Customer Reviews

The Nokia Revolution : The Story of an Extraordinary Company That Transformed an Industry

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nokia Revolution has such a detailed history of this famous cell phone company from its very beginning of a wood pulp factory to the leading mobile and internet company now, that it taught me a lot more about how a business really works than how a successful company looks. Nokia, according to my poor knowledge before, is merely a famous company whose cell phones are said to be the most durable product that won't be broken even if you drop it a thousand times to the ground. This book makes me think much deeper into the struggle the company went through to get this kind of fabulous quality and services to satisfy customers' needs.

Dan Steinbock gives you a riveting look at one of the most important companies of our time in an elegant, storytelling style. His text is rich in detail and seems to capture every conceivable perspective on every possible event in Nokia's 140-year-old history. Writing almost at the level of a fictional narrative, Steinbock adroitly takes you through the company's highs, lows and pivotal moments from its origins in the timber industry in the 1860s and the merger in the 1960s that first gave it an electronics division, to the suicide of its influential CEO in the 1980s. It's all here, along with Nokia's strategies and values. We [...] recommend this book to anyone who relishes well-written corporate adventures or who harbors a certain curiosity about events inside influential companies (or about corporate thought in Finland, for that matter).

Did you know that Nokia started out in the mid-1800s as a forestry plant in Finland? Yes you heard right: a forestry plant! This is a very well written book about the history of the Nokia Corporation, its ups and downs, successes and tragedies. If you've ever wanted to know what Nokia was like before it became a mobile communications giant, then you should read this book. However, be forewarned that this book is not for the casual reader as it can get very technical in terms of economics.

Before reading that book you should to ask your self why you reading it. Did you read it because of fun or as a buisness searching source. If you reading it for fun the book would be kind of boring and dump, but if you read it as a source you would benifit and that will be great for you. The book is a kind of historical book, the author just put facts on his own way. Althought the book have no fun it is generally a good historical book.

There is no doubt that Nokia has grown from a small Finnish firm into the worldwide leader in cellular and mobile communication technology. How did the firm accomplish this revolution? In this book, Dan, Steinbock, answers this question by tracing the history of Nokia. Looking at the steps Nokia took, including the missteps, the author accurately traces both huge successes, and mistakes. More importantly the author shows how Nokia learned from its mistakes and came back from each misstep stronger. The author hits on some key factors that make Nokia such a strong firm:

· Strategic Intent. In an ever changing market, learn how Nokia took some early missteps. These missteps made Nokia stronger because in 1992 these missteps forced Nokia to move toward process-based management. It used this style to successfully transfer a strategic intent that would motivate every employee.
· Global Focus. Nokia's leadership recognized that in this new environment, the ability to segment markets and target niche segments within those markets was critical to success. In order to compete, Nokia would need to focus globally.
· Strategic Market-Making. With the dynamic market of cellular technology, Nokia's executive board managed to discover and implement a strategy that delivered success.
· Focus on People. Nokia treated its Human Resource management as a strategic issue. Nokia focused on utilizing a drive to achieve customer satisfaction, a respect for the individual, a willingness to achieve and belief in continuous learning, and by encouraging sharing of information and responsibility.
· Global R&D. Nokia spends less than its rivals on R&D. What there efforts lack in funding, they make up for with an efficient system to leverage and exploit new knowledge. Nokia has been active in both upstream (Nokia) and downstream (people-service related factors) innovation.

I found this book to be enjoyable to read. But it was very boring overall. I really wanted to learn more about the current Nokia Corporation. To my disapointment it showed more history of the company then what they are and were doing in the late 20th and early 21st century to improve their company and the cellular phone market.

The book is very well written and gives a nice detailed background of Nokia. The book is however very hard to read since you have to look acronyms up and all the time divert your attention from the text too look at the many graphs. It is not a smooth read but the content of the book is very good and well documented.

Cornelius SAMOHI

This is an inspiring story in an inspiring book. Steinbock told us how Nokia prepared their revolution, how Nokia finally dominates the world of cellular market. To some extend, Nokia was brought Finland into the world economic map. If you want to know the secret of Nokia success, maybe this book could be one of the great sources to do so.

This would have been a much better read if it was written in half as many pages. It took me a great amount of effort to get past the initial history chapters and get to where the real deal is -- the past decade under Jorma Ollila. But then, this is probably as precisely anyone can try to understand a company like Nokia. Also if everybody gets the "secret" behind a company's success, won't everyone else beat the company at it's own game?

I got this book hoping it would really expand my understanding of Nokia the company. It certainly does provide a lot of history about the company. If you're into that, you might like it. But if you're used to fater-paced books like those about Viacom, Blockbuster, Time Warner, Cisco, GE, etc. I don't recommend it.