Nokia - A Strategic Goof Up?

Once someone told me there is nothing as a failed entrepreneur, because till the time an entrepreneur succeeds, all his failures are nothing but part of his efforts. Similarily when I see Nokia, I do not see it as a goof up, but a failure. Was there anything wrong with Nokia, yes, there was, and many things went wrong for them, some were expected, others were not so expected.

Nokia, which started as a pulp, rubber and cable manufacturing company, was the leading manufacturer of mobile devices till 2007. Their mobile phones were known for their reliability and the company who sensed the consumer’s needs quickly. It offered a wide range of mobile devices with a wholesome experience in music, video, imaging, gaming and a lot more to its consumers.

There were two markets, high end and low end mobile devices market. Till 2007 Nokia was dominating High End Market with its N-Series phones, while it gave several products in Low End Market to serve all the market segments. Now to see how from being a market leader how Nokia became a market struggler, these two markets need to be discussed in detail, and the incidents which happened in these markets.

Low End Mobile Devices

Even before any smartphone appeared in the market, it was this market segment which was responsible for major part of Nokia’s profits. The reason behind it is not hard to guess, Nokia evolved with the evolving telecommunication industry, there were rarely any competitors in the market. As a responsible company Nokia should have seen the threats of the future. It was not hard to see even at that time that as the telecommunication industry would grow more and more players would enter the market.

The biggest mistake was to completely ignore the biggest threat, China. Almost whole world is flooded with Chinese products, and sooner or later, appearance of Chinese phones in every market, especially in under-developed and developing markets was not hard to guess. These two factors, just like the shark’s jaw took the chopped off a major chunk of Nokia’s market share.

The problems for Nokia didn’t stop here, to make matters worse, Chinese market was not even organized. Since Chinese companies always came up with ‘look alike’ mobile phones, their R&D for mobile phones was negligible, and coupled with Chinese efficient operations, the mobile phones became at a very low cost, which made it tougher for Nokia to compete at cost.

Nokia failed at many fronts; first of all it could not make barriers for new entrants in the mobile phone markets, and secondly it did not add sufficient value added services in the phones to avoid competition from such low priced, low quality mobile phones. Can it be called a goof up of its own kind, yes, to some extent, but more than that I would blame the short sightedness and complacent attitude of the senior managers of Nokia. This market today is still dominated by Nokia, but its market share is the reminiscence of its glorious past.

High End Mobile Devices

This is the part which has acted like the last nail in Nokia’s coffin. The future for mobile phones was guessed almost by every mobile device manufacturer, and everybody made their own attempts to be the first one and the best one in the future. Apple launched iPhone, while Samsung came with Galaxy. Nokia also came up with its own smartphones; they were somewhat like a low budgeted movie which failed without making any buzz.

The “summer – cottage culture” of Nokia  lacked innovation and Entrepreneurial spirit. Every summer since 2007 while  Apple Inc. shipped a new iPhone, Nokia  managers vacationed at their lake cottages in Finland. This shows and tells many things about the company, being careless and complacent are few of the characters, but even more importantly it shows Nokia has no real leader when the time demands them.

The problem with Nokia was not that the phones were not good enough, they still were of high quality, but the problem was they did not understand the market and its competitors. The battle had advanced to another era, while Nokia insisted to fight in the traditional ways. The new CEO of Nokia, chose following words to describe Nokia’s mistake and the market –

Stephen Elop

“The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we're going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.”

But can we really call it a goof up, I don’t see it as a goof up because Nokia took the necessary steps in the direction which they thought is the current one. It is a mistake, but certainly not a goof up. The Symbian operating system couldn’t sustain itself, it was certainly a bold gamble, but not a goof up. As an afterthought one may say that taking such gambles is not a good idea for a company which is struggling to survive.

These two failure has costed Nokia dearly, while for 2012, the operating losses are at a billion dollar, one fifth of the Nokia’s staff has been shown the exit gate. The new CEO Stephen Elop has taken up the toughest job in his career. As he said “Nokia was standing on a burning platform”, he actually summarized the whole problem, the competition was tough, and competitors were way ahead. Nokia indeed looks like a lost cause as of now. But the real question is “Do you really think so?” I don’t.

The way I see it, Nokia is going through the necessary changes it had to go through. As we all know with ten years of successful run, Nokia had become lethargic, lazy and complacent, it just needs to restructure itself, bring some good values in the system and shed some flab to be the lean auick and agile company which is a necessity in today’s world.

