The Internal Reasons for Nokia’s Failure Essay Example
The Internal Reasons for Nokia’s Failure Essay Example

The Internal Reasons for Nokia’s Failure Essay Example

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  • Pages: 10 (2666 words)
  • Published: January 27, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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With the nearly 150 years legend experiences, Nokia, a paper producer in the past and a leader of global mobile phone manufactures at present, is a rare star brand in the North Europe and a decisive power of Finland’s economy. Everybody are wondering what on earth bring about Nokia’s dilemma while witness its’ failure. Considering the shift in the mobile market, the trend of paying more attention to innovation and customer service, and comparison with Iphone and HTC’s successes, this dissertation discusses the internal causes of Nokia’s loss.

On this basis, the thesis put forward the key opinion that even the greatest enterprise collapse without creativity and keeping up the trend. The research points out: on the condition of present market competition, innovation means breaking manufacture’s own limits, realizing the board fusion on current solid foundation. And innovation also not only means changes in product’

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s appearance and function, but also providing diverse and meticulous service which can maintain customer’s loyalty and even is becoming more important than the former.

Key words: Innovation, Creativity, customer needs, Fashion Trend, Conservatism, Strategic Cooperative Partnership,Business Model In the era of concussion of economic globalization tide, acceleration of technological changes, and increasing uncertainty of business environment, the factor which determines the enterprise’s fate is no longer the technique, but the business model. During the period of over one hundred year’s development process, Nokia has underwent several successful business transformation: from paper production, to rubber production, to electric cable production, and at last to present mobile phone production.

In the 90th of last century, Nokia defeated the old overlord--Motorola successfully through constant introduction of new products

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in the digital era, strong brand power, and stationery marketing mode. Nevertheless, under the inevitable trend of mobile internet, it fades away in people’s vision, and fails again and again in launching star products which can meet the need of mobile internet service. Meanwhile, other competitors, such as Apple and HTC, clear and definite the strategic focus as design and innovation, and has successfully launched many star products and services.

The factors such as voice quality, the durability of battery, and resistance to knock which were put into emphasis by Nokia in the past seem no longer appeal to customers. Just as Steven Elop, CEO of Nokia, said in the internal memos, “the success of Apple illustrates that so long as the design is perfect; customer is willing to pay more for mobiles which can provide outstanding end-user experiences, and the developer will also designs new applicants with pleasure. They (Apple, HTC, and Android System) change the competition structure, and succeed to occupy the high-end market. Nowadays, traditional advantages such as scale, brand, distribution channel etc, are on longer the decisive strength of competition. The product’s design and development which fulfill customers’ need can gain the larger share of the market ultimately. In the current, Nokia still is the biggest mobile phone company in the world, and own a huge innovation team. But the innovation system like this which only focuses on meeting needs, not on crating needs will lead Nokia Dynasty to the end.

The urgent need of Nokia is not the “meet” or “discover”, but a revolutionary create which can help to realize customer value proposition. And this is the key

of business model innovation. Failure of Nokia The Condition of Nokia In accordance with the report published by Strategy Analytics, the market research firm, and IDC, in the past year, Apple and Samsung ended Nokia’s leading position in the sales volume of smart phones which last 15 years. In this year, Nokia drop two, the position now row third.

Since the first launch of Communicator Smart Phone in 1996, Nokia has been the leader of the market. However, in the last year, with the pace of sales keeping fall and the pressure from strong competitors, Nokia lost out in two positions inexorably. From April to June in last year, Apple sold a total of 20,300,000 Iphone. And according to the prediction of analyst, because of the strong demand for Google Android platform smart phones in the market, Samsung’s smart phones sold in the second quarter in last year counted up to 19,000,000, far surpassed the sales of 16,700,000 of Nokia.

Meanwhile, Nokia not only face the competition from Apple and Google in the high-end market in Europe, but also being challenged by low-end manufactures in the emerging market of Asia. In New Delhi, in Shanghai, or in Johannes burg, cheap cell phones from China and India are threatening the predominant position of Nokia in the emerging market. What making this Finnish Giant’s condition worse is that Asian manufactures are all turning to the free Android platform, which is very popular in operators and consumers.

