Category: Nokia

Executive Summary of Nokia Business Groups

An organization is defined as an integration of processes with a single purpose; to attain the expected goal of an organization, management needs to develop and effective working organizational structure. An effective organizational structure looks into qualitative and quantitative issues of the structure were it ensures that both human resources matters and physical combination of resources have been addressed accordingly.

Nokia is an international phone company that is currently leading in the phone segment of the electronic market in the world; the company’s organizational structure has enabled it to command the success it has attained.

As time goes, the structures of the company are becoming week calling for immediate actions to be taken to retain the glory of the company. The main areas that need to be looked into include the strategic alliances division, innovation and invention section of the company, and the organizational culture adopted by the Company.

Introduction: Nokia Structure

The success of an organization depends on how well physical and human resources of the organization have been organized and managed. Organizational theory emphasizes that every organization has potential to become competitive in its industry if it organizes the assets, both physical and intangible, that it has.

Leaders have the role of developing an organizational structure, which is the framework of operation in the organization, effectively developed structures ensures that resources are effectively managed, customers are satisfied, human resources are well managed, and all stakeholders are satisfied with the position of the organization.

An organizational structure has a total quality approach where all areas of the organization are addressed; despite this totality approach, changes in business environments and industries have sometimes made companies to find their strategies ineffective and irresponsive of current business policies (Wheelen & Hunger, 1998). Nokia is an international phone company, with its headquarters in Finland.

The company currently enjoys a market share of about 37% and aims at increasing the market share to over 40% by the end of 2011; however, the company is facing a number of strategic issues, which has made its profits and sales reduce in the recent past and overtaken by Apple Inc. products.

This report is an analysis of organizational structure of Nokia Phone Company; the report will analyze the current structure of the company and current strategic issues facing the company.

Nokia is divided into four main departments where every department, also called business group, is given some mandate to undertake, the departments are Mobile Phones; Multimedia; Enterprise Solutions and Networks; other than the departments, the company has two horizontal departments as Technology Platforms and Customer and Market Operations.

Neither the business group nor the horizontal department work independent, however they are interdependent with each other, the following chart shows the companies organizational culture:

• Chart 1

Each manager or departmental head is responsible for his area and is expected to work for the good of the entire firm.

As strategic tool, Nokia have realized the need to have an effectively managed human capital; a company requires both physical and human resources for its operations; human resources are the greatest asset that an organization can have; without it, no business transaction can take place.

It ensures that the business is run in the right way, and thus determines the current as well as the future state of the business (Bateman & Snell, 2011).

Nokia has a human resources management department with the role of ensuring staff needs have been addressed effectively, the department has the role of ensuring that the company has the right number of human capital at the right time at an appropriate cost.

It has the mandate of planning, deploying, employing, training, retaining, and dismissal of employees. When the department is undertaking this duty, it looks into quantitative and qualitative aspects. Qualitative means the right number of employees and qualitative means employees with right skills.

Managing human resources has been an ignored area in traditional business management, however with modern strategic management; managers increasingly understand that the success of their organization is highly dependent with how well they manage their human resources.

When managing human resources, managers ensure that they understand the needs of the human resources and their motivations, when they are well managed, they are sources of creativity, innovations and innovation. Strategic management gurus are of the opinion that organizations that have well managed human resources have an asset over their competitors that can be used for a long time as a source of competitiveness.

Nokia hires from the domestic and international market to ensure that it has the right expertise and have a diverse workforce, with such a people resource the company is able to trade effectively in the local and international markets (Taylor, 2008).

Nokia Organizational Chart

The large number of staffs at Nokia and different management and supervisory levels offers Nokia a tall organizational structure. The diagram below is an illustration of a tall organizational structure similar to that of Nokia.

• Chart 2

The structure is only there to ensure that there is good management and processes within the organization are well managed and controlled.

Despite the company being the largest phone company in the world, the company is facing a number of strategic issues that if not addressed with immediate effect, then the company is likely to lose its competitiveness and dominance in the market; the following are the strategic issues:

• Creating significantly short replacement cycle

Phones are long-lasting equipments and making them as so is one of value and quality assurance of Nokia, however markets are getting saturated with phones thus holding a single phone for a long period of time.

