Mobile phones are devices that made our life a lot easier since the 90s. Before the 90s, in 1979 Nokia first launched its phone and this was the breakthrough for them as it was a cheap and hard mobile with more durability than other phones.
In 2014 Nokia’s CEO decided to end its operation due to losses. The first major cause was their resistance to smartphone evaluation and they failed to take advantage of Android’s success. Everyone was manufacturing and bringing new advancements in smartphones and very soon Samsung and other Android manufacturers launched cost-effective and user-friendly phones. At this time Nokia kept its ego and remained stubborn as their management was in bluff that people would not accept these touch phones. Marketing is as important as the product itself, marketing in the mobile industry is very much important, the attractive advertisements to attract people about it deigns and its new features is important to boost the sales. Creating a flagship store is not enough as it won’t make any sale without the word of mouth and this will hinder the growth. They were not also slow in marketing but also to adapt the changes with technology and new trends.
The top managers had a fear of the growing market and they knew they could not meet quarterly targets. They had a fear that if the public knew about their failing Symbian software which was not anywhere near Apple’s OS, the customer would have left them already, it was confirmed that it will take them several years to build something like that. Everyone was playing the blame game; top managers were blaming middle ones for not meeting their goals and middle management did not feel to tell everything that was happening in the field to the top management. The world in which we are living right now is an open world and there is no shame that if one enterprise joins hands with another in the same industry to build something more innovative and tough to give challenging competition.
While everyone was struggling with the better option of the operating system, Nokia was playing its monopoly and did not focus there. Other enterprises took one step backward to take a big step forward and yes, they did it and dominate the world and kicked one of the biggest rivals in the history of the mobile industry out of the market. From this, we must learn that accepting the change is very important in every department of life not just in business otherwise you will face bad consequences. This is exactly what happened with NOKIA and they lost the battle. They took too long to embrace the evolution and when they did realize it, it was too late for them. Accepting to change is a must. Enterprises need to focus on 4Cs not on 4Pc now as if their customer will be happy then eventually, they will be the happiest and most growing firm.
MEEKAL ABDULLAH
LAHORE
