the second quarter of 2008.

It operates in 150 countries and had more than 117,000 employees, including NSN, as of late June 2008. It is the top-rated brand globally. Annual revenues for 2007 were $74. 6 billion (51. 1 billion euros). The company began in the late 1800s as a paper mill, then evolved into a diversified industrial company and was an early entrant in the mobile era in the 1980s. In the 1990s, CEO Jorma Ollila restructured the conglomerate to focus on mobile phones and telecommunications, and Nokia became the technology and market leader, starting first in Europe, then expanding to the United States and dozens of other 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa 1 developed and emerging economies, including China and India. In the early 2000s, Nokia was briefly challenged by Motorola and Samsung but was able to maintain and soon to increase the lead. In 2006, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (OPK, as he is known at Nokia) became CEO. Nokia’s strategy at that time was changed to cover both the mobile device market as well as services and software. In 2007, Nokia announced that it would become more like an Internet company.

Transforming the Culture for the New Challenges

As Nokia’s leaders pondered what would hold people together and enhance collaboration and speed across their large global company, they arrived at an answer—culture, of which values had long been a foundation. Values align people’s hearts and emotional energy and define how Nokia employees (“Nokians”) do business with each other and the rest of the world.

Because Nokia’s existing values had been unchanged for more than a decade and research showed there was some ambivalence about them internally, the executive board, comprised of the CEO and about a dozen senior leaders, decided it was time to re-examine the values. OPK selected a team of people to create a process for doing so. The challenge to the team was to get all the people of Nokia intellectually engaged. In keeping with Nokia’s culture, the values would have to be the result of “the many” communicating with “the many. ” Assigning this task was not trivial.

It required that senior management be committed to live with the outcome. The values that emerged from the bottom up would have to be taken seriously and stick—or the organization would be seriously harmed. As the team got to work and explored the options, they determined that the best approach would be to combine high tech and high touch. The high-tech part of the values-creation process would be through the “Nokia Jam”—using IBM’s Jamming technology that would allow all Nokians to engage in an online dialogue. The hightouch part would come through the use of the World Cafe methodology.

The World Cafe methodology had sprung up in the mid 1990s to accommodate a large group of people from diverse disciplines and far-flung locations around the world who wanted to discuss issues of common interest. That group was known as the Intellectual Capital Partners. To create an informal conversation among so many people, participants were divided into small groups seated around tables to discuss a given question. The groups would then repeatedly disperse and individuals would rotate to other tables, so ideas were disseminated, cross-pollinated and combined.

As the conversations continued, facilitators compiled the ideas that emerged. The World Cafe methodology had been used in some small pockets within Nokia but had never been tried on a companywide scale. The concept was right, but it was impractical for all 50,000-plus Nokians to directly engage in a dialogue. So the idea emerged to have a subset of people from across Nokia get together to discuss Nokia values with a totally clean slate, as if they were recreating Nokia on the planet Mars.

became the metaphor for assembling a cross-section of Nokians to participate in the World Cafe format and create the new values. Nokia’s Trip to Mars Nokia produced 5,000 elegant, visually exciting invitations that looked like boarding passes and airline tickets. These were sent in bundles through snail mail to people at various organizational levels and functional areas, including HR, in each of the business units. The instruction to the recipients was to find a way to randomly distribute their bundle to people in their offices and factories whom they would trust to have a discussion about Nokia’s values and culture.

The recipients could also keep a ticket for themselves. Each ticket was in a “wallet” that described what Nokia was doing. It stated the current values and gave instructions for how to proceed, first by going to the Nokia Way web site to learn more and to register for a cafe in their local area. Participants also got two luggage tags, which they were supposed to discuss with their colleagues beforehand: a green one, which represented the values or ideas Nokia should be sure to take with it as the company moved forward, and a gray one, for things that could be left behind.

Nokia held 16 cafes in 60 days around the world. More than 100 employees representing a cross-section of Nokia attended each one. The day of the cafe, small groups discussed a predetermined set of questions. One person served as host and stayed at the table while everyone else rotated to other tables, eventually returning to their original spots. People had taken the preparation very seriously and interviewed their teams ahead of time; some brought stacks of paper with various notes and ideas. As the discussions took place, ideas began to emerge and converge.

Facilitators captured them graphically and in written scripts. The outputs from each cafe were then uploaded to the Nokia Way web site, and everyone at Nokia had access to it and was invited to comment. Several thousand more employees were able to participate in the dialogue through the means of the web site, giving their opinions and making suggestions and sometimes asking questions they hoped the next cafe would address. The sessions were also videotaped and edited into short video blogs that were so funny and engaging that they logged approximately 30,000 visits.

The video blogs, too, elicited comments from fellow Nokians. The mix of people attending the cafes was just what Nokia’s executive team had hoped for: an assortment of people from offices and factories and from every functional area and organizational level. The cafe process allowed those diverse viewpoints to be heard. Engineers said Nokia needed greater tolerance for risk, for instance, while marketing people wanted more stability. In the process, it broke down biases and misconceptions and began to build social bonds. “Latin Americans were not the only people with emotions! one participant commented. Another said: “At first it felt like I couldn’t even find a common language with my Mexican MBA marketing colleagues in Nokia. It was exciting when we found a common language and vision, and everybody was on board. ” As the cafes took place, four values began to emerge. These were to be presented to the top 30 leaders at the final global cafe to be held in Helsinki. But instead of writing them on a PowerPoint slide, the values were presented in a way that was experiential.

Representatives from each of the Nokia Way cafes were chosen to attend, and on day one of the Helsinki cafe, they got together and brainstormed how to make the values come alive. They recreated some of the skits, songs and visual aids their local cafes had generated to express the thoughts and feelings that underlay the values. The representatives from the Finnish cafes built a bird’s nest and a sauna in the hotel meeting room to represent Nokia’s passion for innovation (the bird’s nest was for the hatching of ideas, the sauna to represent the fire of passion).

