Dual Transformation

5. The Courage to Choose

In 2010, Nokia’s board appointed Stephen Elop to the role of CEO. Elop, a well-known executive at Microsoft, was a bold choice. After all, Nokia, the famously Finnish company, had never had an outsider, let alone an American, as CEO. But the board members knew that the changes shaking up Nokia’s core cell phone business required doing something dramatic. At the time, interestingly, Nokia’s cell phone business still showed significant signs of strength. Apple’s iPhone had the hype, and Google’s Android operating system was experiencing explosive growth, but Nokia still dominated the market. In fact, 2010 set a high-water mark for the unit, with sales volume of more than 100 million handsets (by 2012 that number would be ...