Expansion of Nokia to the rest of the world has seen the company adjust its strategy in order to adapt a value system. This is a result of the need to understand new environments and means to survive and thrive in new nations. Such values involve respect, integrity, honesty, and competence (Keeling, 2013). These values have been particularly useful in terms of Nokia’s approach to completely different environments from the ones in which the company has previously operated. Nokia emphasizes the development of a relationship-centered kind of leadership and management, and this has greatly benefited them. Also, this has allowed the company to remain at the top of its competition relative to its performance under the previous system. It is important to attempt to understand how values have improved Nokia’s performance, and further, to evaluate just how it has achieved this in so many nations globally.
The Choice of Values for Management
The company management of Nokia chose values as a foundation for their company, seeing as the technology was already a competitive field. Clearly, the rise of other phone companies such as Apple compelled Nokia to change their value systems, and this was meant to provide an engine for running the entire system. It also involved how staff, shareholders, suppliers and customers reacted to their products and services and ultimately, to their performance in the market. The value system has allowed a company as old as Nokia, to survive and thrive in a changing world. Through focusing on the people and on their treatment, Nokia ensures control over its performance by influencing the right people with the right kind of message. The value system of Nokia revolves around respect, integrity, achievement, challenge, and renewal. It also encourages personal responsibility, role modeling, competence and social responsibility (Righeimer and John, 2011). These values encourage staff members and management to work towards excellence as the main goal. Further, these values are specifically formulated to address issues of competence and delivery, customer service and general quality of products and services. Since these appeared to pay off by keeping the company in business in spite of its relatively older models of technological items, Nokia employed values for relevance and productivity.
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Comparing Nokia’s Values
The values of Nokia compare to those of many organizations globally. The company has become a trendsetter in strategic management, seeing as it was able to survive a technological revolution that would otherwise have seen it run out of the market. My organization shares similar values with Nokia in that it observes a strict code of ethics in which values are greatly emphasized (Gusdorf, 2009). It goes on to articulate its principles not only to its employees but also to its customers. It provides training for potential employees and requires that they receive necessary skills for personal development and as a form contribution to the company as well. These values extend to other countries where the organization has plants. It prides itself in empowering its employees through facilitating their personal development and providing them with comprehensive care in the form of insurance. It concerns itself in the welfare of its employees and customers by motivating them through participating in their personal lives every other time.
The organization goes forth to provide education for its employees in developing nations and also, protects them from exploitative job agencies in these countries. This kind of value application in management has seen the company attract some of the best staff in the world. Moreover, it has increased its productivity since the values of respect and integrity motivate staff to work (Keeling 2013). Furthermore, these values also involve engagement in community activity for social responsibility. Relationships arising from social responsibility encourage more efficient corporate operations and allow the company to be more competitive. It goes without saying that people would rather be treated well more often than not (Free Management 2009). The more companies realize this element of human behavior, the easier their tasks become, seeing as this creates for them a favorable image in the eyes of the public. At the end of the day, a business can only be said to be successful when all of the parties that are involved with it are happy. Indeed, it is possible to make everyone happy, and that is the goal of many companies in this day and age.
Business Strategy Change through Nokia Values
Values help in the execution of change by paving the way for the acceptance of such change among customers, staff, and management. They are a form of communication and agreement that are used to seek out the business environment for opportunities in order to raise performance and productivity (Keeling, 2013). More successful companies employ values such as respect, integrity and accountability in their operations. As such, they realize a greater extent of willingness on the part of customers and staff to work hand in hand with them. Values also help the company to understand its market better and to be able to create viable products using the feedback and observations that it realizes in its relationship with them.
Values in business are likely to change with respect to a café process, seeing as this emphasizes ideas and input more than it does the people providing them. It means that contribution by employees would be seen as a duty and not as a contribution whose nature is free towards the company. For this reason, this kind of process would usually encourage a false sense of values allowing the employees or the society in general to harbor resentment towards the company. It is this kind of process that leads to the creation of an illusion of what the company values are while indeed the company is apathetic. Many companies, due to a lack of proper and effective value system for strategic management, are characterized by internal disharmony and stifled market operations.
Nokia’s business values will help execute change in strategy through motivating its staff and customers. Values such as respect for staff by management, encourage them to contribute in terms of managerial and organizational ideas, feeling that such would be acknowledged. These values also make it easy for organizational processes to be understood by the staff and customers and therefore, this attains organizational unity (Gusdorf, 2009). A good public image within the society gains the company consumer loyalty due to the fact that customers find the company reliable and responsible for its actions. Nokia has been known for its excellent customer care service. It does respond to customer feedback and concerns abruptly, and this allows these customers to put their trust in the products and services (Righeimer and John, 2011). In instances where customers are not able to access the company for help with services or products, such trust is broken leading to loss of customer loyalty.