The next day, the group made their presentation to the senior leaders, and after some discussion, the four values that had came out of the cafe process were affirmed. OPK, who, like many Finnish people, was ordinarily quite reserved, was visibly moved by the intensity and sincerity of the feelings expressed. He felt as though he could hear the voices of Nokians around the world, and he, too, wholeheartedly supported the values. He asked that a representative present them to a group of 150 top leaders that was meeting three or four weeks later as part of the annual Strategy Sharing process.

The group selected Ganeas Dorairaju, a native Malaysian who had been working in Finland for the past decade, to represent them. He stood in front of the top leaders and explained the values and the process by which they were created. At the end of it, the audience gave him a standing ovation. One leader wondered if the values could be turned into a catchy tune. Soon after, an employee teamed up with her husband and did just that!

Nokia’s New Values

Nokia’s new values and the explanation of them are as follows: achieving together. Achieving together is more than collaboration and partnership.

As well as trust, it involves sharing, the right mind-set and working in formal and informal networks. engaging You. For us, ‘engaging you’ incorporates the customer satisfaction value and deals with engaging all our stakeholders, including employees, in what Nokia stands for in the world. Passion for Innovation. Passion for innovation is based on a desire we have to live our dreams, to find our courage and to make the leap into the future through innovation in technology, ways of working and through understanding the world around us. Very Human.

Being very human encompasses what we offer customers, how we do business, how we work together, and the impact of our actions and behavior on people and the environment. It is about being very human in the world—making things simple, respecting and caring. In short, our desire is to be a very human company. The world cafe process generated values that are different and more open-ended than most companies’. As leaders at Nokia note, the values require discussion.

People might not know right away what “very human” means, but once people start to discuss it within the context of Nokia, it becomes very clear. People do, in fact, have those discussions. They use them to say, “Hold on a minute, is this engaging you? Are we meeting that value in what we’re doing? ” ‘Very Human’ is closely associated with technology; it reflects the fact that Nokia has to develop devices that are easy to use. And ‘Achieving Together’ is about customers and suppliers as well as fellow Nokia employees. ‘Achieving Together’ also helps remove the fear associated with being an industry pioneer.

The values are aspirational but also model what was already working well at Nokia. In India, for instance, where Nokia has built a dominant market position of some 75 million subscribers in a very short time, the values were evident before they had been articulated, which likely influenced the input of the three cafes conducted in that country. One of the key factors that drove business success in India was the distribution system, which Nokia and its business partner, ATL, built from scratch when large consumer electronics retailers declined to carry mobile phones because of their low margins.

Working together to find an alternative, Nokia and ATL hit on the idea to mimic the small (sometimes just 5 x 5 feet) kiosks that are found in villages across India from which vendors sell fruits and vegetables. They recruited individuals interested in running their own kiosks, trained them and ensured they would have products in the right quantities and at the right margins for those vendors to make a living. The Nokia team wanted to be sure that whatever arrangement they designed would benefit Nokia, ATL and the individual mobile phone vendors.

That way, they would Achieve Together. The Nokia team in India—a mix of native Indians and technology and other experts from such far-flung Nokia locations as Finland, China and Indonesia—collaborated in listening to and observing people in various parts of India to understand their needs. Their approach was collaborative and Very Human. As a member of the leadership team in Nokia India explains, “One thing that Nokia prides itself on is that it is not arrogant. That comes across in every interaction. People never take for granted that they know everything. Because of conditions in parts of the country, Indians needed a mobile device that was dustproof and didn’t slip out of sweaty hands. They wanted a device that could be an alarm clock, radio and flashlight (or “torch”) as well as a phone. Nokia’s Passion for Innovation drove the team to find the technology solutions Indians needed. Nokia found that the process of creating values itself had merit. It allowed the many to connect with the many and demonstrated that heterarchy was more important than hierarchy.

It captured Nokia employees’ understanding of the challenges they were facing personally and organizationally and their desire to create an organization that could meet them. It also reflected the spirit of bonding across cultures, functions and silos. As a member of the executive team says, “It is proof that a strong global corporate culture is possible. ” The next order of business was to track the effectiveness of the values. To that end, the company has created a number of vehicles.

Nokia includes values in its annual employee survey, “Listening to You,” and made them a key part of the change pulse survey it undertook during a recent reorganization. The suggestion arose to have pictures to demonstrate the new values, so the company staged an employee competition for photos that represent the values. Photos were posted online, and employees voted for their favorite. The top prize went to a quality manager in one of Nokia’s Chinese factories, who got to accompany Nokia’s brand people on a photo shoot in Paris.

Given the quality of Nokia’s artistic skills, it was a choice prize. More than 22,000 employees took part in the competition, and Nokia has a rich bank of photographs to represent the new values. Nokians now are learning to create 90-second films that tell how values are making a difference in their work. These films can be uploaded to a video hub where fellow employees can view them. As of October 2008, more than 60 films had been uploaded to the internal VideoHub, and they have had over 50,000 viewings.

Teaching Notes

Global companies require the alignment of their employees and partners not only on the strategy itself but also on the values needed to make that strategy successful. Values reflect and shape corporate culture. A shift in strategy often requires a shift in values. The Nokia case explores the connection between values, strategy, and the collaboration, innovation, speed and flexibility that are required for Nokia to succeed. Nokia is a very large company, with one of the highest brand recognitions in the world. It has the rare ability to design a new strategy and reshape its culture to deliver the strategy at the same time.

The Nokia case describes Nokia’s social process for achieving alignment on values—a component of corporate culture—across geographies, silos and hierarchical levels. The learning objectives of the case are as follows:

• To concretely demonstrate one way to build a workforce receptive to crossfunctional, cross-cultural teaming that can therefore make fast, high-quality decisions and increase the organization’s flexibility.
• To probe and deepen understanding of the relationships between strategy, culture, values and business outcomes.
• To encourage participants to brainstorm alternative ways to engage employees and accomplish similar results.
• To challenge participants to think critically about whether Nokia’s approach to creating values can apply to other business issues.