When this happens, then the growth of sales is hampered and the company cannot continue with its sales. In countries like Finland, Europe and some African countries, the company’s products are seen everywhere and the markets are slowly growing.

• Saturation of current markets

The company has its main operating base at Asia, North America and Europe, however these markets are becoming saturated with phones and the markets seems not to be growing. Despite the slowed growth, the markets have a number of international players selling their products in the markets. The company’s sales are not promising in the country as well as the operating costs in these countries is on the upward rise (Kaushik & Cooper, 2000).

• Reluctance in technological innovation

In the recent past, the phone industry has experienced a massive development, other companies like Apple Inc. and Samsung have pioneered however, Nokia, and it have not pioneered the development. The reluctance in the innovation has resulted to Nokia–Apple patent dispute; it has also seen the company become a technology copier (McFarland, Bloodgood and Payan, 2008)

Conclusion: Organizational Structure and Culture of Nokia

With the current success in the international markets, Nokia should be thinking of a brand extension approach: brand extension is a marketing tool used to market products using the strength of an existing brand.

It involves developing of new products, mostly related to the product already in the market, it is a method of widening of the range of products (or services), by riding in the strength of an existing brand. It is a method of optimal brand strength by creating additional sales. It is also a form of increasing Brand Equity.

Brand extension is strategic and should b e timely; when over done it ends to diluting of a brand. The company should be on the high note to have other electronic commodities that can drive the market; the new products that the company can develop include television sets, Radios, laptops, and music equipments.

The new products are likely to b ea driving force for the company; Apple Inc. with the invention and invention of IPods and I-phones the company was able to control a niche market; a diversion from its main line of business that was desktops and computer software development.

References

Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2011). Management: Leading & collaborating in a competitive world. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin

Ketchen Jr., G., & Hult, T.M. (2006). Bridging organization theory and supply chain management: The case of best value supply chains. Journal of Operations Management, 25(2), 573-580.

McFarland, R., Bloodgood, J. and Payan, J.(2008). Supply Chain Contagion. Journal of Marketing, 72(2), 63-79.

Taylor, G.(2008). Lean Six Sigma Service Excellence: A Guide to Green Belt Certification and Bottom Line Improvement. New York: Ross Publishing.

Wheelen, L., & Hunger, J. (1998). Strategic Management and Business Policy: Entering 21st Century Global Society. Massachusetts: Addison Wesley

Introduction

The company Nokia was established in 1865 and focused on the manufacture of paper; at the beginning of the 20th century, Nokia became a power industry company. Only at the end of the 20th century, the company’s core business became the development, production, and sales of mobile phones. The company experienced a peak in sales and popularity in the market at the end of the 1990s and in the 2000s but had to face a decline at the end of the 2000s. In 2013, the company sold its business to Microsoft (Jia and Yin 446).

Analysis

The main failure that led to the company’s decline was its inability to adapt to the demands of the market, i.e. provide products that would be efficient in the era of the mobile Internet (Jia and Yin 447). The company was not prepared for the emergence of new technology (smartphones) and failed to understand the consumers’ needs. The company’s investment in its operational system Symbian was not successful because Google had presented a similar, if not more effective operational system Android even before Symbian became open-source software (Kerr et al. 5). In 2007, both Android and iPhone smartphones were introduced to the market, which adversely influenced Nokia’s sales: “in October 2009, Nokia reported its first quarterly loss since 1996” (Kerr et al. 5). Nokia’s inability to adapt to the new market demands and compete with the new entrants led to its decline; the company’s financial investments in the Symbian OS did not bring it any profit because iOS and Android were much more efficient and valued by the market (Jia and Yin 448). In the table below, the choices of former Nokia users are displayed in percentage (see fig. 1).

