The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 603 A way out

The honors of Jorma Ollila's life are inseparable from Nokia, because the most peak moments of his life were achieved and spent in this company.

In August this year, he just celebrated his 60th birthday, but a month later, he ushered in another piece of unfortunate news. Nokia's stock hit another record low, and it is not far from the key price of three euros. , and in the past ten years, since 1997, Nokia's stock price has never been so miserable.

Jorma Ollila is sitting in the big coffee shop of Nokia headquarters in the west of Helsinki at this moment. This is the largest public place in Nokia headquarters, twice the size of the largest conference room in Nokia. Every time the company holds an all-staff meeting will be held here, so it has witnessed the glory of Nokia in the past ten years.

Cantina, this is the name of this coffee shop, the English translation means tavern, but the Italian means cellar.

The cafe is made of wood, steel and tempered glass. It has the flavor of IKEA, but at the same time it has the atmosphere of a small ski hotel in Northern Europe and Finland. It has always been regarded by Jorma Ollila as a The testimony of Nokia's glory, and this point of view also extends from the chairman of the board of Nokia to everyone in the company.

You know, in Nokia Corporation, Yoma? Ollila has a pivotal position.

As a native of Finland, Jorma Ollila went to London after finishing her master's degree in political science at the University of Helsinki. It took two years to get a master's degree in economics from the London School of Economics, and then entered the London headquarters of Citibank as an account Manager, he was promoted to account director two years later, and became a member of Citibank's management committee three years later. At that time, he was only 33 years old, very young and promising.

It can be said that Jorma Ollila is the most outstanding talent cultivated in Finland. Nokia took a fancy to his experience in Citibank, so in 1985, he was recruited back to Finland and joined the Nokia International Operations Department. Served as vice president and a year later was promoted to senior vice president of treasury, also serving as a member of the executive board.

By 1990, Jorma Ollila became the president of the mobile phone company in the core department of Nokia Corporation. Two years later, he was promoted to the president and CEO of Nokia. It was not until 2006 that the CEO was handed over to Kallasvuo Kallasvuo, another local talent, but the company's greatest power is still firmly in his hands.

Throughout the first half of Jorma Ollila's life, his most glorious moment was undoubtedly bringing Nokia to the status of a world-renowned giant company. At its peak, the market value exceeded 500 billion US dollars, making Jorma Ollila Become the top figure in the global financial circle.

But since 2006, everything he has worked so hard to build has obviously gone downhill.

All commodities and enterprises have their life cycle, from initiation to growth to maturity and then to decline. If Yoma Ollila led Nokia from growth to maturity, then in 2006, he chose to leave Nokia When he took the position of CEO, he had already foreseen that Nokia would usher in a recession.

Just imagine, even some remote markets in Africa that are poor and backward in everyone’s eyes are filled with Nokia’s low-end mobile phones. This not only represents Nokia’s success, but it also tells everyone that Nokia’s mobile phone market is saturated. It is difficult to make any major breakthroughs in the mobile phone business, and it must be transformed and adjusted.

During the time when Kallasvuo was in charge of Nokia, although he brought a lot of changes and adjustments to the company, he still failed to bring about revolutionary changes in the end. After all, Nokia still could not escape the vortex of decline.

Looking back now, the transformation that Kallasvuo conceived at the time was still too small and too cautious, so that Nokia's reform looked more like a small fight. After the strong rise of Leaf Technology's Zeus mobile phone, coupled with the Android system Under the strong attack of Nokia, this kind of change of Nokia completely failed.

What's more surprising to everyone is that Leaf Technology not only violently shaken Nokia's position by relying on Zeus mobile phone and smart phone system, but also opened up the Android system to the outside world, and soon supported companies including Samsung and HTC, etc. Powerful handset maker, but more importantly, Leaf Technology is heavily supporting smartphone makers from China.

Although many Europeans criticize Chinese manufacturing, thinking that it represents copycats and inferior quality, it turns out that Leaf Technology has very high requirements for partners, and mobile phone manufacturers that can obtain Android system and patent authorization have certain strengths. Coupled with China's strong industrial manufacturing capabilities, the smartphones they manufacture are cheaper, have better user experience, and have more powerful functions, and they are sold all over the world immediately.

The result of this is that Nokia's mobile phone profits have been completely knocked down to an unbelievably low point.

For Leaf Technology, everyone in Nokia admires and is hostile at the same time. What they admire is the strength of this company, and what is hostile is that this company is the chief culprit that caused Nokia's current predicament.

But Jorma Ollila himself knows very well that for a giant consortium like Nokia with a market value of more than 500 billion U.S. dollars, the core elements that can lead to its collapse must come from within. As early as 2006, he It was already realized when he stepped down as CEO, and without Kallasvuo's inability to bring about a revolutionary change, Nokia's decline is a foregone conclusion.