The case is appropriate for graduate students in higher-level HR courses and for HR professionals at the highest levels. The classroom instructor might want to pose the following questions for discussion:

• Why did company management choose values as a foundation for taking the culture to the next level?

Nokia needs collaboration because it must routinely leverage its technology platforms, global brand and manufacturing footprint, experience base in multiple countries, and in-depth knowledge of consumers and the marketplace.

While individuals must have some degree of freedom to act, they cannot know everything or understand in depth all of the implications of various trade-offs that must be made in the ordinary course of business. As people come together to exchange information and make trade-offs, they must also have a common glue to hold them together. Values can be a uniting factor; they can be the glue. In the process of creating values, discussions touch on other topics, such as strategy, management style, opportunities, competition, priorities, and the inadequacies of organizational structure and reward systems.

Values can fill in the gaps or provide what formal mechanisms miss—for instance, they can support open communication outside of formal reporting relationships.

• What is your view about the four values the cafe approach produced?

Note that they are few in number—four instead of 12. They describe the kind of company many people would like to work for. They can be applied in the real world and are relevant to any job function or organizational level. They are in keeping with requirements for Nokia to succeed.

They capture the sense of higher purpose and human dignity people long for in their personal and work lives and therefore encourage positive, authentic behavior.

• How do Nokia’s values compare with those of your company? Graduate students can compare with a company they are familiar with or one the instructor presents.

One option is to look at the values of a competitor—for instance, Apple, given that Apple is now going into the cell phone business. Consider whether people “connect” with the values, or whether the values are too abstract or too generic to be meaningful. How many are there? Are they actually practiced? Do they relate to company strategy?

• How will Nokia’s values help execute the change in business strategy?

The process and content of the values build trust, making people more receptive to information and ideas from elsewhere in the company. Information flows are likely to be nonhierarchical. Nokia should therefore be able to innovate and respond to change better and quicker. Take, for example, the value “achieving together. ” This value is now fully socialized at all levels in the company.

It gives a lower-level person the freedom to call a higher-level person for collaboration and expertise where needed. By reinforcing this behavior, the values help break hierarchies, silos and other barriers. Concisely define the behaviors that were stimulated through the cafe approach at Nokia. What information channels got opened? Individuals took time to think about the company and how it does and should operate. They expressed their ideas, knowing their ideas could have wide visibility and make a difference.

Before attending the cafes, people sought input from their peers. Participants listened to the views from many other employees. They sought commonality among the viewpoints. They experimented with creative ways to express their ideas. Employees became excited about the company and renewed their emotional commitment to it. Information flowed across boundaries. Because participation in the value creation process required no special knowledge, every participant was on equal footing, including newer employees, whose fresh ideas and energy got released.

Thus, information flowed up even from some of the youngest Nokians, who represent the future of Nokia.

• What’s your evaluation of the social process for engaging thousands of employees across the globe in defining the values?

It was an efficient way to engage a broad, diverse set of people. The ready acceptance of the values (the output) indicates that the process was effective. It mirrored the patterns of communication and cooperation in a matrix organization.

• What does Nokia’s cafe process say about its senior leaders?

The senior leaders were secure about their role in the company and heir personal power. Once they committed to the process, they had to be prepared to accept the output. They also had confidence in Nokia employees. They were willing to “let go. ” Senior management of any company should not feel insecure about the outcome of the bottom-up process. Because the process is open, it has built-in sincerity. People want to do the right thing. Also, broad participation is a check against a few radicals who want their way.

• If Nokia were to use the cafe process again in 2010, what change in values would you anticipate?

The outstanding goal of this process is to produce a set of values that are enduring. If the company were to do it again, the values themselves might not be very different, but they might be deepened or tweaked because people will have examples of how they have been used, or not used. The exception is if Nokia were to make a 180-degree change in strategy direction. Then some new values might be needed. If such new values did not emerge through this process, consider whether the strategy shift will succeed.

Also consider how the outcome might be different if some regions are far more successful than others going forward, and how working relationships might be affected. Consider, too, the values of younger people who will be entering the workforce around that time. The instructor needs to press participants on how concrete the values are, how engaged the people are, what are the pros and cons of having values cascade upward, why this process generates energy, and how management can measure whether the values are indeed being practiced and having the intended results.

The instructor can jumpstart discussion by dividing the class into eight small groups and having each group discuss one of Nokia’s four values, addressing the following: If the group participants were the leaders, how would they ensure that the value takes deep roots and builds a superb social fabric while at the same time improving business results? The instructor may choose to broaden the discussion to explore issues around new theories of organization and management, such as Enterprise 2. 0 and the use of Web 2. technologies that promise to overcome the bureaucracy associated with hierarchy and make the organization more agile and productive. What some people refer to as Enterprise 2. 0 or depict as a flat organization includes the direct exchange of information among people at lower organizational levels and bottom-up decisionmaking. Nokia’s value-creation process is representative of this new way of engaging employees and doing business. The following questions can prompt discussion:

• Is there a negative side to mass participation, or connecting the many to the many?

Lack of knowledge or commitment can cause people to generate bad ideas that nonetheless gain momentum. Senior management will appear to be heavy-handed if it derails or ignores them. The major risk is when management is not trusted by employees, is erratic or seen as incompetent. Under those conditions, this process will fail. If that failure gets the attention of the board, which in this day and age is likely, the board might well insist on a change in management. Good management should learn from anything that comes in that does not match their expectations.

