''The Decline and Fall of Nokia'' is a company profile book detailing the collapse of the mobile phone company
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
. The author is David J. Cord, an American expatriate living in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
.
Summary
The book covers the history of the company Nokia from 2006 to 2013, during the upheaval in the mobile device industry caused by newcomers
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
,
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
and low-cost competitors. To a lesser extent it also covers
Nokia Solutions and Networks
Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corp ...
, then a joint venture called Nokia Siemens Networks, during the same period.
The main focus of the book is Nokia's decline in the mobile device industry, which culminated in the sale of the handset division to
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
. According to the book major reasons for Nokia's decline include a pervasive bureaucracy leading to an inability to act, destructive internal competition and the failure to realize the importance of lifestyle products like the
iPhone. Other factors include the company's weakness in North America and the botched attempt to move out of hardware into services with
Ovi (Nokia)
Ovi by Nokia ( fi, ovi, translation=door) was the brand for Nokia's Internet services. The Ovi services could be used from a mobile device, computer (through Ovi Suite) or via the web. Nokia focused on five key service areas: Games, Maps, Media, ...
. The book refutes the idea that Nokia was unable to innovate, saying that incompetent middle management hampered attempts to bring innovations to market.
Cord spreads the blame for Nokia's fall onto former CEO
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (born 13 July 1953) chaired the committee for World Design Capital Helsinki 2012, and is the former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Nokia, as well as a former board member of Nokia Siemens Networks.
Career
...
, and the company's faulty organisational structure.
According to the book, the reason Nokia declined to switch to
Android was because
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
was much stronger and executives were afraid to compete against them in that ecosystem.
The author discusses a theory that skewed decision making during the tenure as CEO of
Stephen Elop
Stephen Elop (born 31 December 1963) is a Canadian businessman who most recently worked at Australian telecom company Telstra from April 2016. In the past he had worked for Nokia as its first non-Finnish CEO and later as Executive Vice President ...
was due to his conscious desire to do deals specially favorable to his former employer of Microsoft; Cord admits that Elop’s actions appear suspicious, but maintains that they were all logical at the time in the eyes of subordinate Nokia executives who agreed with the decisions
Development
After the completion of the author’s first book in 2012, ''
Mohamed 2.0: Disruption Manifesto'', his Finnish publisher asked him to write a book about Nokia. Cord initially declined, because he was working on a novel and thought the time wasn’t right to write about the company. When his novel was completed he began work on ''The Decline and Fall of Nokia''.
Reception
The book generated considerable attention from the press as it claims
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...
' co-founder
Scott McNealy
Scott McNealy (born November 13, 1954) is an American businessman. He is most famous for co-founding the computer technology company Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim. In 2004, while still at Sun, ...
had been offered the job of Nokia CEO in 2010 but declined. The board of directors next looked to promote long-time Nokia executive Anssi Vanjoki, but were stymied by major American investors, including
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...
, who demanded an outsider be chosen. The board’s third choice, according to the book, was Stephen Elop of Microsoft. Scott McNealy issued a statement, doubting that he was the "dream candidate" to succeed Kallasvuo and that he was never offered the job.
The process of choosing the CEO in 2010 had previously been wrapped in secrecy, so there was much speculation about Cord’s sources of information. One publication wondered if long-time chairman of the board
Jorma Ollila
Jorma Jaakko Ollila CBE (born 15 August 1950) is a Finnish businessman who was chairman of Royal Dutch Shell from 1 June 2006 to May 2015, and at Nokia Corporation chairman from 1999 to 2012 and CEO from 1992 to 2006. He has been a director of ...
had been the leak.
References
External links
Finnish publisher’s official siteAmerican marketer’s official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Decline and Fall of Nokia
Books about computer and internet companies
2014 non-fiction books
Nokia