The problem of failed investments in obsolete technology was a cause of another wrong approach, namely, the approach to leadership. According to Khan et al., the management of the company was not efficient enough because it was too bureaucratic and could not answer adequately to the rapid changes in the market (19). The organizational structure, compared to Apple and Google, was too complicated, and a product decision took too much time to compete with the other smartphone giants (Khan et al. 19). The last “nail in the coffin” was the new CEO Stephen Elop who blamed employees for the decline and terminated several projects, including the development of Symbian OS, which led to “a dramatic drop in Nokia’s share price” (Khan et al. 20). After that, the company was sold to Microsoft, which developed a new OS that, however, was also not able to compete with iOS and Google.

The main cause of Nokia’s failure was the inability to invest in the right technologies and the lack of strategic leadership. The company continued to invest in R&D (even more than Apple) but was unable to compete with this rival because of its inability to provide innovative products that corresponded with the market’s demands (Lerner and Seru 5). The company’s evaluation of the industry and the market was inadequate; furthermore, it was not even able to follow the competitors and develop a similar product to increase its competitive advantage (as HTC did) (Lerner and Seru 2).

It is possible to assume that Nokia’s investments in R&D were futile because it did not recognize the need to develop a new product that would not be based on Nokia’s previous products and technologies. Therefore, the failure to invest correctly and the failure to analyze the market and the industry adequately were the main causes of Nokia’s decline in the 2010s. The company’s business tactic was to support the development of Symbian; however, if the company could recognize Android’s potential from the beginning (as Samsung did), it would have acquired the chance to become one of the most successful smartphone manufacturers on the market (Jia and Yin 451). The company relied solely on Symbian’s popularity and serious profits it provided during the company’s peak. Nokia was resistant to changes and its reluctance to adjust eventually led to its decline.

Recommendations

As can be seen from the analysis, the company had to consider what technology is invested and how efficient these investments would be in the future. Therefore, the first recommendation would be to analyze the market and the industry thoroughly to understand whether the current investments are going to be profitable in the future. The next recommendation would be to provide a long-term strategy that would define the company’s steps and choices that have the potential to be profitable in the future. Since Nokia eventually recognized that Symbian was not profitable, it had to consider this possibility before the market was flooded with Android and Apple devices. The third recommendation would be to restructure the brand so that it can compete with the strong players in the market. The company has to invest more in the analysis of customer satisfaction and market demands. The fourth recommendation would be to address the users’ dissatisfactions with the new models of Nokia smartphones to ensure customer loyalty (see fig. 2).

The next recommendation would be to invest in the development of mobile applications for Nokia phones on Windows OS; since more users prefer mobile Internet, effective applications are becoming a crucial part of any communication via smartphone devices. It is also possible to consider the development of an Android-based smartphone since Windows OS does not support the broad range of applications as Android does; this can lead to customer dissatisfaction with the brand (Patel 90). The company should also consider its pricing policies since Android phones can provide customers with similar characteristics but at a lower price (Patel 90). Therefore, the company can consider launching different products for low-cost and premium segments. This step will help Nokia increase its competitive advantage in the market, especially compared to Apple. Apple’s products were criticized for being extremely overpriced (Nerurkar 256).

As it was already mentioned, the R&D investments of Nokia were higher compared to Apple’s investments, but the latter became more successful. Thus, the company needs not only to invest in R&D but also to maintain control over it to ensure that customer experience can be improved via new, innovative technology. Hiring skilled professionals who can analyze the market trends and technology changes seems to be the solution.

Since the company’s decline led to decreased brand awareness, Nokia has to take more advanced steps in product promotion. For now, it cannot compete with Apple and Samsung in the advertisement’s efficiency. However, if the issue is addressed properly, and the company is ready to invest in advertisement intensively, there is a high chance that brand awareness will increase. At the same time, the advertisement will not help if the company fails to address other issues such as poor investment in innovative technology and a lack of strategic objectives.

Works Cited

Jia, Jianzhong, and Yuchan Yin. “Analysis of Nokia’s Decline from Marketing Perspective.”Open Journal of Business and Management, vol. 3, no. 4, 2015, pp. 446-452, Web.

Kerr, Ramana, et al. “Entrepreneurial Finance in Finland?” Harvard Business School, vol. 9, no. 140, 2013, pp. 1-22.