In what situations, or for what issues, does a cafe-type approach work or not work? Any time a new leader is starting to take charge of a unit or company, cafe-type approach is a fantastic tool to energize and align people and hear what’s on their minds. This could be used to generate ideas around any particular topic—for instance, to gather ideas for coping with the global financial crisis. Do you think employees want to weigh in on all issues? In this knowledge worker society, tapping everybody’s brain and energy can create momentum and be a competitive advantage. People want to participate.

There may be some managers who don’t want to hear what people have to say. The blockage tends to be from management, not the employees. n n 10 © 2009 Society for Human resource Management. Geraldine Willigan, MBa n How do you know if the masses are generating a better or more authentic solution than a smaller number of experts? The adoption and application will reveal the validity of the solution. Let’s remind everybody that “experts” are also employees. All experts can learn from the front lines. Experts also can be narrow. An open process will surface those conflicts in point of view.

In a fast-moving, highly volatile environment, it is hugely important to draw those conflicts to the surface and get them resolved. Even if the outcome is not better in some absolute sense, it will be better accepted. to what extent does engagement affect business performance? How can you measure it? An employee audit or pulse survey are common tools to measure engagement as well as perception of business performance beyond financial numbers. Have people shown more commitment? In this case, the value of achieving together might be evident in shorter decision cycle times.

References

1. Lawler, E. E. III, & Worley, C. G. (2006). Built to change: How to achieve sustained organizational effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
2. Shirkey, C. (2008). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin.
3. Charan, R. (2007). Know-how: The 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t. New York: Crown Business.
4. McGregor, D. (2005). The human side of enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hamel, G. (2007). The future of management. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
5. Goldsmith, M. (2007). What got you here won’t get you there: How successful people become even more successful. New York: Hyperion. 2009 Society for Human resource Management.
6. Geraldine Willigan, MBa endnotes 1 For more on the history of Nokia, see “The Story of Nokia” on the Nokia website, www. nokia. com/a4303001.
7. www. theworldcafe. com /reading. htm. Nokia’s earlier values are as follows: 2003
8. Andrew P. McAfee. (2006, Spring). Enterprise 2. 0: The dawn of emergent collaboration. MIT Sloan Management Review. 2009
9. www. shrm. org/education/hreducation/pages/cases. aspx.
10. www. shrm. org/join. 1800 Duke Street Alexandria, VA 22314-3499

Samsung History :

Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company.Over the next three decades the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and ship building industries in the mid-1970s, these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Samsung Electronics Established in January, 1969.

Following Lee’s death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Since the 1990s Samsung has increasingly globalized its activities, and electronics, particularly mobile phones and semiconductors, have become its most important source of income. In 1986, Samsung was able to release its first built-in car phone, the SC-100, but it was a failure due to the poor quality. After 2 years of R;D Samsung developed its first mobile phone (or “hand phone” in Korea), the SH-100 in 1988.

It was the first mobile phone to be designed and manufactured in Korea. In November 1993, the development team finally unveiled a new model, the SH-700. This model was quite remarkable. It weighed less than any other company’s models, the design was compact, and its quality was substantially improved over previous models. Each product manufactured was tested piece-by-piece to assure perfect quality. In October 1994, the SH-770 was introduced under the brand name “Anycall”. It was a result of the marketing team’s effort at brand-building. The model was an upgraded version of the SH-700, with a few changes in design and improvements in product quality. Samsung developed its first CDMA mobile phone in March 1996, to coincide with the launch of CDMA service.

The first digital handset, the SCH-100. In 1999, The first GSM model was the SGH-200, which was made for European customers. But it was not as good as the company’s CDMA phone. In Sept 2000 Samsung launched the SPH-M100 that brought together for the first time the mobile phone and MP3 player and integrated storage.It had 64 MB of data storage that provided for around 1 hour play-time. It commanded an initial price of $400. Samsung has a powerful influence on South Korea’s economic development, politics, media and culture, and has been a major driving force behind the “Miracle on the Han River”.

Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea’s total exports. Samsung’s revenue was equal to 17% of South Korea’s $1,082 billion GDP. In 2013, Samsung began construction on building the world’s largest mobile phone factory in the Thai Nguyen province of Vietnam. “Samsung handset prices range from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 50,000 and come in varied screen sizes. These two factors helped the company grab customer’s attention, besides the product quality and new features,” Company History In India

Samsung Electronics commenced its operations in India in December 1995 ans is today a leading provider of Consumer Electronics, IT and Telecom Products in the Indian market. Samsung India is the Regional Headuaters for Samsung’s South West Asia operations, Which provides emoployment to ove 8000 employees with around 6000 employees being involved in R;D. In 2010, Samsung India acheived a sales turnover of US$ 3.5 Billion.

Samsung began operations in India through its manufacturing complex located at Noida (U.P). Which today houses facilities for Colour Televisions (Including 3D, LED, and LCD Televisions), Mobile Phomes, Refrigerators, Washing Machines and Split Air Conditioners categories. Samsung commenced operations of its second state of the art manufacturing complex at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu in November 2007. Today Sriperumbudur facility manufactures Colour Televisions, Fully Automatic Front Loading Washing Machines, Refrigerators and Split Air Conditioners. Samsung India has two R;D Centres in India – at Delhi and Bangalore.

While the Delhi R;D Centre develops softwares solutions for hi-end televisions such as Plasma TVs, LCD TVs and Digital Media Products, the Bangalore R;D Centre works on major projects for Samsung Electronics in the area of telecom, wireless terminals and infrastructures, Networking, SOC (System on Chip) Digital Printing and Other Multimedia/digital mesia as well as application software. Samsung India is a market leader in Product categories like LED TVs, LCD TVs, Slim TVs and Side by Side Refrigerators. While it is the largest mobile handset brand in India, it leads in the smart phone segments in India. Samsung India has won seveeral awards and recognitions for both its corporate initiatives as well as its product innovations in audio visual, home appliance, IT and telecom products categories.