Not long ago, Moody’s Investors Service issued an announcement stating that it was commenting on Nokia’s ratings, believing that Nokia’s profitability in the core mobile phone field is rapidly declining, and that it may further downgrade Nokia’s long-term ratings. This is bound to further lead to investors losing confidence in Nokia, and then another decline in the stock price.

As a talent who came out of Citibank, Jorma Ollila is of course very clear about the consequences of Moody's downgrade of Nokia's rating. In fact, he and the board of directors have already considered this point a year ago. At that time, Nokia had already shown a decline, but it was not as obvious as it is now.

Once a large conglomerate like Nokia appears to be in decline, there is basically only one way to go, which is to reduce expenditure and increase revenue, and sell business and assets. The most valuable assets of Nokia are undoubtedly the mobile phone and map business.

Jorma Ollila is very clear that there is no shortage of interested people in Nokia's assets, such as Eliza Moon, CEO of Leaf Technology, who came to Finland not long ago. The foundation stone laying ceremony of the Nordic data center building was actually a meeting with Jorma Ollila, who bluntly proposed to acquire it.

Leaf Technology has been promoting cloud computing services in Northern Europe for many years. Now their headquarters is less than 300 meters away from Nokia headquarters, which is closer than Microsoft headquarters. The latter is about one kilometer away from Nokia headquarters. The headquarters of the three companies Just around this marina, it is a very interesting landscape.

Microsoft is also very interested in Nokia, but more through cooperation. They hope that Microsoft can choose Nokia's WP mobile phone system, but everyone knows that this mobile phone system is not ideal and cannot compete with the Android system at all, and Microsoft also Offered generous conditions, their core purpose is to transfer Nokia's mobile phone users from Symbian to WP system.

Jorma Ollila is not an idiot, of course he can see through this, so he is also hesitating, and at the same time he sees more clearly that Microsoft has no idea of ​​acquiring Nokia's business, or not yet.

Over the past year, all eyes around the world have been on Motorola.

Since the American media first broke the news that Leaf Technology would acquire Motorola, this news immediately attracted the attention of all smartphone enthusiasts around the world, and Google and Apple soon announced to join the competition, which made Motorola very popular. , and in the view of Jorma Ollila, Leaf Technology is making two-handed preparations, and Motorola and Nokia must win one.

"It's such an ambitious company!" Jorma Ollila sighed when thinking of this.

Once upon a time, Nokia was as ambitious as the current Leaf Technology, wanting to develop, want to acquire, and want to further expand its business. At that time, how could they have imagined that there is today?
A Motorola has attracted the attention of all competitors, and Nokia has naturally been ignored. In fact, although the current crisis of Nokia is obvious, it is not as bad as Motorola in terms of mobile phone sales and operating income. So no one would have thought that Leaf Technology would be ambitious to acquire Nokia.

And they don't just want to acquire Nokia's mobile phone business, but also another core business, maps.

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"I heard that Leaf Technology has already lobbied the government, and the government has also told Leaf Technology that it will not block this potential acquisition, but the premise is that Nokia must continue to stay in Finland!"

Not far from the Cantina Cafe, several young people gathered together to talk, and their voices reached Yoma Ollila's ears. Obviously, none of them noticed the old man's behavior. It exists, perhaps because the position where he is sitting is too remote.

Jorma Ollila glanced at it, and the speaker was Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's senior vice president of design, the son of former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who remained People from the Social Democratic Party came to power, and the high-ranking officials who were reused were still officials from the Marti Ahtisaari period, so Marco was able to get some inside information, and Jorma Ollila was not surprised.

However, this news is really surprising, you know, Nokia has always been the pillar of Finland.

In 2004, Nokia contributed 4% of Finland's GDP. In 2007, Nokia's research and development expenditure accounted for 30% of Finland's total, and its export volume accounted for 20% of Finland's total. From these data, it can be seen that Nokia's contribution to Finland Influence.

"Really?" The person sitting across from Marko turned his back to Jorma Ollila. He couldn't see his face clearly, but he could be heard from the voice. He was Nokia's industrial design director Stefan Penny. Baker and Marco are very good friends.

"It's absolutely true!" Marko said with certainty, "I got news that Leaf Technology decided to use Finland as the data center base in Northern Europe and even Europe, so they decided to build a headquarters building in the Nordic region nearby. It's very attractive."

"And everyone knows that in the past, the government had some disputes over the existence of Nokia. On the one hand, it was very dependent on it, but on the other hand, it felt that Nokia had siphoned talents from all walks of life, resulting in a lack of vitality in Finnish society. Some people often stood up and criticized Boom and blame."

This is actually an embarrassment that is difficult to achieve the best of both worlds, because the size of Nokia is the pride of the Finnish people, making almost all Finns proud to join Nokia, but in this way, the existence of Nokia has become a A huge talent siphon field, talents from all walks of life in society have been sucked into Nokia.