Khan, Sundus Tanweer, et al. “Resistance to Change in Organizations: A Case of General Motors and Nokia.”International Journal of Research in Management, Economics and Commerce, vol. 7, no. 1, 2017, pp. 16-25, Web.

Lerner, Josh, and Amit Seru.The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond.2015, Web.

Nerurkar, Pranav. “Review of Data Storage by Fusion Drive in MAC.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science, vol. 4, no. 3, 2013, pp. 256-259.

Patel, Ritesh. “A Study on Consumer Behavior and Opportunities for Nokia Smart-Phones in India.” Galaxy International Interdisciplinary Research Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, 2014, pp. 68-97, Web.

Executive Summary

Branding is indeed a very important aspect of marketing. A company that promotes its brand efficiently is bound to survive through the most difficult market conditions. This paper sets out to perform a market research of a brand experiencing a problem, and find solutions to the issue under investigation. To that end, Harley Davidson was chosen as the brand.

Some of the causes of the brand’s decline included branding, mismanagement, brand neglect, failure to move with the target consumers and cost cutting. From the research findings, it was evident that the company is in need of a brand revitalization strategy. Because of this assessment, viable recommendations as to how best the company can achieve this aim have been discussed.

If the recommendations provided herein are applied, Nokia will be on its path to becoming the iconic motorbike giant it used to be during the sixties. A brand’s inability to stay with its target market may lead to its decline. When a brand starts repositioning itself in order to appeal to a new audience, it stands the risk of losing its core clients. As a result, the customers may feel alienated and neglected in the process.

This happened to the Nokia brand when it decided to manufacture Smart phones that were presumably of lower quality. They lost their loyal clients and the brand declined significantly.

Rebranding strategies such as product differentiation and repackaging makes a brand more attractive to existing and potential consumers. Failure to rebrand may lead to a situation whereby consumers lose interest in a brand and look for new and different alternatives.

Introduction

Nokia’s market share worldwide have been on the decline in the past few years as the company struggles to match the competition. The phone giant is losing its popularity at a very high rate while competitors are very quick to fill in the gap the company leaves in the market (Reinhardt 2006).

While struggling to maintain its market share in the expansive phones market, Nokia’s consumer preference is very low compared to other brands especially with the Smart phones as shown below (Dediu 2012).

Therefore, product marketing with regard to the Nokia brand would be a vital step towards helping the company to regain its market influence. Product marketing for this brand would hence involve the seven Ps of marketing (Reinhardt 2006).

The seven Ps denote Product, Pricing, Place, Promotion, Packaging, Positioning, and People (Reinhardt 2006). Product marketing is far much distinct compared to product management and the difference must be appreciated in this case.

Thesis statement

Developing and maintaining a brand is often a complex and costly issue whose outcome concerning the brand’s lifespan or destiny cannot be predetermined. However, with the application of marketing research and strategies, declining brands can be revived amidst the prevailing market challenges (Maatz 2012).

This paper shall discuss the factors that led to the decline of the Nokia brand and come up with viable marketing strategies that can be applied to revive and maintain the brand despite the harsh economic and competitive forces that prevail in today’s business environment. This shall be done by analyzing credible literature that focuses on market research, branding and total quality management.

Problem definition

While product management is more concerned with the details of the product and its development, product marketing is concerned with popularizing and marketing the product. This involves creating awareness of the product to prospective customers, existing customers, and others. The nokia brand despite the great decline in sales and publicity can regain consumer confidence with proper market research (Reinhardt 2006).

This will enable the company to identify the problems facing their products and help provide the solution to these problems. Every business requires information that will help it be in a position to satisfy its consumer’s needs.

The nokia phone company is one such company that would greatly benefit from conducting a market research. This owes to the declining market share in the phone industry and consequently the decline in sales (Kremp 2011).

Research methods and Limitations

Historic accounts

In this research, a number of research methods were employed to determine the extent to which the phone company has lost its market. The methods used therefore include the historic approach to research, survey method, and use of questionnaires.

The Historic approach in marketing research is widely used a research method by a number of companies (Sharma 2011). Studying the past of a market is an important strategy of dealing with the future of the same.