Nokia History :

Over the past 150 years, Nokia has evolved from a riverside paper mill in southwestern Finland to a global telecommunications leader connecting over 1.3 billion people. During that time, we’ve made rubber boots and car tires. We’ve generated electricity. We’ve even manufactured TVs. Changing with the times, disrupting the status quo – it’s what we’ve always done. And we fully intend to keep doing it.In 1865, mining engineer Fredrik Idestam sets up his first wood pulp mill at the Tammerkoski Rapids in Southwestern Finland. A few years later he opens a second mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta river, which inspires him to name his company Nokia Ab in 1871.How apt that Nokia begins by making paper – one of the most influential communications technologies in history.

In 1987, GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is adopted as the European standard for digital mobile technology. With its high-quality voice calls, international roaming and support for text messages, GSM ignites a global mobile revolution. As a key player in developing this new technology, Nokia is able to take full advantage. In 1992, Nokia launches its first digital handheld GSM phone, the Nokia 1011. The memory could hold 99 phone numbers. In 1994, Nokia launches the 2100 series, the first phones to feature the Nokia Tune ringtone. Based on Gran Vals, a classical guitar piece composed by Francisco Tarrega in the 19th century, it is probably one of the most frequently played pieces of music in the world.

The Nokia 2100 series goes on to sell 20 million phones worldwide. Nokia’s target was 400,000.1994 also sees the world’s first satellite call, made using a Nokia GSM handset. In 1997, everybody knows their Snake high score. An instant classic, the addictive game is launched on the Nokia 6110, and by 2010 its successors are available on an estimated 350 million mobile phones. By 1998, Nokia is the world leader in mobile phones. The strategic decision to focus on telecommunications, plus the early investment in GSM, has paid off. Between 1996 and 2001, Nokia’s turnover increases almost fivefold from EUR 6.5 billion to EUR 31 billion. In 1999, Nokia launches the Nokia 7110, a phone capable of rudimentary web-based functions, including email. Then in November 2001 Nokia launches its first phone with a built-in camera, the Nokia 7650, and in September 2002 its first video capture phone, the Nokia 3650.

However, it’s when Nokia launches its first 3G phone (third generation), the Nokia 6650, in 2002 that things really take off. With 3G technology, phones can now be used to browse the web, download music, watch TV on the move, and more. In 2005, Nokia sells its billionth phone – a Nokia 1100 – in Nigeria, and global mobile phone subscriptions pass 2 billion. Two years later, Nokia is recognised as the 5th most valued brand in the world. In 2007, Nokia combined its telecoms infrastructure operations with those of Siemens to form a joint venture named Nokia Siemens Networks. NSN grows to become a leading global provider of telecommunications infrastructure, with a focus on offering innovative mobile broadband technology and services. In 2013, Nokia acquires Siemens’ 50% stake in NSN, which becomes Nokia Solutions and Networks, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nokia. In 2011, Nokia announces it is joining forces with Microsoft to strengthen its position in the smartphone market.

The strategic partnership sees Nokia smartphones adopt the Windows Phone operating system and establish an alternative ecosystem to rivals iOS and Android. Nokia also kicks off a sequence of changes designed to enable it to build better products, faster. These changes include a revitalization of Nokia’s company culture, where speed, accountability and results are central. Nokia launches its first Windows Phones, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710, in October 2011. Fast-forward to 2013 and Nokia has a full portfolio of great Windows Phone 8 smartphones, from the Lumia 520 through the award-winning Lumia 920 and the ground-breaking Lumia 1020, which enables photography never seen before in a smartphone. At the same time, the company continues to be committed to offering affordable phones which combine great design and an intuitive user interface with compelling, localized experiences.

The Asha line of devices are bestsellers in numerous countries around the globe. A company which has embraced change throughout its 150-year history looks to reinvent itself once again. In September 2013, Nokia announces that it has entered into an agreement with Microsoft whereby Microsoft would purchase substantially all Devices ; Services, the Nokia business which makes mobile phones and smartphones. The transaction is subject to approval by Nokia’s shareholders, regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.

Building on the partnership with Nokia and the increasing success of Nokia’s Lumia smartphones, Microsoft aims to accelerate the growth of its share and profit in mobile devices through faster innovation, increased synergies, and unified branding and marketing. For Nokia, the transaction is expected to be significantly accretive to earnings, strengthen its financial position, and provide a solid basis for future investment in its continuing businesses.

1)      Why has segmentation been a successful marketing strategy for Nokia?

Market segmentation is essentially a marketing tool which purpose is to “allow your marketing/sales program to focus on the subset of prospects that are “most likely” to purchase your offering” (www.businessplans.org). Nokia understands this very succinctly by offering different product groups to the different subsets of markets. They categorize consumer groups not only according to their usage needs but also the unique requirements of their different lifestyles. In order to succeed at obtaining this type of information, Nokia needed to be sensitive to subtle differences in market needs. That is the main reason why Nokia is successful in their marketing strategy.

2)      What customer characteristics were used by mobile phone marketers during the industry’s early stages of growth? Which customer characteristics and segmentation variables does Nokia use?

During the early stages of the industry’s growth, segmentation was done geographically. The initial practice was to start first from the United States, then to Europe then to Asia. This was the time when the Asian market did not overtake the market demand of the United States yet, since it was relatively untapped that time.

Today, Nokia used segmentation variables such as consumer usage, lifestyle, price sensitivity, and individual preferences. That is why Nokia divides its consumer market into six segments: Basic, Expression, Active, Classic, Fashion, and Premium. It also focuses on very specific product lines such as “Communicator”, basically an all-in-one phone with many features; and, “N-Gage”, which is basically a gaming platform.
3) Create a market-product grid for Nokia today. What potential new markets could you add to the grid?

