Strategic Management Report: Nokia's Competitive Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Nokia's strategic management, encompassing various aspects of its business operations. It begins with an introduction to strategic management and its significance, followed by an examination of different types of strategies related to schools of strategy and strategic concepts. The report delves into competitive drivers using tools such as PESTEL and Porter's Five Forces models to assess their impact on Nokia's competitive position. It then explores internal analysis tools, including vision and mission statements, and SWOT analysis, to draw appropriate conclusions about the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Furthermore, the report discusses strategic choice models aimed at sustaining Nokia's competitive position, along with resource implications of recommendations and a critical analysis of strategic implementation models. The analysis highlights Nokia's strategies for value creation, business transformation, and adapting to competitive pressures within the telecommunications and consumer electronics industries. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and recommendations for Nokia's future strategic direction.

Strategic
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Types of strategy in relation to schools of strategy and strategic concepts................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Competitive drivers and the impact on competitive position of company..................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Internal analysis tools to draw appropriate conclusions.............................................................7
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
Strategic choice models to sustain the company’s competitive position..................................10
TASK 5 .........................................................................................................................................10
Resource implications of recommendations that company has to address and critical analysis
and application of strategic implementation models.................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management include practices like developing objectives, determining
competitive environment, evaluating internal organisation, analysing strategies and ensuring
management of firm. This process is generally adopted by a firm in order to plan its future
activities which help them in attaining pre planned goal or target. It will also lead to enhancing as
well as supporting core competencies of an organisation. Through strategic management firm
able to conduct their practices in effective manner which help them in achieving their determine
target properly. Organisation taken for this assignment is Nokia which is a public limited
company operating its business at telecommunication and networking equipments, mobile phone
and consumer electronics industry. It is founded by Fredrik Idestam, Leo Mechelin and Eduard
Polon in year 1865 (Aguinis, Edwards and Bradley, 2017). Headquarter of Nokia is situated at
Espoo, Finland and it operate at worldwide level. Topics included in report are different types of
strategy which is related to schools of strategy and strategic concept as well as it include model
and concepts for analysing competitive drivers and its impact on competitive position. It will
also include information about internal analysis and different models to for retaining company
competitive position as well as it will also include implication of resources.
TASK 1
Types of strategy in relation to schools of strategy and strategic concepts
Strategy is consider as plan of action which is develop by a company in order to attain
their pre determined goal and target in proper way. In context of Nokia it is essential for them to
develop effective strategies so that they can create as well as conduct process, activities and
operations of business in appropriate way. This is so because proper strategy plays an effective
role in the develop and achievement of goal of a firm as well as it will also help them in assisting
uncertainty which help in improving performance (Ansoff and et. al., 2018). For Nokia it is
crucial to create strategies because it will assist in predicting future of a company according to
which they need to develop decision so that they can overcome issues in effective manner.
Moreover it will also help in attaining predetermined goal and target of respective company in
impressively. Through effective strategies Nokia will also able to influence huge ratio of
potential customers which help them in attracting desire goal. Effective strategic management
lead to achievement of competitive advancement at the potential marketplace from rivalry

competitors. There are numbers of strategies which can be adopted by Nokia for operating
business operations and functions in impressive manner. Some of the main strategies which help
in enhancement of Nokia business are given below:-
 Developing value: It is essential for each and every company to set their values which
attract customers and retain them for a long time period. In this they may develop values
like they will serve quality goods and services to their customers and for the
achievement of this firm need to address several practices. For example consider
customer requirement, develop positive working environment and so on. This is so
because it help in enhancing productivity of staffs which directly lead to attainment of
goal and objective by providing high quality products. Moreover by developing and
maintaining values a respective firm also able to gain high competitive advancement at
the marketplace.
 Transforming business activities: According to this factor company need to transform
their business activities so that they can introduce more effective products and services
which help in attaining goal (Baumgartner and Rauter, 2017). So in respect of Nokia it is
essential for them to conduct transformation in business practices on regular basis so that
they can attain their objective in impressive manner. Along with this it will also help
them in attract more and more potential customers at worldwide marketplace.
TASK 2
Competitive drivers and the impact on competitive position of company
For developing strategies it is essential for a firm to conduct analysis of competitive
market and drivers because it help in determining its position. For which a company can adopt
numbers of methods or analytical tools such as PESTEL analysis, porter's five force model and
so on. Some of the main methods which can be used by Nokia are given below:-
PESTEL Analysis:
 Political factor: This will include factors like political policy, political stability, tax
policy, labour law and many more. Nokia is operating at worldwide level and according
to which they need to follow political consideration of all nations (Bergh and et. al.,
2016). This is so because it help them in develop effective strategies accordingly. United