There are many steps which indicate that Nokia is on road to recovery, like collaboration with Microsoft, for using Windows mobile platform. As I see it, it is a clever deal not just because Windows is better than Symbian, but also because it allows risk mitigation. The failure and cost of failure will be shared by both Microsoft and Nokia, and not by Nokia alone as earlier was the case with Symbian. Restructuring will also help in breaking the vices which had covered the original values for long.

Why do I think Nokia is still alive, a late started by all means, but not a hopeless cause. I would like to believe that Nokia is the late bloomers, and it would be what it was, mobile devices leader. I do not want to believe Nokia will ever be out of the game because I have my own memories with Nokia, and I have seen it ever since I started using mobile devices. Nokia fans are still hoping the best for the company, but even if Nokia fails, I think they will be missed dearly by their lovers.

Animal Farm - Not a Book Review

I don’t know if this is truly a review for this book, a major reason may be that most of the people pass out of high school having read a book and written a book report too sometimes; thanks to our education system, somehow I skipped that complete episode. At this age, if I write a book review, it wouldn’t be fair; on the internet there is no shortage of different reviews. One more additional review is not going to make any difference; the difference lies in how and what lessons can be taken away from this classic.

Animal Farm is a satirical allegory – the different characters portray different characters of Russian revolution; given the era in which this book was written, it is obvious. I would talk about two characters who I believe are the two kinds of people we see in our society. First would be the Boxer, one of the farm’s cart horses, the strongest and hardest worker on the farm. Initially, his motto was “I will work harder”, and later when the going got tough he shrugged every bit of doubt out of his mind and made his motto to be “Napoleon is always right”.

On the other hand, Benjamin was the ill-tempered, cynical donkey of the farm. His kind was completely detached from whatever happens in the world, because they have accepted that things would always be the same and would always be bad. He worked as usual, never did anything extra, and never expected anything extra.

Of course Benjamin was right, things did go from bad to worse. Benjamin is the voice of the author, as well as the contemporary strategists who saw the consequences of the Russian Revolution. But it is Boxer that influenced me the most, as it is Boxer who at least tried to believe that his actions and contributions would make a difference to society. I do not say it is the best way to approach a problem or issue, but it is definitely better than doing nothing and simply accepting destiny.

As every author adds irony and a little spice in the story, Orwell made Benjamin and Boxer close friends; though completely opposite, they still had deep mutual respect for each other. I do not know what could have been the reason behind it but as I see it, the author probably wanted to say something like this -

“There are seven billion people in this world, and seven billion unique ways to live life, no one knows which one is the best, so let’s live ours the way we want to, let others live the way they want to.”

Coming back to the book, lots of people say it is about socialism, and how it is bad for the society. But considering the fact that Orwell was himself a socialist, I do not think it is entirely about the evils of socialism. I do not deny that this book cannot be the product of a broken-hearted man who expected a lot from socialism, but still it is about more than just socialism.

To me, the book talks about the two aspects of life: first, about the little seed of corruption which is present in every single one of us, and the other aspect about how history can be changed. The revolution was started with a very good intention; it was the little seed of corruption present in the hearts of everyone, especially the pigs who ended up taking control of the whole farm with Napoleon as the ruler. The second aspect can be justified by the fact that the seven noble commandments were changed from time to time, and ultimately nobody remembered what the actual seven commandments were. It shows how easy it is to change, manipulate and sometimes even wipe out history. A similar message was the main theme behind another Orwell’s classic 1984.

The book also tries to shred to pieces one of the most basic assumptions for any process or action –‘humans are rational animals’. We are not. If someone asks me to explain in one word why the revolution didn’t work, I would say ‘irrationality’. The revolution was too idealistic from the start, there was no room to compensate for our inherent irrationality. The whole story revolves around nothing but the betrayal of ideals.

The irony of life is that despite such a story, full of answers and lessons, similar events continue to occur. In the most recent past, the credit crisis that started in 2008 can be seen as a similar happening. It took place because of our irrational thoughts and greed, which is nothing but a form of corruption.

Companies like Enron, who started so well, and looked so promising does not exist at present, and the reason behind it is obvious - the initial seed of corruption had flourished into a full-blown tree inside those who led the company. From being a company promising solutions in the energy sector, they dreamt of ruling and controlling the energy distribution network. Can we call it a betrayal of ideals, in my opinion yes, in the truest sense.

In a broader sense, I would like to say that this book teaches us only one thing - when the journey is long, and the hurdles are too many to count, there is one thing we should not forget is the reason we took the first step of this journey. Irrationality and corruption are bound to creep in, and there should be mechanisms to avoid or neutralize them. Even then, I do not think a journey can end with the same objectives with which it was started, but the least we can do is try.