Survey

For the future to be securely anticipated, the past, trends, and patterns of the experiences learned must also be examined. Survey on the other hand has become a favorite research method especially in market research (Maatz 2012).

This has highly been influenced by the introduction of online surveys a factor that has assisted in greatly reducing the cost of research as well as increasing its accuracy and scope. With survey, data collection is very easy and efficient while the cost of data collection is relatively low and affordable.

Questionnaire

This method allows for anonymity hence the candid responses from the respondents and ultimately legitimate results.

The questionnaires also in the field of research are effective and this particular research will engage this data collection method in order to have accurate market information on the product mentioned above (Sharma 2011). Nonetheless, all of the above data collection methods have limitations that may affect the results hence a risk of inaccurate information.

A good example is the survey method used. In a survey, the possible answers and responses must be accounted for or else the research will miss some data hence having inaccurate information. This method is also prone to researcher errors where the researcher may make assumptions hence collecting inaccurate data (Sharma 2011).

Market research

In business, dealing with products and consumers requires organized efforts to collect information concerning markets and customers. The process of doing so therefore is referred to as product marketing. The Nokia brand of phones was doing very well around the year 2006 and 2009 as shown in the graph below (Dediu 2012).

However, the market today has transformed technologically and the phone giant is struggling to keep the pace set by other players in the industry such as Samsung and Apple (Dediu 2012).

The big question is why is it that a company of such magnitude is finding it hard to compete with the rest in the market? Conducting a research to establish the issues involved, this research found out a number of factors blamed for the decline in sales of the company. However, ineffective product marketing is the greatest cause of the decline (Kremp 2011).

Problems facing the company

Nokia’s problems can simply be summed up as Burning Cash. The company’s net cash dropped down by 24% in a year (Maatz 2012). To be precise, the total net worth if their losses amounted to $ 9 billion (Kremp 2011). It is even projected that with the current trend in the market and the company’s reluctance in counter attacking its lack of competitive strategies, the company may go bankrupt in the next two to three years.

Attracting investors and customers

The company’s future projections are not very convincing and consumers as well as investor are losing confidence in its market strength. The nokia company has been accused on many occasions to be dragging behind as far as technology in the phone industry is concerned (Savov 2011).

With the growth demand for smart phones, consumers are accusing the nokia company of not living up to their expectations hence giving the competition an upper hand in the market as shown in the percentage graph below (Dediu 2012).

The company as of this year is still not ready to integrate its technology with the rest of the players in the industry and this has caused them great decline in doing business as shown in the graph below (Dediu 2012).

Currently, consumer preferences are shifting from communication gadgets to IT gadgets. The market for phones has dramatically taken a new shift and nokia is not effectively responding to the market shift.

They are also faced with the fact that they are aiming their products at a saturated market segment not forgetting that their wage costs are on the rise (Savov 2011). Long supply chains that the company operates under in addition to the high import charges for its raw materials cause other problems.

The seven Ps of marketing

Using the seven Ps of marketing, the research on how to regain market relevance for the company can be achieved. First in the list is to identify the relevance of the product (Ryan 2011). The product in this case is a phone and the industry it satisfies is the communication industry. Nokia Company should think in the lines of manufacturing IT relevant phones just as the competition is doing.

ICT influence in the industry

With the increased use of ICT, very few consumers want to purchase a phone for communication only. Seventy five percent of the interviewed respondents said that they want to buy a phone that puts them technologically at the same level with the increasing technology in the mobile phone industry.

The second item to look at in this research is the pricing (Savov 2011). Determining what a company receives as compensation for its product through the sale of its products is vital for the survival of the company. Pricing is determined by many factors including the production cost of the product.

However, the price of a product can determine its volume of sales. High prices on products can have both positive as well as negative effects. By putting high prices on products, the results would turn out positive if the high price were taken as a sign of high quality production (Savov 2011).

The consumers know that quality products are quite expensive and with the need to purchase high quality goods, the consumers may associate high prices with high quality.

The pricing effects of a product

However, this is not always the case as high prices can also influence potential buyers to purchase and pursue alternative products to circumvent the high prices. Giving a product a high price therefore should be well researched and its effects be evaluated to avoid an unanticipated loss.