Product
Description
Basic
1000-2000 series
Easy-to-use, low-priced
Expression
3000 series
Fun, interchangeable colors
Active
5000 series
Sports look
Classic
6000 series
Different useful features
Fashion
7000 series
“Show-off”
Premium
8000 series
Unique style and materials
New
9000 series
With built-in mini PC with GPS

Reference

http://www.businessplans.org/Segment.html

Nokia is one of the world’s leading mobile phone supplier as well as a leading supplier of mobile and fixed telecom networks that also includes customer services related to their supplies. Moreover, the company also allocates extensive time and resources in order to create standards and specifications for the communications industry. The company works for promoting standards that counterpart the need of the customers. Nokia is basically a consumer led company that continuously works to progress in making its customers involved with the technology and global communications.

One of the most vital modes of communication that is being adopted by the people today is to include the web and the social networks as the people want to stay connected with the world and this is what Nokia promises to its customers by continuously upgrading its technology.  Marketing relationship Marketing relationship is basically a form of direct marketing and it aims to retain the customers by focusing on the long term value of keeping the customers. Moreover, it also enhances the current customers and attracts new customers.

This is the reason why it is important to Nokia Corporation. In order to explore relationships for the case of Nokia Corporation, there are some theoretical frameworks that I would be using in this paper. Some of the relationships involved are internal and some are external and these include the suppliers and customers’ etc. along with some other special relationships such as green marketing and e-relationship, etc. Environmental issues are becoming very prevalent in today’s world.

The question is why the environment and its concerns are becoming more prevalent, important and famous now. For this, we will need to look at the history. For decades we have neglected this seemingly dangerous issue due to which it has been going unnoticed. The reason we never before paid heed to this concern or issue is because this issue’s repercussions were not evident in the previous years. As no such notice regarding this issue was taken into consideration, it could not even be rectified.

Therefore, in order to compensate with this, Nokia Corporation does green marketing because any civilized organization in the world would make certain that they are operating while taking care of the ethics especially the ethics. (Andersen, 2004). The company does the following to cater to this.

• Recycle
• Create – Nokia creates, mobile devices, software,services and accessories that reduce their impact on the environment.
• Responsibility – Nokia Corporation works to reduce its global environmental impact while helping the customers to make sustainable choices.
• • Saving energy – this is done by managing consumption and also by finding out new means of energy that can help save energy.
• Support – Nokia works with organisations that provide power and this is done to take action on environmental issues. •
• Evolvement – ways in which the company can further protect eh environment.

Evaluation of managing relationships Nokia Corporation manages its stakeholders very well. The customers are very important to the company and as mentioned above, Nokia Corporation has adopted certain strategies to manage them. This helps the company to meet market and transaction uncertainties by problem solving abilities. The customers are very important for Nokia Corporation as the customers are the ones who generate the customer’s sales and enable Nokia to generate profits. Nokia does not only have to meet the standards of the existing customers but the company also needs to manage relationship with the suppliers and the intermediaries. Furthermore, Nokia Corporation can manage the relationship by opting for the following

• Loyalty schemes
• Membership club
• Customer relationship management

Customer Relationship Management

Nowadays the trend of customer relationship management is increasing day by day. More and more companies are becoming aware of the fact how important customer relationship management is. As the customer is getting aware about the products, they also have complaints about them that have to be handled carefully and patiently by the customer relationship officers. The types of methodologies that help a company to maintain customer relationships in an organized way are called customer relationship management.

It’s not always that customer might have any complaints but they might also have some suggestions for further improvement or there can also be prospective customers who would want to know more about the company. Therefore, Nokia’s strategy is also to build trusted consumer relationships and they do this by offering compelling and valued consumer solutions along with combined beautiful devices with context enriched services. These techniques do work and also turn out to be effective for Nokia Corporation.

Internal Maintaining relationships internally is important for Nokia Corporation for which they provide training, staff development and crater to the needs of personal relationship, etc. To give their candidates the best value they can get from the organization, Nokia Corporation makes sure that it provides the job that the person wants. If the employee is more flexible about their preferred job and location, the more likely the company will be able to give what the employee wants.

Once Nokia Corporation finds a suitable vacancy, the employee will be invited to a ‘Get to Know You’ session. This is for them to meet the business managers they’ll be working with, as well as some of their team, and find out more about the position. It also gives everyone an opportunity to double check whether there’s a good match. If there is, they’ll be made a formal offer of employment. Should a suitable match be lacking at this point, the company will continue to explore other opportunities with the employees over the following one year.

What are the trends in mobile handset industry? Nokia is the largest mobile handset manufacturer in the world with a 40% market share. Industry enjoyed healthy margins however since 2001, industry is marked by declining prices and week margins making companies look at low-cost production options. Outsourced manufacturing of handsets Demands in the developed markets like US & Europe has saturated Significant growth has been noticed in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, China, India and South Korea.

Demands of low cost phone in the emerging market has increased Average selling prices fell by 35%, which is directly impacting the revenue What is Nokia’s strategy and how had globalization changed its way of operation? High cost manufacturing to low cost manufacturing regions Dominant position in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. High growth of in Middle East, South East Asia, Africa, China and consecration on low cost countries Moving to the locations where Govt. s more supportive in granting huge subsidies Impact of globalization : Shifting of manufacturing facilities Operations are taking place at selective places(where both the suppliers and the partners are present to give impetus to over all productivity)

Was the German backlash against Nokia justified? No country would prefer a MNC like Nokia to close its plant and hence affecting 2300 odd workers and their families. )Job less count to grow up , b)the overall economic development of the region to get affected In this particular scenario it was obvious for German backlash as the operating plant is a profit making unit and not a sick unit. It was justified more because the Nokia authority had failed to explain clearly the reason for the closure of the plant to the employees Nokia’s refusal to enter at any kind of discussion with the German authorities to find a mid way to continue the operations. How can nation make themselves more competitive?