Kingdom have stable political conduction which is beneficial or opportunity for Nokia to
conduct business effectively at respective place.
 Economical factor: This will include factors like economic growth, exchange rate,
disposal income, unemployment rate, inflation rate and many more (Bettis and et. al.,
2016). Economy of UK is stable and high which is an opportunity for respective
company to operate their effectively. But it is essential for company management to
develop strategies according to nation and consumer economy level because if they
develop expensive products for low economy country then their will be possibilities that
company face huge loss.
 Social factor: This will include population growth rate, health consciousness, culture
barriers, lifestyle attitude, safety emphasizes, career attributes, age distribution and many
more. United Kingdom is big consumer market which is opportunities for Nokia to run as
well as expand their business in respective market in effective manner. It is also
necessary this company management to develop their products according to social factor
of nation.
 Technological factor: Elements which are included in technological factor are
technological incentives, automation, research and development activities, level of
innovation, technological awareness and many more (Certo and et. al., 2016).
Technological aspect of United Kingdom is very strong as well as they are highly aware
about the new and advance technology. That will be opportunity for Nokia to develop
their products with advance techniques so that they can attract more and more customers.
 Environmental factor: Factors which are included in this are weather, environmental
policies, climate, change in climate, pressures from NGO's, environmental rules and
regulations and many more. The United Kingdom government developed number of
policies and procedures for protecting their environment and it is essential for all
companies to follow it. In respect of Nokia, it is essential for them to develop their action
by considering it and they also adopt different practices like recycle waste material, do e
waste management and so on.
 Legal factor: Elements which are included in legal factors are antitrust law, employment
law, discrimination law, consumer protection law, copyright and patent law, health and
safety laws and many more. At United Kingdom there are various laws and legal factors

which a company need to adopt in order to conduct their work in effective manner. In
respect of Nokia it is essential for them to consider legal factor of each and every country
so that they can develop strategies accordingly.
Porter's five forces model:
 Threat of new entrants – Nokia is strong with its product differentiation as the
customers always look for new, innovative and differentiated products. The company
focuses on selling new products rather than selling standardized products. Hence, this
makes the threat of new entrants a weaker force (David and David, 2019). Nokia has an
opportunity to fight against the new entrants through the advantage of economies of
scale.
 Bargaining power of suppliers – The number of suppliers in the telecom industry is
more than the buyers which implies that the suppliers do not have much access on the
prices of the material making it a weak force overall. Nokia has advantage of buying raw
material at low prices and then manufacturing the products. But if the cost of raw
material and products do not match, Nokia has a number of suppliers to choose from.
 Bargaining power of buyers – Buyers today look out for companies that offer products
that are highly differentiated and innovative as well. The quality of the products is of
significance to the customers (Engert, Rauter and Baumgartner, 2016). Therefore, they
have the right to bargain for new products if a company offers regular standardized
products in the market with no differentiation. Nokia can pay focus on manufacturing
new innovative and differentiated products in order to attract customers and build a
lasting long term relationship with them. This shows bargaining power of buyer is high at
marketplace.
 Threat of substitutes – Nokia is known for the high quality of its products which has
always been a point in attracting customers towards the brand. It is seen that the buyers
who purchase Nokia's products, prove to be loyal towards the brand and help
strengthening it brand image. The company should also focus on differentiating its
products, this will give the customers a chance to see new and innovative products in the
market. Threat of substitutes is high for respective company.
 Rivalry among existing firms – Nokia faces a lot of competition from brands like
Samsung, Motorola, One plus etc. Therefore, the need to differentiate the products that