Just like Marko, he once studied in Finland, Tanzania and the United States, served as a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, and won the Grammy Window Award for his music creation, and was also a judge of the Linz Electronic Arts Competition in Austria, etc. .

Such a multi-talented Finn, after returning to China, founded a digital service company, and later founded a company that provides social map services for travel, but it was not long before it was acquired by Nokia, and he himself became a Nokia designer. Senior Vice President, Nokia valued his versatility and imagination.

There are many, many similar cases. Nokia is like a huge monster that devours talents. Its existence itself has mixed reputation and reputation. If it was in its peak period, it would be difficult for anyone to say anything, but now it has obviously declined. Then those voices appeared again.

"I have always believed that the company's system is too dogmatic and rigid, and lacks creativity, especially when dealing with us Salo people!" There was another person sitting at the scene, Juss Roper, from Salo , a mobile phone city located [-] kilometers west of Helsinki, where many Nokia R&D and design centers are located.

Salo has always been the source of Nokia's design. Many insiders know that many of Nokia's classic mobile phone styles come from Salo's design. However, in the past wave of layoffs, Salo has always been the hardest hit area, and some sources say, Nokia will lay off 1 employees early next year, and Salo is still the hardest hit.

If Panebaker, who is well-dressed and covered with famous brands, represents the fashionable side of Nokia, then Roper represents the traditional engineer side of Nokia. He always wears very freehand casual clothes, and is often even a little slovenly.

"I've heard that big companies like Leaf Technology, Google, and Apple are looking for creative talents all over the world, but we used to not only stifle the creativity of employees, but now we actively send talents to the other party. It hurts to think about it!"

The rise of Salo, a mobile phone center, is due to Nokia. If Nokia falls, Salo is bound to collapse.

"Do you want to know, what is the biggest feeling after I came to Nokia?" Hans Henrik Land, a new recruit in the marketing department, has his own thoughts and insights on this. He is a newcomer to Nokia. Danzi, a recruit, met some of their veterans in the coffee shop and made friendship with them.

In Nokia, you can often find your fellow countrymen, because Finland is that big.

"I think the biggest problem with this company lies in the rigidity of the system and factions!" Lang De spoke in a loud voice, but he still had the aura of a newborn calf, "Every time I attend a meeting, it is always easy to put a The topic that could have been discussed has become the focus of dispute between the two factions."

"There are some people who want to be left behind and want to catch up with our competitors, but there are some people who are always working with emotions, thinking that sticking to the original things will ensure that we will not lose to any opponents, and finally make a noise. After a few hours, there was no result, the meeting will be dismissed separately, and come back tomorrow!" Lang De spread his hands, obviously helpless.

In the past few years, in order to catch up with competitors, Nokia has also attracted many young and creative talents from the outside to enter the company, injecting some freshness and vitality, such as Marko, Penny Baker and others. There are also many veterans in this company. They have been here for many years, and they have created countless brilliance and won countless honors.

In the eyes of these people, Nokia's status quo is only temporary, because our opponents have produced one or two best-selling mobile phones, and Nokia has failed to produce mobile phones that users like in the past few years. That's all.

They often have a theory that is, "As long as we build an exciting and good product again, we will beat all our competitors again and have the best financial statements in history again!"

This theory is superficially true, but the question is, how do you make something exciting?

Rely on those that Nokia had when it achieved its glorious peak in the past?Continuing the Symbian system that has made great contributions to Nokia, but obviously can't keep up with the times?

All people who have Symbian system and Android system can easily distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of these two mobile phone operating systems, but there are many people who have not been able to reverse their concepts even until now. That's Nokia's biggest problem right now.

"If there is another layoff early next year, I may also go to Leaf Technology. Joe Harlow told me before that he is great there, the salary is good, the working environment is relaxed, and at the same time he can get a lot of play You know, he is in charge of the smart device business, and he proposed to make a smartphone similar to the Zeus phone at the beginning, but it was rejected later, and he is now very popular in Leaf Technology." Roper said a little sadly own decision.

When Nokia's layoffs caused panic, Leaf Technology often poached professional talents from Nokia. After all, Nokia itself has a strong talent pool and technical background, and Joe Harlow is one of them.

Hearing Roper's words, the others were silent, and it was obvious that they all had their own little calculations and thoughts.

Jorma Ollila was also silent. He was very familiar with Roper. He was a Finnish young man who was full of enthusiasm and desire for Nokia, but now he said that he might switch to the biggest competitor. The level of disappointment in the company.

Could it be that, in the past so many years, have we not only missed something, but also done something wrong?

This question came to Jorma Ollila's mind, and he was very confused and lost.

Maybe he needs to know some answers, and this answer may help him find a way out of the current dilemma, or make a certain decision!

(End of this chapter)