Telephone tower v rubber boots

摘要

"SUCCESS is toxic", says Risto Siilas-maa, Nokia's chairman, as snow-flakes swirl in the wind outside. Asked what lesson to draw from his firm's collapse, which started a decade ago, he underlines the dangers of doing too well. In its heyday, Nokia was a monster; its market capitalisation surpassed $290bn in mid-2000 and by 2007 it accounted for 40% of global handset sales. Yet its dominance in hardware, which encouraged a relaxed attitude towards software, bred failure. It is now worth $33bn.