Nokia branded smartphone fashions 5, 6 and three are on show throughout a press convention of Finnish cell phone maker HMD Global in Helsinki.
| Photo Credit: EMMI KORHONEN
Shiv Shivakumar
HMD has simply introduced that it’ll be launching its personal branded smartphones in 2024. This raises a query mark over model Nokia’s survival. It additionally made me recall what had set aside Nokia in the times of its pre-eminence. Here are six parts that had been unique to its culture
1. Values constructed backside up: In 2008, when Nokia was recrafting its values, it did so by having 16 cafes internationally the place staff debated and got here up with the values which had been lastly offered to the board. All corporations determine values high down however that was by no means the case in Nokia. Senior managers had been evaluated by means of multisource suggestions on residing the values–the suggestions may come from anybody who interacted with you in the 12 months. 50% of the annual incentive was on enterprise outcomes and 50% was on behaviours exhibited in residing the values.
2. Flat construction, excessive belief culture: Every organisation talks of flat constructions. Nokia had solely six ranges between an Area gross sales supervisor in India and the worldwide CEO. You had a protracted rope; it was your alternative should you wished to swing with it or wished to hold your self. You had been at all times measured on whether or not you probably did the precise factor by the corporate. When Nokia India was a $4 billion firm, we didn’t have an inside audit division. When I requested for it, the worldwide CEO stated, “We trust our people, why would any of our employees ever hurt Nokia.” Some may name it excessive belief, some may name it naivety!
3. Free to disagree, however as soon as closed commit: One may disagree with anybody in any assembly. However, as soon as the assembly closed with a precept of 60% settlement however 100% dedication, then everybody marched to the identical beat. There had been no repercussions for talking up, you had been judged in your affect at work. In 2010, Nokia had a worldwide reorganisation. At that point there have been about 870 blogs in the corporate and one R&D engineer wrote in a weblog “This reorg is like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic”. No one reprimanded him or tried to appropriate him, he went about his job in a standard means, one thing unthinkable in every other firm.
4. A premium for culture: In a gathering with the worldwide board in 2006, I spoke concerning the sizzling expertise market in India and the way a 15% and better wage enhance was the norm. The board shut me up by asking me a easy query – “Are you driving a good culture? What premium are you getting for the culture?” That made me and my staff assume very otherwise about culture. The firm at all times believed (possibly it’s the North European roots) that you just labored for the love and success of the corporate. If the corporate succeeded, then all constituents in the ecosystem would succeed.
5. Reverse mentoring and Responsiveness: Nokia had insurance policies means forward of its time, it had work-from-home in 2009, it had open workplaces in 2010–even the worldwide CEO didn’t have a cabin, it had sizzling desking in 2009, it had flexi workplace occasions to select from. When Nokia was pivoting to web providers, we had reverse mentoring the place younger, succesful and educated managers in the center and junior administration would coach senior managers. So, we had reverse mentorship from the likes of Zairus Master, Navdeep Manaktala and Prashant Dogra in 2010! To drive agility, we had a responsiveness survey each two months the place every division and every division head can be evaluated by everybody in the group on their contribution to creating the organisation agile. The outcomes can be publicly shared in the organisation with out censorship.
6. Humility above all else: One systemic warning in each discussion board would be–never get conceited. Nokia wished its individuals to be humble and grounded and by no means get carried away. Even after we had excellent outcomes, the worldwide CEO would say “Celebrate for a minute and spend the subsequent 59 minutes of the hour planning for the subsequent success. Nokia had a low energy distance culture, and by no means had elaborate PowerPoint shows. In my stint there, I by no means ever used a PPT with the worldwide CEO. He would ask for a web page or two and would focus on it on a flight or over tea, or dinner. The similar was true for world board shows. You needed to ship a two-page notice which might be mentioned, no probability of hiding behind slides!
(Shiv Shivakumar is Operating Partner at Advent International. He headed Nokia India from 2006 to 2011 and was Senior Vice President, Emerging Markets from 2011 to 2013)
