Nokia Marketing Strategy
Finnish conglomerate turned itself into the world’s leading mobile phone company in the 1990s. So Nokia has already been through one (successful) change programme, turning itself from an unfocused conglomerate into a focused mobile phone producer. Can it change again?
- Global market leader in mobile phones - but not smart phones
- Still profitable, but revenues under pressure
- September 2010: Appointed new CEO - Stephen Elop - to drive strategic change
- February 2011 - Elop issued the famous “burning platform” memo bluntly explaining the serious strategic challenges facing Nokia
- Elop outlined results of his strategic review on Feb 11 2011 - making it clear that Nokia had to undergo a substantial programme of change
- Elop announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft in March 2011 to jointly develop smartphones using the Windows mobile platform - ditching Nokia’s previous investment in its homegrown Symbian platform
- Elop has swept away many elements of Nokia’s previous organisational structure - a significant process of delayering
- Elop has refocused the business on leadership (managers taking decisions and responsibility) and markets (innovation driven by people competing in key mobile phone segments)
- Decision-making has been delegated to local/national teams rather than relying on decisions by an overly-centralised senior management team
- Goals and incentives for the senior leadership team are now more transparent
- The new strategy brings clarity and a sense of direction to Nokia - but will it be enough to achieve a successful turnaround?
During 2012, Nokia has continued to pursue a retrenchment strategy in the face of rapid declines in sales:
February 2012, Nokia anonunced it was laying off 4000 employees to move manufacturing from Europe and Mexico to Asia
March 2012, Nokia anonunced it was laying off 1000 employess from its Salo, Finland factory to focus on software
June 2012: 10,000 further job losses announced and the closure
- Global market leader in mobile phones - but not smart phones
- Still profitable, but revenues under pressure
- September 2010: Appointed new CEO - Stephen Elop - to drive strategic change
- February 2011 - Elop issued the famous “burning platform” memo bluntly explaining the serious strategic challenges facing Nokia
- Elop outlined results of his strategic review on Feb 11 2011 - making it clear that Nokia had to undergo a substantial programme of change
- Elop announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft in March 2011 to jointly develop smartphones using the Windows mobile platform - ditching Nokia’s previous investment in its homegrown Symbian platform
- Elop has swept away many elements of Nokia’s previous organisational structure - a significant process of delayering
- Elop has refocused the business on leadership (managers taking decisions and responsibility) and markets (innovation driven by people competing in key mobile phone segments)
- Decision-making has been delegated to local/national teams rather than relying on decisions by an overly-centralised senior management team
- Goals and incentives for the senior leadership team are now more transparent
- The new strategy brings clarity and a sense of direction to Nokia - but will it be enough to achieve a successful turnaround?
During 2012, Nokia has continued to pursue a retrenchment strategy in the face of rapid declines in sales:
February 2012, Nokia anonunced it was laying off 4000 employees to move manufacturing from Europe and Mexico to Asia
March 2012, Nokia anonunced it was laying off 1000 employess from its Salo, Finland factory to focus on software
June 2012: 10,000 further job losses announced and the closure