Nokia offers becomes more important in order to attract more customers and lure them.
Producing innovative and differentiated products will make it difficult for its competitors
to gain a competitive advantage. In respect of Nokia rivalry is high at their market place.
By above analysis it can be determine that Nokia need to consider several factors which
help them in developing effective competitive strategies through which they can attain their goal
or target.
TASK 3
Internal analysis tools to draw appropriate conclusions
For a company it is necessary to conduct internal analysis because through it
management can develop most effective strategies or action plan which help firm in attaining
determined goal (Ethiraj, Gambardella and Helfat, 2016). There are various method or analysis
tools which an organisation can adopt in order to conduct internal analysis such as determine
vision and mission, SWOT, VRIO and so on. Some of the major which can be adopted by Nokia
are given below:-
Nokia Vision statement
The vision of respective company is to develop or build trusted consumer relationship by
providing services like compelling as well as valued consumer solutions which combine
beautiful devices along with enriched services. They also promise to connect peoples in new as
well as better ways (Gallus and Frey, 2016).
Nokia Mission statement
The mission of respective company is to provide cheaper as well as valuable mobile
services to the worldwide level.
Nokia SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 Experience of company: The respective
company have more than 142 years
experience due to which they have huge
customers base (SWOT analysis of
Nokia – Nokia SWOT analysis, 2019).
 User friendly: Products or mobile
 New E series is flop: It is one of the
major weakness of respective company
that their various products are totally
flop.
 Low quality: Voice quality of
respective company phone set is low

phone developed by respective
company company are highly user
friendly .
 Strong financial support: Respective
company have very strong financial
support which help their research and
development to conduct their work
effectively and regularly.
 Selling and distribution channel: Nokia
have large network for selling as well
as distributing their products at
worldwide level (Ginter, Duncan and
Swayne, 2018).
 Durability: Respective company
develop durable products which help
them in attract as well as retaining
customers.
which impact on customers satisfaction.
 Less stylish: The hand set of respective
firm are less stylish in compare to other
competitive telephone companies.
 Required time: Nokia required log time
duration to enter into the high booming
and productive smartphone marketplace
around the world.
Opportunities Threats
 Grow business: Nokia can expand their
business in new growing marketplace
so that they can attract more consumers.
 Enhance presence in 3G market:
Respective firm may increase their
presence at edge as well as 3 G
marketplace at worldwide level.
 Improvise on camera quality: The
respective firm may enhance their
quality of camera so that they can
attract customers towards it.
 Competitors: Nokia have huge numbers
of competition at the worldwide
marketplace such as Samsung,Apple,
Motorola, Sony and many more.
 Change in trend: At respective industry
trends are changing on the continuous
basis so Nokia also need to develop
products accordingly (Hanson and et.
al., 2016).

Nokia VRIO Analysis
It is one of the essential analytical tool or technique which is adopted by a company in
order to determine their competitive capabilities. In respect of Nokia by adopting and conducting
VRIO model they able to analyse their resources and identify their effectiveness. VRIO model of
respective company are given below:-
Resources Valuable Rare Imitable Organized Impact of
Competitive
Advantage
Technology Yes - - - Competitive
Disadvantage
Selling and
distribution
networking
Yes Yes - - Temporary
competitive
advantage
Skilled Employees Yes Yes Yes - Unused
competitive
advantage
Financial resources Yes Yes Yes Yes Long term
advantage
Valuable: These types of resources of company are valuable because it help them in attaining
competitive advancement for attaining goal (Hill, 2017). In respect of Nokia their Valuable
resources are Technology, Selling and distribution networking, Skilled Employees and Financial
resources. This is so because through all these resources respective company able to conduct
their work in effective manner which lead to accomplishment of work effectively as well as
attainment of pre determined goal.
Rare: It refers to those resources which are rare at the particular industry and no other
competitive company have it. In respect of Nokia they have some resources which are not rare
such as technology because there are several other companies who use advance technology. On
the other hand they also have several rare resources such as Selling and distribution networking,
Skilled Employees and Financial resources. These resources are rare because through these firms
able to attain their goal effectively (Lasserre, 2017).