The competition in the cheap mobile phone market will become more and more serious, the advantages of Nokia in the field is wildly known brand and extensive distribution

channel. But manufactures, such as ZTE and Huawei, which focused on network devices businesses in the past, also actively develop mobile terminal business. Though the sales volume of the smart phone of Nokia still rank first in the world, Apple, Samsung, HTC and RIM are keeping eroding its’ market share. The Definition of Enterprise Inertia

The enterprise will has its own experiences of success, forming a kind of particular value orientation, mode of development, process of business, method of management etc, after successfully capturing majority of market share and becoming the leading one of its industry. And all of this will be maintained and developed by enterprise’s leaders in every generation. Meanwhile, bigger the scale of enterprise is, stronger the power of inertia is. Coming into a conclusion, the above mentioned is enterprise inertia, which make enterprises naturally depend on past successful path.

In the time of gigantic changes, enterprise inertia has become kind of secret killer. Globally fiercer competition, higher consumption, upgrading industries, market segmentation, diversification of consumption, generate frequent alternation of aims of competition which is developing into diversification with clearer uncertainty of variation tendency. All around the world, it is harder to manage a longevial company, on matter in western or eastern countries. During the past several years, neither one of the US Fortune top 500 companies can keep the No. position over 3 years. Similarly, greater change happened in china inland enterprise top 1000 ranking list. Enterprises and even one industry’s lifecycle are shortening which demonstrate less impossibility of built to last. Facing the shift of environment, enterprise inertia has peremptorily become secret killer of enterprises which stick to

old rules and practice, moving toward to decline, and is represented by Nokia and Kodak. Nokia’s Enterprise Inertia In 1992, Nokia launched the first GSM phone—1011.

During the rudimentary period of mobile phone development, Nokia’s products pervaded seven continents because of increasing market opportunities and low consumer maturity. In the meanwhile, Nokia also formed its competitive edge in the market included good quality of product and communication, well-developed distribution channel system, various product line which cover all price stages and perfect after-sale system. However, the tables may have turned. The dynamic change of environment will erode enterprises’ primary core competence.

While the mobile phone market step into the smart phone era, mobile phone software operating system is being attached more importance. In 2007, the development of Iphone has leaded a new trend of mobile industry. But Nokia puzzled by its immediate excellent sales performance without noticing a crisis brought about by Apple. Nokia’s enterprise inertia makes it lag in response to new situation. Being Proud of its product quality, insisting the hardware is the top priority together form its’ product design-oriented corporate culture and organization structure.

Though realizing the importance of software, it in really hard for Nokia rapidly adapts to turn of the market. Enterprise inertia results in present situation that Nokia stand still and refuse to make progress in the field of smart phone. In reality, the idea of smart phone is proposed by Nokia earlier 3 years than Apple. Similarly, Nokia also developed touch technology earlier 3 years than Apple, while its Ovi launched 1year earlier than AppStore. However, Nokia lost market opportunities due to its blind arrogance.

justify">And on the other hand, the product quality which good enough to make Nokia proud frequently encounter customers’ compliant recently. Distribution Channel Crisis FD (Fulfillment Distribute), which was developed by Nokia as new mode of distribution channel in china, had been praised by industry participants for many years. FD is very effective for increase of mobile phone sales volume. Nokia successfully attracted many distributors ,forming the strategy of“encircling the city form the rural areas” and the huge channel system because its small profits and quick turnover.

But recently, this kind of channel mode, which helped Nokia defeat Motor and occupy the No. 1 position of china market share, repeatedly encountered problems. In the fourth quarter of 2010, owing to Nokia’s insufficient in market expectation, there was a serious shortage for a time in the market. In the first quarter of 2011, though supplies return to normal, Nokia’s product experienced with the severe winter because of reduced consumption ability. With overstocking of last quarter’s products, distributors were too deep for tears.

In the second quarter of 2011, agitation of distributor boycott broke out; the disadvantages of Nokia’s marketing channel in china became visible. Under the condition of lacking competitive new products, the channel crisis is still in the extension. The Problem in the Product Line With regards to product line, the market segmentation strategy which is pursued by Nokia all the time and wins Nokia the biggest market share also is being brought into doubt. Nevertheless, with the shift of market environment, Nokia is being bounded on all sides, all of high-end, mid-market and low-priced segment.

And with the lager and lager scale,

profit is becoming small. Let me cite Chinese market as an example, In the high-end, Nokia’s field is invaded by Iphone. Android System mobile phones represented by HTC attack its middle and high-end market and are going to invade its middle and low-end market. As far as low-priced market being concerned, emulational mobile phone has occupied majority of it. Take a panoramic view of the situation, Nokia is getting hooked in the “Red Sea” of competition, but can’t focus on developing a popular new product.