Evaluation of Social Process
The process to engage thousands of employees around the world in defining values appears to be a hectic one, and sometimes, even costly. However, it does pay off in consideration of the many issues that are avoided, as this would otherwise have cost the company a lot of funds in the form of compensations (Keeling, 2013). In taking the time to understand the variance of consumer needs courtesy to the diversity of international business markets, the company avoids losses that would otherwise have been incurred in the event that the business fails. Moreover, this allows for the company to work with local staff in the different countries and establishes a brand by its reputation. It avoids more losses by providing sufficient and intimate training to employees, which encourages personal development and integrity. These employees become the brand ambassadors for Nokia all over the world, encouraging different societies to understand the same set of values.
The values of Nokia require that management and employees set the example for the rest of the world. As such, they are held responsible for the company’s actions. The Engagement of these employees at a globalized level also means that the company operates efficiently in environments that would otherwise have proven difficult for it to trade in, as per the trade and government policies there. Further, the creation of a good rapport between these employees and the company continues to provide Nokia with a strong foundation within which to operationalize its global brand (Porter, 2010). The company also uses this approach on the backdrop of the realization that, more creative ideas for innovation are likely to come from users of the product and employees, seeing as the two subgroups come into the most contact with the products in question. They have come to appreciate the perspectives of other stakeholders as being useful in business for success.
Change in Values with use of Café Process
Nokia’s change with the use of the Café process would affect values in that the company would pursue profits without encouraging personal development, respect or role modeling. It would probably thrive from aggression even though such success would not be long lived. Nokia would need to change drastically in terms of its technological and technical approaches, and this would be a difficult step seeing as it would be a drastic measure in order to avoid losses (Keeling, 2013). The implementation of a value system allowed Nokia to grow into a fast developing world. It provided an approach that would not require the blind creation of high end and costly products without understanding the market. Nokia simply admitted to not knowing the market and approached this market with questions as to where improvements should be made. In this manner, it showed the values of humility and honesty. It also maintained strength and relevance in its cause.The feedback is what allowed the company to adjust and adapt to the new and changing business environment. It also saved the company a lot of costs to use this approach rather than to engage in blind investment simply.
Nokia’s move to adapt the value process of management has been extremely beneficial to its survival and competition in the modern business world. It has allowed the company to soar high on the global platform proving that competition and business management is really determined by a company’s ability to adapt and to evolve in relation to market changes. These are among the things that Nokia has managed to do. Furthermore, more companies need to acknowledge just how crucial the customer and their views are to business. Indeed, these are the core essentials of business followed by the well-being of employees, in the same way as that of the management. The management of a company should basically serve it, and not for any associate personal gain. They are the people who serve the rest of the stakeholders by bringing in their ideas and providing them with the results of such work. This kind of attitude in business management has allowed many businesses to remain on top of their operations. It is quite often the ideal of business management processes that appeals to almost all societies in the world. This can be seen as a universal language that surpasses actual languages and different cultures. Indeed, the application of emotional intelligence over the mere intellectual quotient is key in order for this to be implemented. More managers are simply realizing the role of relationship management and its superiority.
The most successful businesses in the modern world have been seen to thrive as a result of engaging the society, both the internal and external one in which the firm is established. They have realized that business success relies greatly on relationships. In this manner, more companies are implementing a relationship kind of approach rather than an authoritative one. It is companies like Nokia that have encouraged the existence of a customer and service centered approach to business. This form of competition basically makes use of a wider source of resources to carry out the tasks at hand thus diffusing the stress that would otherwise be associated with it.
References
Free Management Library. (2009). Basics of Developing Mission, Vision and Values Statements . Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/strategicplanning/mission-vision-values.htm
Gusdorf, M. (2009). Role of mission and values in strategic human resource management. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/academicinitiatives/universities/teachingresources/Documents/090234%20Missionand%20Value%20Strat-I.M.pdf.
Keeling, M. (2013). Mission statements. Knowledge Quest, 42 (1), 30-36.
Porter, Michael E (2010). Towards a Dynamic Theory of Strategy . Strategic Management Journal, 12, 95-117. Retrieved from ProQuest in the Trident Online Library.
Righeimer, John P. (2011) Aligning Human Resources and Strategic Plans . Maverick Energy. Retrieved from http://www.maverickec.com/index_files/Aligning%20HR%20Strategy%20epulse.pdf
