Big Challenge

How would you like to be faced with the problem of hiring and assimilating10,000 new employees located in over 43 countries into your company next year? Or what would you do for an encore after growing your business from $500 million in 1988 to $20 billion in 1999? And how could you possibly bring along all of your suppliers in a way that insures you of getting quality supplies in the quantity you need? These are just some of the issues facing Pakka Ala-Pietila, President of Nokia.

I recently had the opportunity to hear Mr. Ala-Pietila speak about the challenges facing his company. He explained that Nokia actually started out in 1865 as a forestry company with a founder with an entrepreneurial spirit and a positive outlook on challenges. It was only in 1965 after a series of mergers that Nokia became involved in the communications industry. Now, of course, they are the world's leading supplier of mobile phones as well as a top supplier of mobile and fixed telecom networks and services.

So how can you accomplish what Nokia has in the last decade? Mr. Ala-Pietila said they do it by having two basic anchors and a set of core business processes from which they work. The first anchor is their vision for the future -- to be the supplier for the Mobile Information Society. In order to reach the future as they see it, fully one third of their 55,000 employees are employed in research and development.� With their six-month business planning cycle, they are predicting that by 2003 there will be more handsets connected to the Internet than PC�s.� He said they try to make mistakes as early as possible.� �If you make mistakes too late you can�t catch up.��

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The second anchor is their culture or values that they call the �Nokia Way.�� It is impossible to completely express all that is included in the Nokia Way, but some of the elements are: customer satisfaction, respect for the individual, achievement, continuous learning, proud of results but humble for the future, and fact based management.� Clear targets, exact plans, strong alignment, and common modular processes (plug and play processes) are included in fact based management.

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Nokia follows three core business processes. In their Product Creation process they plan for short life cycles and incorporate increasing customer expectations and high requirements for manufacturability.� In the Delivery process they constantly strive to integrate their worldwide supplier base and global logistics network through an e-business approach. �And in their Management processes they deal with the personnel growth and diversity inherent in a global company.� They try to make management transparent.� They expect Nokia to perform more like a jazz band then an orchestra playing classical music.� Both types of music have rules but there is more room for creativity in the jazz band.� They feel this is necessary in such a fast paced business.

So what is the bottom line? It is obvious that the same principles Mr. Ala-Pietila is using to lead Nokia can be applied to your company. You need the vision, the values, the mission, the processes, and the measures laid out for all to follow. Nokia is a living example of how it can be done.