Question

As the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, Nokia, the Finnish company, is a “powerhouse in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with market shares regularly topping 30 percent”. However, in the United States, Nokia phones have lost popularity over the last few years. In March 2002, Nokia led the American market with 35 percent market share. By June of 2009, its share was only 7 percent. What happened and more importantly, what is Nokia doing about it?

As mobile phone usage skyrocketed, Nokia was the most popular choice. It was the “cool” phone—the one that everyone, from business executive to high school student to stay-at-home-mom wanted. In 2005, Nokia had just launched the N series, an innovative new line with a Web browser, video, music, and pictures in a single phone. That device moved Nokia a generation ahead in the race to build the first real smart phone. The “forecast for Nokia was as sunny and clear as an endless Finnish summer day.” Then came Apple and its iPhone with its clever touch screen and sophisticated software and services. With rave reviews and a reputation for being cool, customers flocked to buy one. However, Nokia executives dismissed the iPhone, saying they were “unimpressed by its engineering.”

Now, three years after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, Nokia still has no alternative. It did not anticipate changes in American consumer tastes, like flip phones or touch screens. Another major strategic blunder 246 PART THREE | PLANNING was that its models were based on a European communications standard called GSM when roughly half the United States market used the CDMA (code division multiple access) format. One former Nokia executive said, “Nokia, at the height of its success, decided not to adapt its phones for the U.S. market. That was a mistake and they’re still trying to recover from this.” An executive at a North American network operator said, “The attitude at Nokia was basically: Here is a phone. Do you want it? Nokia wouldn’t play by the rules here, and they have paid a price.” That arrogant attitude and the global economic slowdown have continued to hurt the company’s sales and earnings.

Meanwhile, Nokia set up liaison offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, and Parsippany, New Jersey, cities where the top American operators have big business units. And it has recently revamped its U.S. operations to collaborate more closely with those major operators. For example, AT&T has begun billing its customers who use Nokia services, keeping those customers from receiving a second bill from Nokia. Best Buy began carrying a Nokia netbook, which is a model for its new collaborative strategy. Nokia also forged a deal with Qualcomm, the largest maker of mobile phone chips for CDMA devices in the United States. It also struck a deal with Microsoft to design Windows Office Mobile software applications for phones that use Nokia’s Symbian operating system. Despite these efforts, however, some industry executives remain unimpressed. One analyst said, “They claim they get it and understand the U.S. market. But the execution still is not there.” Mark Louison, president of Nokia’s North American unit, who has a seat on Nokia’s global management board, said, “In the past, we had a one-size-fits-all mentality that worked well on a global basis but did not help us in this market. That has changed now.” The company recognized that its former strategy had not worked in North America and began trying to lay the groundwork for long-term success. Louison says, “Everything you see us doing is to build the broad set of capabilities to take us broader and deeper into the U.S. market.”

1. Where on the BCG Matrix would you place iPhone and Nokia brands? Where would you place any newly developed products of Iphone on BCG Matrix? Explain. (15)

2. What type of control—feedforward, concurrent, or feedback—do you think would be most important in this situation? Explain your choice (10)

3. What immediate corrective action have been used in this situation? How about basic corrective action? (10)

4. What strategies is Nokia using to revitalize its North American business? (10)

Answer 1

I would place the Nokia in a question mark, as we are not very certain of the future of the product but the product is into the high growth market now. The phones which are being launched by Nokia now are into the same category of the smartphone which is growing exponentially but the product from NOKIA is still a question mark. While I will put the iPhone in the start category and its products are also in most of the time in start category where the company spends a lot to promote and then gradually over a period of time they convert them into the cash cows and in the start category they bring new innovation in smartphones.

In the highly dynamic and competitive market of smartphone, it would be better to have feedforward control system as this system will trigger the control actions before the damage is done and there will be sufficient time at hand to control the situation and a better-planned strategy can be executed through the feedforward control.

The immediate corrective action which NOKIA is using now is to first build the network with the operators who can act as the influencers in the market and the second change is in product adaptation, now NOKIA is adopting and bringing the change in the product which can be sold in US market as per the customer's taste and preference. Now NOKIA is trying to do the makeup of the damage which they had in the past due to their attitude where the arrogance led to the sudden decline of the brand. Now the company has a more customer-oriented strategy rather than going for the product-focused approach.