Another approach in pricing is selling the products at low prices, which means slightly above the production cost (Savov 2011). Through this approach, there are benefits as well as shortcomings.

The consumer might take selling the products at a low price as a sign of low quality in production; hence, they may not be interested in buying the product. Cheap products are associated with low or bad quality and with reference to that fact, selling your products cheaply does not guarantee high sales (Murph, 2011).

Nonetheless, goods sold at a cheaper price are more likely to make significant sales compared to the otherwise situation. While determining pricing for a product, it is vital to consider the manufacturing cost also known as the production cost, the market condition and the quality of the product.

Price determining factors

These are the three main determinants of the price of a product and are significant in determining the price. The needs of a consumer can only be satisfied with a product he or she is willing to purchase and has the ability to sue.

For this reason, it’s surface to say that pricing is an important part of marketing (Savov 2011). Packaging on the other hand is all about the physical appearance of a product and the form of presentation. The outward look of the product must be catchy and attractive to the consumer for him or her to think about buying the product.

Research findings

In relation to the seven Ps of marketing, the nokia company is left behind in terms of pricing, packaging, and promotion. To maintain competitiveness, the company has chosen to do so through pricing.

The recent introduction of affordable gadgets from its company in Indonesia is a clear indication of the company’s determination to pursue the lower segments of the market (Murph, 2011). Nokia believes that the lower mobile market is and remains promising and hence the new entries.

These could be seen as a strategy to avoid competition in the higher segment, especially the smart phones. The new entry of the low price Nokia Asha 205, a low priced smart phone, and the nokia 206-feature phone are some of the new strategies to revive the giant phone maker’s market share (Murph, 2011).

With the increased technological advancement, phone capability to be upgraded to receive new software applications is vital.

The nokia Lumia failed

The nokia Lumia, which is the latest smart phone by the company, is not competing effectively in the market as the manufacturer had anticipated. This is apparently because the gadget cannot be upgraded to the new operating system version, Windows Phone 8 (Dinning 2011).

This means that all consumers with the old model operating systems are forced to purchase a new phone and this has been the main problem of the nokia phones. One model can be significantly different from the other hence creating a distinct difference between its products.

Recommendations

As noted in the above research, the nokia company has been left behind as far as technology is concerned. They have not embraced the global idea of an IT developed consumer base (Buckley 2011).

Nokia would benefit more from conducting market research to identify the needs of the consumers. The company should not rely more on creating labels that symbolize their independence rather they should be more focused on the needs and wants of consumers.

Easy to use gadgets

Today in the market, the consumers are looking for working and easy to use operating systems and the android platform has already gained popularity among consumers (Dinning 2011).

The software integrates easily with other software’s easily. Nokia should revise and adjust its pricing systems to get back fully to its position in the market. The decision for the company to focus on the lower segment of the market might have been well intended but clearly, it is not working to the advantage of the company.

Opportunity

The company has opportunities to improve their market share today and challenges the competition. It is also true that it has the financial capability to cease such opportunities. However, for the company to be able to rescue its declining market share, there are vital technological changes that need to be made.

Nokia need to change and improve the technology they use in manufacturing their phones (Sharma 2011). Changing for instance the camera resolution and improving picture messaging will definitely attract consumers to buy phones under the nokia brand (Dinning 2011).

Market penetration

To penetrate significantly the market, the company should re-invent its products to come up with a new product that the competition does not offer (Murph 2011). The company must concentrate on strategic ways to enter into to the market, market growth, product advancement, and diversification (Buckley 2011).

Nokia is the only giant phone manufacturer that specializes in mobile phone production. All others such as Samsung and Apple have diversified their production into other products like laptops, iPods, television, and other electronic devices.

Market shift

Researching and considering changing their market is vital just in case the current target market is saturated. The current price needs to be lowered in order to appeal to the consumers. This can be done for a while until the consumers get used to the brand then the prices can later be adjusted to reasonable prices (Dinning 2011). For a business to succeed, it has to be in a position to supply the needs of the consumer.

