Monday, 19 October 2015

Consequences of missing out on learning: Classic case of Nokia’s acquisition by Microsoft




Nokia was once the undisputed king of the mobile phone market across the globe. Yet, it failed to evade an acquisition by Microsoft. Experts, analysts and masters of the industry observed that Nokia never put a foot wrong in its decisions and functioning. Yet, it was obtained by Microsoft. A bigger perspective of looking at the situation certainly clears all doubts. Nokia was never bad; it was just that its opponents turned out to be too strong for their liking. In its vast years of perfection, Nokia did one thing wrong- if failed to catch up with time!

Nokia didn’t change with time; it did not learn new things with changing trends and changing demands. This didn’t weaken them; they succeeded the way they had been. They never lagged behind in the race. But, since they didn’t learn, their opponents showed up to be faster every year. In a vibrant market, like mobiles, it is very essential to be on top of the pecking order. Nokia had been there, but with lesser upgrading, it was toppled and acquired by Microsoft.

Even when the press conference, where Nokia was announcing that it had been acquired by Microsoft, was going on people in Nokia were still wondering what did they do wrong? The fact was they didn’t do the right thing- learn and upgrade for greater challenges. Eventually, what is a challenge today will be the standard tomorrow; there is always scope for the better. Firms need to understand that if they don’t ‘learn’ they won’t ‘change’ and if they don’t ‘change’ they will be overtaken by the ones who are hungrier and more willing to upgrade to the demands and changing market trends.


The ideal way to tackle the challenge of changing times is to train your employees and keep upgrading their skill sets in order to make them capable of taking challenges head on! 

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