Talent Tectonics

CHAPTER 3Work Technology and Organizational Agility

When Giants Fall

The company Nokia was the dominant leader in mobile technology in 2007, controlling 41% of the mobile handset market and 51% of the emerging smartphone market.¹ Nokia was over twice as large as its nearest competitor and had global brand recognition as one of the most innovative companies in its industry. Over the next six years, Nokia suffered massive losses in market share attributed to an inability to adapt to new directions in smartphone design and functionality. Nokia ultimately sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2013. Although Nokia still exists, the company once synonymous with mobile phones is now remembered in the same way as the old film company Kodak: an example of how quickly companies can go from market leader to a memory of what once was. When reflecting on its rapid fall, Jorma Ollila, former CEO of Nokia, commented that “we knew what was happening, but our mistake was not being able to turn that into action.”²

Bill Gates, the founder and former CEO of Microsoft, wrote in 1996 that “we overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.”³ In 2014, one year after acquiring Nokia, Gates stepped down and Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft, where he was challenged to reinvigorate the company's growth in the fast-expanding app and cloud-based technology market. Over ...