Conclusion

This research has put the nokia brand under great scrutiny in terms of sales and marketing structure. The company that was once the giant phone manufacturer is slowly declining in the market with regard to its market share.

In the research, several factors that have led to the decline in sales of the brand’s products have been identified and clearly outlined. Marketing research methods that are effective in helping salvage Nokia’s lost glory also are identified in the paper (Buckley 2011).

The bottom line as suggested in this research is the fact that Nokia as a company needs to change its technology in the manufacture of phones and come up with strategies that can effectively compete with the rivals (Buckley 2011). Marketing is one of the better ways of competing in such a saturated market and to improve sales, diversification is vital.

References

Buckley, S. 2011, Nokia N9 to ship in Sweden on September 23, Saith awkwardly translated release. Web.

Dediu, H. 2012. How Samsung beat Nokia. Web.

Dinning, D. 2011, Nokia N9 Imaging. Web.

Kozhanov, A. 2011, FM Radio for Nokia N9: First FM Radio application is available in OVI Store. Web.

Kremp, M. 2011, Das hätte Nokias Gewinner sein können. Web.

Maatz, B. 2012, Exotisches One-Hit-Wonder. Web

Molen, B. 2011, Nokia N9 gets axed in Germany; global tour looks even more meager. Web.

Murph, D. 2011, Nokia: the N9 is not coming to America. Web.

Savov, V. 2011, Edited: Dear Nokia, you cannot be serious! Web.

Savov, V. 2011, Nokia N9 review. Web.

Sharma, V. 2011, The N9 includes an FM transmitter & receiver although the software is not ready yet. Web.

Reinhardt, A. 2006, Nokia’s Magnificent Mobile-Phone Manufacturing Machine. Web.

Ryan, P. 2011, Nokia’s new mega-based N9 is set up for failure. Ars Technica. Web.

Company background

Nokia Corporation is an international communication firm whose headquarters are situated in Espoo. The company is popular for manufacturing mobile phones. In addition, the company manufactures other consumer products like mobile networks, set-top boxes, and apparatus for broadband internet.

Moreover, Nokia Corporation supplies the motor industry with car speakers (Kautto 2009). Currently, the company dominates the mobile phone market with a market share of over 38.6 percent. In 2010, Nokia’s financial income was $2.6 billions. Engineer Fredrik Idestam established the company in 1965.

During this period, the company dealt with paper products, which it exported to Great Britain and Russia. In early 20^th century, the company concentrated on manufacture of wheelchair frames and rubber boots. Even today, some brands of bicycle tires bear the company’s name.

The modern Nokia Company was established in 1967. The management brought the former paper mill section and the rubber works together to establish a technological company. In 1981, a mobile network was launched in Scandinavian, prompting Nokia Corporation to manufacture its first car phones.

In 1987, the company manufactured its first mobile phone. At the same time, Nokia Corporation helped Finland, Germany, China, Poland, Italy, and Mexico to repair network for their entertainment industries (Ropponen 2008). In 2010, Stephen Elop joined the company’s management team.

Nokia Corporation merged with Siemens to form one of the biggest telecommunication networks dubbed Nokia Siemens Networks.

Currently, Nokia Corporation is among the companies that manufacture quality smart phones globally. The company continues coming up with novel inventions in line with the emerging technologies.

Factors influencing organizational change

In 2004, Nokia Company started restructuring its operations as a way to satisfy customer aspirations. The company came up with a program dubbed “the Nokia Booster program”, which aimed at bringing together online customers and the company’s strategic development (Schienstock 2004).

A number of factors contributed to the restructuring process. Among them include desire to, attain global coverage, embrace employee empowerment, promote co-creation, and support the community.

One of the key factors that prompted Nokia Corporation to come up with the Nokia Booster program was the pressure to exploit the global market. The company was in need for establishing a single access point through which it could communicate with all its target consumers, and employees worldwide.

Prior to the program, the company relied on a communication structure where information was conveyed from the top management, down to the employees through a number of senior staff (Schienstock 2004).

Such a communication structure was slow. Consequently, the company required a communication structure that could keep pace with the contemporary marketplace.

