174 • 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS
Responding to changes in business markets is best achieved with
a willingness to learn and develop ideas as part of a group, creating
an “intensive learning culture.”
The idea
Nokia, the world-renowned cellphone technology company, was, in
the late 1980s, a nearly defunct diversifi ed conglomerate, mostly
known for its rubber and tissue products. The decision to put
all the energy and remaining resources behind a minuscule (by
industry standards) telecommunications activity, more specifi cally
an emerging cellphone technology sector, triggered an intensive
learning culture and period of business growth.
By the end of 1996 Nokia Group was the global market leader in digital
cellphones, and one of the two largest suppliers of GSM networks.
In just a few years, this resilient Finnish business had learned enough
to become the trendsetter in cellphone design, making its product a
high-tech lifestyle attribute that many fashion products could envy.
On the cellular network side, Nokia was also setting the pace with
solution-oriented customer services, thus raising the competitive
threshold.
Most companies, having achieved this level of success in such a
short time, could be expected to miss the next industry turn if
there ever was one—and there was: the rise of the internet.
However, Nokia kept pace with this change, creating phones that
were internet-ready, and helped create the now ubiquitous mobile
information culture.