Cheap labor cost(26$in case of Germany compared to 4. 2$ in china) Supportive govt. with subsidies to establish a business. Lower corporate taxes Less bureaucracy. What, if any, were the flaws in Nokia’s approach to announcing and handling its plant closure? The flaws are : No clear explanation for the closure. Thousands of people were left jobless. Refusal to think of an alternative to continue the plant. What can be company do now for damage control? Compensate employees Discuss the situation Shift employees to Romania.

Try to understand the culture of Germany and be sympathetic to their cultural practices and perceptions. Can return back some portion of subsidies. Conclusion Apart from the concept of Globalization, big corporation should consider corporate social responsibility, not as Nokia did to shut down the plant which leads towards unemployment just for the high profit even than Bochum plant was make huge profit margin of Euro 90,000 per production worker out of Euro 7. 2 Billions Global profit.

Managing the Fizz

The People Element of Knowledge Management

We are now in the knowledge era, or information age, where radical change will challenge our traditional paradigms of organisation structure, industry structure and product/service definitions. This ‘new world of business’ is characterised by high levels of uncertainty and the inability to predict the future. Increasingly, the important questions will not be about ‘doing things right’ but about ‘doing the right things’.  The focus will be away from finding the right answers to finding the right questions.  Thrive, survive or nosedive? Knowledge management is an issue for today’s organisations.

“Knowledge management is an attitude not a process… It has more to do with anthropology than technology. It is the coming together of people, systems and processes which creates the fizz and the bubbles, the innovation and the added-value in an organisation.”

English may be the language spoken in both the UK and the USA, but few who have travelled across the Atlantic, in either direction, will have come away unscathed by  some communication difficulties during their visit. It is widely acknowledge the two countries are divided by a common language!  But there is currently a greater divide between the United States and Europe and this time the language is that of ‘knowledge management’.  United by a common theme but divided by the approach the two continents are poles apart when grappling with the challenge of managing knowledge.

The difficulties arise because there is no common consensus on the definition of knowledge management.  Everyone agrees that organisations have to face up to the global implications that the world is no longer characterised by predictable, incremental and linear change. This world is challenging the assumptions underlying the accepted way of doing things. The common thread that ties the bond of knowledge management is that organisational wealth lies in the “value of knowledge that resides in peoples’ heads” and that knowledge creation should be the core competence of any organisation.

In America, much of the debate in knowledge management so far has centred around technology. Their approach has been to consider knowledge as an ‘information value chain’. According to Yogesh Malhotra, a leading researcher into Knowledge Management, “The information value chain considers technological systems as key components guiding the organisation’s business processes, while treating humans as relatively passive processors that implement ‘best practices’ archived in information databases.”  Indeed, so strong has the technology thrust been that most English-speaking people believe that knowledge management is only about information systems and databases. A recent electronic survey with 5,000 respondents, conducted by Dr. Swallow and Professor Woolliams from Anglia University in the UK, showed that the overwhelming majority thought of  knowledge management in terms of data capture, storage and retrieval systems.  “Clearly, the I.T world has hi-jacked the phrase!” he states.

The results of an extensive new study conducted by International Data Corp. estimates that world-wide spending for knowledge management services, including consulting, implementation, software, support, outsourcing and training, will grow from $776 million US in 1998 to over $8 billion US by 2003.  Interestingly, the same survey highlights the need to relate KM programs to the organisation’s people and culture. “Our findings suggest the main barrier to implementation are the absence of an organisational culture that promotes sharing and employees’ lack of knowledge management understanding.”

Karl Erik Sveiby, a KM consultant based in Sydney Australia, admits that managers have sunk billions of dollars into IT programs that have been only marginally successful.  Sveiby believes that the major reason for this failure is that management overlooks the fact that knowledge is embedded in people and knowledge creation occurs during social interaction.

The Europeans, however, have approached knowledge management from the perspective of people in a ‘knowledge value chain’. The knowledge value chain treats people systems as key components that engage in continuous assessment  of information archived in the technical systems. “It’s all about respect for the individual,” states Lynn Rutter, Corporate Communications Director for the Finnish based telecommunications company Nokia. “People readily ask for help and extend it to those whom they know and trust.”  When technology is the focus of the knowledge program some workers see only a suction process.  They suspect that the point of the KM program is to suck out what they know and then discard them.  Job security becomes a key issue and resistance and opposition set in. “Our knowledge management system is there to reflect our core values,” explains Rutter.  “Respect for the individual.  But this doesn’t mean they can do what they like. It means an obligation to act responsibly and with care”.

Case Study – Xerox

“There is something about the subject [KM] that carries with it a positive energy. Knowledge is more of a heart subject than a mind subject, so there was an openness to the idea.” Corporate Strategy Director, Dan Holtshouse.

Back in the 1970s, Xerox hired anthropolgists to study how people worked. From the middle of the 80s, “teamwork days” brought quality improvement groups together to share best practices. They gave a high priority to research and thought about how to stimulate innovation. They promoted the cultivation of intellectual assets. The company researched into how best to transfer skills from retiring to new employees. They studied and tested communities of expertise and experimented with program management versus matrix management. Not all their efforts were successful but they learned from their failures.

Their model for future knowledge-driven companies:

1. Sharing knowledge and best practices
2. Instilling responsibility for sharing knowledge
3. Capturing and reusing best practices
4. Embedding knowledge in products, services and processes
5. Producing knowledge generation for innovation
6. Mapping networks of experts
7. Building and mining customer knowledge bases
8. Understanding and measuring the value of knowledge
9. Leveraging intellectual assets

Eureka is just one of Xerox’s most successful knowledge sharing projects. It started off as an internal project developed at grassroots level. Eureka is a database through which service technicians can share what they learn about keeping customers’ copiers running.  The idea was that they should never have to re-invent the wheel by solving the same problem twice. Eureka was built on something technicians did naturally – boast about their horror stories. The database became a huge success with everyone sharing because they trusted it would be reciprocal.

