Ringtone: Exploring the Rise and Fall of Nokia in Mobile Phones

In less than three decades, Nokia emerged from Finland to lead the mobile phone revolution. It grew to have one of the most recognizable and valuable brands in the world and then fell into decline, leading to the sale of its mobile phone business to Microsoft. This book explores and analyzes that journey and distils observations and learning points for anyone keen to understand what drove Nokia's amazing success and sudden downfall.

With privileged access to Nokia's senior managers over the last twenty years followed by a more concerted research agenda from 2015, the authors describe and analyze, the various stages in Nokia's journey. The book describes leaders making strategic and organizational decisions, their behavior and interactions, and how they succeeded and failed to inspire and engage their employees. Perhaps most intriguingly, it opens the proverbial 'black box' of why and how things actually happen at the top of organizations.

Why did things fall apart? To what extent were avoidable mistakes made? Did the world around Nokia change too fast for it to adapt? And, did Nokia's success contain the seeds of its failure?


About the Author
Yves Doz is the Solvay Chaired Professor of Technological Innovation at INSEAD. He was Dean of Executive Education (1998-2002) and Associate Dean for Research and Development (1990-1995) at INSEAD. His research on the strategy and organization of multinational companies led to numerous publications, including several books, in particular The Multinational Mission: Balancing Local Demands and Global Vision, co-authored with CK. Prahalad (1987) and From Global to Metanational: How Companies Win in the Knowledge Economy co-authored with Jose Santos and Peter Williamson (Harvard Business School Press, 2001). His research work won numerous awards, in particular a Distinguished Scholar Award from the Academy of Management (2003) and an election as "Inaugural Fellow of the Strategic Management Society" (2005). Prof. Doz was elected Fellow of the Academy of Management (2006), and was also nominated by The Economist as one of a handful of European 'Management Gurus'.

Keeley Wilson is Senior Researcher at INSEAD. For almost twenty years Keeley's work in both research and consulting has focused on global innovation strategies, management and processes, strategic alliances, and leadership challenges in complex environments. She has undertaken projects throughout Europe, the USA, and Asia at a wide range of companies including HP, Novartis, Shell, Siemens, Reuters, Schneider, and Xerox.