Out-dated Design Concept Definition of Design Concept Design concept is the leading idea which was established by designer while design products. Design concept endows the product with distinctive cultural connotation, style and characteristic. Outstanding design concept is of crucial importance. It not only is the essence of design, but also individualizes, specializes and distinguishes the product. Nokia’s Design Concept To Nokia, the really outstanding mobile phone design definitely does not only depend on its style.

Design not only should polish product’s appearance, but also make product work to meet people’s need. So, “Designing beautiful appearance, providing beloved experience” is just the core concept of Nokia’s design effort and brand. According to this concept, during past decade, Nokia by all means to discover what consumer needs most, and then fulfill people’s requirement as much as possible, meanwhile, also investing a significant amount of effort in ethnology, group studies and market segmentation strategy.

Every designer in the company will be asked to undergo one kind of training called “Scene Design” which teaches designer how to get customer’s need and design products according to the need. In order to supply

demands of various clients, Nokia has designed numerous mobile phones counting to over 1000 types. Facing so many choices, consumers easily feel disoriented and always choose the cheapest one in consideration of controlling risk and meeting the operation requirement which result in decrease of average price of Nokia year by year. This kind of “better satisfy customer’s demands” design idea may be effective for improved products.

However, while the society calls on new and multifunctional Mobile Terminal with the coming of the era of Mobile Internet, what consumer wants most is not the improved design but revolutionary innovation. Obviously, the design concept following the tradition cannot bring us unexpected surprise. However, being compared with Nokia, Apple has only launched four types of mobile phone. Apple did not take convenience of communication, convenience of button into consideration, nor developed mobile phone for the children, the elder people, students, amusement use due to the user differences.

Not only Apple’s design hinder Iphone from being best seller , but also make the image of Iphone more solid, precise, and profound in consumer’s mind. When talk about Iphone, everyone can recall its unique appearance at once. Conversely, no one can exactly tell what Nokia looks like. Not just Apple, late-comers of the market, such as Samsung and HTC, also has developed their own distinctive, exquisite-designed, epoch-making landmark products including Galaxy of Samsung, Flyer of HTC.

To speak of MOTOR, the former defeated opponent of Nokia, keep in step with the pace of the market closely, delivering nearly 10 kinds of new products with high cost effective which was deserved to be mentioned. By contrast, people did

not see any innovative products of Nokia walking on the stage. In the day of rapid development of smart phone, Nokia still impresses us with its rigid and inflexible products. Its change in form but not in content and design make Nokia distance itself from modern society farther away. Innovation Lags The result of adhering to past practices is turning advantages to disadvantages.

As the old saying goes, it’s easier for ordinary people to start business and harder for incumbents to defend their territory. Under this kind of condition, innovative idea and behavior are in more urgent need. The slogan of “Connecting People” makes Nokia gain a prestigious foothold in the market which is full of competitors. The quality and technique of its products were being considered as spokesman of brand cell phones for a long period of time. As soon as delivered, its new products received a public market in hot pursuit just as today’s Iphone. Nokia used to be an innovation pioneer.

For example, taking a lead in using slid cover technique on cell phones, leading off improving screen resolution, and being the first one to choose Carl Zeiss VarioTessar, all of these were Nokia’s past remarkable innovation. Regrettably, in the coming 3G and Mobile Internet time, Nokia fail to be a leading role in the market. Liu Chijin, the former vice president of Nokia China Company,said in the CCTV feature program :“The most important turning point is that Apple developed a new system which turn the cell phone into a minicomputer with majority functions of computers in 2007. And Nokia lost the fight in that battle.

Actually, as early

as ten years ago, Nokia had put forward the idea of Mobile Internet. In the end of 20th century, Nokia had come up with the opinion of Mobile Officing, when WAP had not been delivered to the market. In 2000, Jorma Ollila, CEO of the Nokia, even also proposed the slogan of “putting the Internet into pockets” and “Nokia has the strength to become a leading M-commerce company in the world”. However, Nokia underestimated the speed and trend of market and technology development, hesitating to take actions. As a result, it lost the best opportunity and defeated by Apple and HTC.

For decades, Nokia is only known for the best quality of products. But quality is far from enough to satisfy the generation after 80s and 90s in the time of advocating fashion. The creative mode of platform and application, even a new designed appearance of Apple left the stereotyped Nokia far behind. There is no comparison between a large number of applicants, powerful functions, fashionable appearance and just outstanding quality. In all these ways, it’s no wonder that Nokia lose at the starting line in the time of smart phone. Innovation lags make Nokia: lost once, lost forever.

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