AmberWeb started out as a tool for 500 researchers to store and share their simulation models over the Web. Adding the capability to share experiment results in spreadsheets and experiment descriptions in word processing documents made AmberWeb very popular.  AmberWeb has developed into Xerox’s knowledge-sharing backbone, as an enterprise wide system for knowledge capture, integration and access on the company intranet. The product has evolved into DocuShare, a product to help their customers share their own knowledge.

The success of projects like these within Xerox has been because they were culturally prepared for them.  For two decades they have worked to develop a worldwide infrastucture enabling problem solving and the sharing of best practice. The aim has been to empower individuals and workgroups and encourage sharing.

Adapted from ‘Knowledge as a Function of X,’ by Steve Barth

Research into knowledge sharing demonstrates that workers find it difficult to adopt practices and suggestions from co-workers with whom they do not have any personal contact. Many companies have opted to begin knowledge management programs by creating knowledge initiatives in small segments of the organisation. These can be marketing departments or a research group, but most commonly the priority lies with knowledge sharing of the sales team.  IBM has successfully implemented their  Relationship Management Tool (RMT), sharing knowledge of customer relationships.  Yellow Pages has begun a similar program of building a customer knowledge warehouse. Although at first employees on the front-line may be averse to sharing their experiences, they do have a good understanding of what it means to have the right data at the right time and support for these projects comes through when the benefits begin to roll out.

Why People Don’t Share

1. They believe knowledge is power and hoarding knowledge is job security
2. They won’t get credit for it or won’t maintain ownership
3. They don’t have time
4. They’re afraid of not being right or of making a mistake
5. The technology you want them to use doesn’t meet their needs
6. They don’t know what they know
7. They don’t know that what they know is valuable
8. They don’t know how to share what they know

Shell Oil has established knowledge communities of employees with common interests.  One group of engineers share information on best practice via the company intranet and occasional face-to-face meetings. Coming from 11 refineries across the US, they have found that working in a small targeted group has helped them create a pool of knowledge that they are all eager to use and add to.  They know and trust their colleagues. However, the danger of this bottom-up approach to KM is that they could fragment the company’s knowledge assets and unnecessarily duplicate infrastructure and resources.  Shell Oil overcomes this problem by allowing its business units to devise their own KM systems, but the 27 different managers of the initiatives meet every six weeks to discuss issues related to KM and shared interests.

Case Study – Nokia

“We don’t want contented employees! We want them to challenge us.  We want them to acquire new knowledge and ask us what we are doing about it. We want them networking, listening and thinking outside of their box; which they won’t do if they feel they are a unit of production.  This is why Nokia is so successful.  It’s all about the values.” Corporate Communications Director, Lynn Rutter.

Nokia views knowledge management as an important Human Resource issue. It is the vehicle by which they impart the companies values, not only in Finland, but all over the world. Their program is based around the company’s “Well-Being Programme”.  The process begins with:

• KM – Core Competencies: Nokia must have mastery of certain technologies, judged to be company level core competencies. What core skills are needed currently to support these competencies? For the future? What have we actually got?  Where is it?  What do we need to train? Who, when, how?  Job profiles are created and specific skills that people need are identified. What is sustainable in the company?
• KM – Values: Respect of the individual.  An obligation to act responsibly and with care. Encourage people to acquire new knowledge for their own self-esteem and for the good of the company. The act of knowledge sharing is part of everybody’s job. Continuous process of learning and unlearning.
• KM – Career Maps and Development Paths to Skill Sets: empowering people to upskill and move around the company. Employees are able to see what skills and qualifications are required for which jobs, and to compare with themselves. They know what they need to achieve and where/how they can get training to advance themselves, sponsored by the company.
• KM – Life style communications – networking, story telling, socialising
• KM – Ideas Factory
• KM – Company Yellow Pages
• KM – Acquisitions: whatever the skills and experience of the company, if the values and ethics of the company are not similar to the Nokia culture, they will not acquire the company.

Nokia fundamentally believes that people have knowledge not systems.

Based on an interview with Lynn Rutter, Corporate Communications Director, Nokia

Just as television is more than a radio with pictures, knowledge management is more than a collection of databases and knowledge sharing.  Knowledge management solutions must take a leap beyond documentation, applied learning, new software and collecting information from various domain experts.  Technology alone cannot guarantee success in the knowledge economy. Even the best technologies will not necessarily ensure the creativity and innovation which is necessary for organisations to develop a competitive edge. Unless people meet, trust decays. So, knowledge managers should focus their efforts on the natural, dynamic way that knowledge is managed in communities of practice.

Larry Prusak, director of IBM’s Institute for Knowledge Management, believes the biggest enemy of successful KM is the wrong choice of metaphors. The two worst choices are seeing the organisation as a machine and knowledge as a thing to be measured. “You can’t quantify knowledge any more than love or trust!” he says.

Knowledge management is an attitude not a process. Clearly the time has come for human resource managers to embrace the concept of knowledge management in its broadest sense. It cannot be a separate function characterised by a separate KM department or a KM process. It has more to do with anthropology than technology. It is the coming together of people, systems and processes which creates the fizz and the bubbles, the innovation and the added-value in an organisation. It is enabled by technology but subservient to culture.  Knowledge management is about managing the fizz and ensuring the bubbles don’t evaporate. Now is the time for “People Knowledge Management” to come of Age!  But, as Larry Prusak warns, “There’s still a danger that the technologists will swamp us and KM will become a technological subject -which it isn’t.”

How Firms are encouraging creativity and knowledge sharing

• British Airways have created indoor ‘street cafes’ within their new Waterside complex
• A London advertising agency has bought an indoor lawn complete with swing and positioned these in the middle of the office
• A Finnish software house has built a fireplace in the office with ‘cosy’ chairs around it
• A Swedish furniture manufacturer holds ‘product think tanks’ in the sauna.