To enhance its performance, Nokia Corporation required having a platform through which it could share its agendas with employees. Previously, employees made limited contribution to organizational policies (Krell 2000).

To make sure that employees backed the company’s agendas, Nokia Corporation had to come up with mechanisms that would captivate the employees. The company learnt that employees could be active if allowed to manage debates that fascinated them.

To achieve this, the company assigned different employees to different agendas and requested them to share the agenda with the public. This helped the company to gather information from the public, therefore, aligning its operations with customer needs.

The program helped the company to reach its target customers in remote areas where it was hard for employees to reach (Nonaka & Teece 2001).

Through the program, customers shared their views about the company and changes they wish the company to make, thus, spurring employee creativity. Indeed, the program led to numerous innovations in the company.

Management team in Nokia Corporation maintained that, for the company to perform, it required exploiting the vast experience and knowledge; its employees possessed. Nevertheless, it could hardly achieve this without fostering cooperation between the employees.

Senior managers came up with ideas concerning the innovations they would like to introduce into the company (Masalin 2003). The company then disseminated the ideas to employees and customers through the Nokia Booster program.

The program helped the company to establish a platform by which it could get opinions from all the stakeholders, therefore, coming up with products that meet all the desired specifications. Besides, the company needed to be sure that its employees are aware of the value of the projects the company initiates.

Nokia Corporation could achieve this by involving the employees in formulation and implementation of the projects (Masalin 2003). The Nokia Booster program acted as an avenue through which the company fostered cooperation between employees in different departments.

In a span of six months, the company had started witnessing inventions as employees seek to enhance organizational operations. In addition, employees shared ideas on changes they considered unfeasible, thus, helping the company pursue feasible goals only (Masalin 2003).

How organizational change unfolded

In 2004, Nokia Corporation made it public that it intended to begin organizational change, which aimed at helping the company meet changing consumer needs. The company reduced the number of its business units to four. It implemented the entire change within one week.

To implement the change, the company required a hundred employees taking new jobs. All the other employees retained their original jobs. Nokia Corporation reconstructed its initial modular teams (Ropponen 2008).

The company established a common platform through which all employees shared their ideas to help the company to address customer ambitions.

Ropponen posits, “The genesis of the Booster Programme, launched in late 2008, could be traced to the wide involvement of the strategy-planning process and to the flexibility and project orientation of the modular structure” (2008, p. 163).

The program started with a design team led by Ian Gee and Maximilian Kammerer. The design team argued that the traditional system of communication made it hard for the company to achieve its goals. Hence, the company required a platform that would help it involve all its stakeholders in pursuing organizational goals.

The design team resolved to organize a workshop “with team leaders followed by the much broader involvement of the whole community through an online social network community” (Masalin 2003, p. 69).

The corporation organized for workshops in different cities across the globe. At least a hundred change leaders participated in every workshop.

After the workshops, participants went back to their organizations, where they recruited employees into the adopted change processes. Online community took the centre stage in steering the changes.

This mishmash of traditional communication mechanisms and novel forms of relations established an upsurge of fervor (Masalin 2003). The Booster led to open discourse between frontline workers, community members, and managers about challenges affecting the company.

The online community furnished employees with information concerning potential changes that could benefit the company, therefore, helping them initiate innovations.

Reference List

Kautto, P 2009, ‘Nokia as an environmental policy actor: Evolution of collaborative corporate political activity in a multinational company’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 47 no. 1, pp. 103-125.

Krell, T 2000, ‘Organizational longevity and technological change’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 13 no. 1, pp. 8 – 14.

Masalin, L 2003, ‘Nokia leads change through continuous learning’, Academy of Management Learning & Education, vol. 2 no. 1, pp. 68-72.

Nonaka, I & Teece, D 2001, Managing Industrial Knowledge: Creation, Transfer and Utilization, SAGE Publications Ltd, London.

Ropponen, T 2008, ‘The Nokia story of using action learning’, Action Learning: Research and Practice, vol. 5 no. 2, pp. 161-165.

Schienstock, G 2004, Embracing the knowledge economy: the dynamic transformation of the Finnish Innovation System, Edward Elgar Publishing, Northampton.