Exit

It feels weird, awkward to have left the things I cherished most. And the fact that I did it, just kills me. Did I feel the pain, yes sir, more than I had imagined. Why do people have to be so complex, even if things are not fine, can't they just give a hug and tell the other person things would be fine, just hold on, have patience. I know I haven't been what you wanted me to be, but I promise I shall try. Why people give up so easily, I didn't, and they know it. Why can't someone fight for me, even a bit. I do not know, probably I'll never get to know.

Be the Girlfriend - The Art of Thinking Out of the Box

People always get amazed when they see something they have never seen before, something which is truly new and fresh. Such an idea, product or act compels us to admire the person behind it. And we often end up asking how they even think about such a thing, how can they; how to think out of the box when the bloody box is so big? I agree, the box is big, and as always we are used to it, comfortable in it, so how do we start if we need to generate an out-of-the-box idea.

That’s where the girlfriend comes in; no, I am not asking you to find a girlfriend. (By the way, if you seriously don’t have one, stop reading and just go and get one first, dude). So it is crazy to even think that girlfriends can have any relation with such an issue. Well there is, and I am going to tell you how in the following few steps that are quick and easy, I assure you.

Be the Complaining ‘Bitch’ Girlfriend – Yes, that’s the first step! I am sure you must have experienced this, how a girl initially finds a guy so perfect and then after some time starts to complain about one thing or the other. Do it. I know you like the box, but if you want to think out of the box regarding a particular idea, issue or product, complain and ask yourself what you don’t like in it. At this point it is very important to note that you do not start thinking about what you want, just keep thinking various things you don’t like. Just as I said, be the complaining bitch girlfriend.

The Break-Up – We all know what happens when the rate and quantity of a girlfriend’s complaints cross all limits, yes the break up. So who am I to change the law of nature? It is actually time for a break up. Once you have done all the complaining part, break up with the box in which/with which you were so comfortable, and you have enough reasons (complaints) to do so as well. Stop thinking of the box, ignore it (as our elders said Ignorance is Bliss), trust me it is bliss, just do it. Give yourself some time to ignore the box, just as it takes time to come out of a break up. Once you have mastered ignoring the box, comes the third and last step.

Find a New One – After break ups, I don’t think girls remain single for long, there is always someone better than the previous one. That’s what you have to do, look for the new box, take all the complaints which you kept bombarding the older box with, keep thinking and keep looking, the new box is not that far. It has always been there, you just needed to go through the journey before you actually noticed it. I will not say that this step is easy, and if you noticed I never asked you to think what kind of box you need, no that would be a mistake. I never asked you to do this because I wanted your brain to think, not search. Thinking is important, way more important than searching for an answer. Let your brain take its time, and trust me you will come up with that out-of-the-box idea you were looking for.

This is how the brain works in the last step - it takes all your previous experiences, all of it, irrespective of whether it is related to the issue at hand or not, then it takes all the complaints for which you left the old box and kept looking for an answer, like a mathematical iteration it slowly does everything, and the end result is exactly what you wanted, an out-of-the-box idea. So now you know what to do when the need arises, just be a complaining girlfriend forever. Good Luck!

Drowning the Sober Self

It’s amazing how movies influence one’s own perceptions, how movies make us presume us things we would have thought about hundred times before deciding anything. Same is the case with drinking, many people ask me why do I drink? And my standard reply is “guess?”

Almost all the time I get the same reply, to forget something, “someone”! But do I? Or did u just assumed it be the reason since its portrayed this way in the movies? Well in any case the reason is so wrong, I do nothing but laugh.

Should I reveal the real reason? Well most of the times I drink because I want to. But I know what you want to know, the darker reasons. And I won’t deny, I really have darker reasons. It’s not to forget the failures, the lost love, the wounds, the pain, but I think to live those moments again without feeling the guilt or shame of living those darkest moments again, which are preceded by the life’s best moments. It’s the guilt which I want to drown, because no matter what my past is mine, no one can deny it. Not living in those moments is not an option, or probably I don’t want such an option. It’s a necessity for me. Because these were the moments which have shaped me. How can I forget them?

It’s this world which laughs at you when you express the desire to live in the past. Being sane for a long time makes me insane, for I see the ridiculous world, the stupid laws, expectations, assumptions, perceptions. It is all this that I try to drown when I drink. For those few hours I live in the past, where I want to be, I visit the corners of my heart again and again, where I want to hide myself.

Just for few hours. Is it too much to ask? I don’t know why we can’t see a human being as a simple human being different from his actions, habits, looks. Are we nothing else, were we supposed to be this hollow that few very obvious things could define us? Why aren't we able to ignore all the perceptions and assumptions when we meet someone for the first time? It is this inability which I try to drown in the alcohol. Staying sober for long is as pathetic as being buried alive. You don’t believe it? Well it is this disbelief which I want to drown.

Whats There On That Foreign Land

Whats there on that foreign land,

Same is the earth, same is the sand

You will find some faces distinct

But all souls work on instincts

Grass always looks greener on the other side

There is nothing you can't experience, if you are beside (me)

Whats there on that foreign land,

Same is the earth, same is the sand

Child Labour - An Emotional Issue

As I write this, I feel ashamed of being sure that within a radius of fifty meters there are many children working. Not just working, they are working under harsh conditions, for extremely low wages and for prolonged durations. This is not exactly an issue of child labor alone; it includes child abuse as well. It is not about crushing millions of innocent dreams and brighter possibilities; it is also about how they suffer every single day. During my research on child labor, I came across several relevant articles on the internet. What disturbed me the most is the monotonous tone of every article, as if the whole article was not written by a human being but was generated through a machine, and corrupted by numerous statistical charts and tables. The sufferings and harassments are measured in percentages. Isn’t it disturbing to present child labor as another business issue?  Where are the strong feelings and emotions? After all what can motivate a man better, than the underlying emotions.

I do not want to talk about the reforms needed to diminish or eradicate child labor, because this is a step we have not even reached. Before even thinking about reforms, I believe it is extremely necessary for the people to feel the sufferings of the children, strongly relate to the families these children come from. It is just about being human again. The day we would start feeling the pain, half of the battle would be won. Because these strong feelings would work as fuel to the burning motivation. And nothing can stop a society which is dedicated and motivated to work against it.

There are several reforms on both national and international level, which are being employed, but what all these reforms lack is that there is no one to ensure that these reforms are carried out in the best possible way, that it should be done in exactly the way it was supposed to be. I find not a gap but a valley between the battleground and the soldiers. You cannot win a war if you are scared of getting your hands dirty. The need of the hour is extensive work at the grass root level. Reforms need to be checked periodically, and the system should be properly aligned, if it is ambitious enough to win the battle.

The issue of child labor cannot be resolved in a matter of days; creating the awareness among one billion people itself is a magnanimous task. Instilling the culture of discouraging child labor and child abuse would need perseverance and dedicated hours of the people who actually want to see the change, not just talk about it.

This brings me to another question which needs to be answered if we want to cover an inch of this long journey. Who are the people working for this cause and who should actually be working for it? Should it be the government, or NGOs or certain individuals? I would not completely reject the roles of any of the parties involved in the reforms. I believe that involvement of all the parties is very important. Government is nothing but a mirror of a society. Till the time we would not take up this issue seriously, the government would never be serious about it either. As a matter of fact none of the parties involved would ever be able to contribute if we the general people who constitute the society would become serious about it. It is easy to say the government should make policies and rules and regulations to curb child labor down, how many of us have made any effort to force the government to make these policies and run them effectively. How many of us have expressed our dissatisfaction, and demanded a better performance by the government. It can be done in several ways like filing for RTIs, forcing the ministers to make the child labor part of their election manifestos during general and state elections.

For a country with a population over a billion the numbers of NGOs working for this cause are very less. NGOs need to be encouraged to fight for this cause, and that encouragement has to come from us, the society, and the government. If government makes the policies then NGOs can be appointed to supervise the execution of these policies and reforms. A little more strengthening of the authority of NGOs and little monetary help can yield unexpected results. Responsibility without authority would never work; it is almost as if the soldiers in a battleground without guns.

The society itself will have to play an important role if child labor has to be eradicated. The sensitivity towards child labor has to be increased. The attitude of not tolerating even a single case of child labor has to be instigated in the society. If we billion people cannot work for the future of our country, then who would work for this cause, the children itself? They are too young and innocent; their voice is too frail to break the sleep hibernating society and the government; their still growing body is too weak to bear the burden of reforms and policies. If we can use the children for our selfish purposes then there is no difference between us and the animals living in the woods.

Now it is our choice what do we want to be, animals or humans. Being human takes some effort and differentiating ourselves from the animals would take the continual untiring work of the society. The purpose of this article is not to tell you what child labor is, nor is it to give you the statistical figures and classification of child labor. As I said I would not even talk about them, internet is full of such articles, and I do not wish to write just another article. The purpose of this article is to ignite that small spark which would one day spread like fire and would burn this issue of child labor by its roots.

One day shall come when not even a single child has to wake up in the morning and get ready to work. This is my dream, and it is the dream of millions of children who are living by this hope that someday this dream would come true. Their eyes are full of expectations, and they are looking at us to save them from their misery. Its your time to act, its your time to decide. The ball is in your court. Play well.