Imitable: This is define as those resources which can not be copied by other competitive
company at the similar industry. In respect of Nokia, there are several resources which can be
easily imitable by others such as Technology as well as Selling and distribution networking.
Along with this there are some resources which will be not imitable by others such as Skilled
Employees and Financial resources. These resources can not be copied by others because
respective have very skilled as well as loyal employees and they also provide them positive and
quality workplace. Moreover financial resources of respective company is very strong which can
not be copied by others (McKiernan, 2017).
Organized: It refers to those resources which required to be organized after some time duration.
In context of Nokia there are some resources which need to be organized so that they conduct
work effectively such as Technology, Selling and distribution networking as well as Skilled
Employees. Along with this there are some other resources which didn't required to be organized
i.e. financial resources. It is so because this resource didn't required any type of training,
maintenance or develop programmes.
TASK 4
Strategic choice models to sustain the company’s competitive position
There are various tools that a company can opt for in order to sustain the competition and
hence maintain a competitive position in the market (Morden, 2016). Some of the tools that
Nokia can opt for in order to maintain its position in the market are described below -
Ansoff's Matrix -
It is a tool that organizations use to plan and analyse different strategies in order to ensure
the growth of the company. The matrix has 4 distinct components- Market penetration, Market
development, Product development and Diversification. All these components are explained
below:
 Market penetration – Market penetration refers to the extent up to which the products
and services of a company are acknowledged by its customers. Nokia is one of the oldest
mobile producing brands and still seeks to grow by offering a lot of products on their
portfolio. The company already has a reach to millions of people and can opt for this
strategy in order to reach out to people in the untapped markets and increase its overall
market share over competitors. Nokia can increase its advertising and promotions

activities by promoting products through social media and hiring bloggers to either
advertise or promote the products. Using this strategy will help in making the brand more
competitive among other brands.
 Market development – It is referred to as a growth strategy that aims at building a new
market through targetting new customers in new and untapped markets. A new market is
developed with the help of already existing products. If Nokia adopts this strategy, it can
increase its customer base and reach out to new customers after either making or
incorporating new features to the existing products like mobile phones (Moutinho and
Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). The company should make innovative changes in the already
existing products after carefully analysing the customers' needs and what do they expect
from a brand like Nokia. Adopting this strategy will enable the company to gain new
customers and hence increase its profits and revenues.
 Product development – It refers to as manufacturing new products that have innovative
and enhanced features that in turn help in attracting customers who are looking for
products with new features and characteristics. Nokia can use this strategy to modify its
already existing products that satisfy the customers' needs and meet their expectations.
Product development involves a number of stages from identifying the need of the market
to user feedback.
 Diversification – Diversification is said to be the most important factor of all when it
comes to the growth of the company. It helps the companies in their overall growth and
in increasing profitability and revenues (Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017). Nokia
has implemented a variety of ways to enter new markets that pose great opportunities for
the brand to grow overall.
Therefore, it can be said that Nokia should opt for market development strategy as it will not
only help the company in exploring new untapped markets but also in increasing its customer
base and market share overall. Also, the company can come up with new products in order to
influence and lure people.
Porter's generic strategies -
Porter's generic strategies describe how organizations go after gaining a competitive advantage
over its competitors. There are different generic strategies that organizations can opt from. The
strategies are described below -

 Cost leadership – This strategy suggests that if a company wants to gain competitive
advantage by producing products and services as low as possible in terms of numbers.
Nokia is a company that seeks to produce lowest number of products in the mobile
industry. Thus, producing mobile phones in mass quantities or bulk can help Nokia in
gaining an advantage over its competitors. By doing this, the company can price its
products lower than what the average price of the product is and therefore earn more
profits.
 Differentiation - Nokia follows the differentiation strategy and has always made efforts
to produce products that are different from the products that are already available in the
industry and are innovative and unique as well. Since Nokia offers products of high
quality, it also charges extra amount of money for this from its customers in order to have
a more well defined customer segment (Renz and Herman, 2016). Offering differentiated
products will also help the brand in standing out in the market and gaining more
customers.
 Focus – This strategy implies having a limited and defined segment of the market for the
products offered by the company. Nokia has its target market well defined and strategies
planned and executed accordingly. Having a defined target market has helped Nokia in
focussing primarily on its customers. As a result, the company has a loyal customer
segment from years and still continues to build the same. As a disadvantage, the company
has lost a considerable amount of its customers by not focussing on other segments.
Through the above model, it can be seen that implementing and following the cost
leadership strategy will prove to be beneficial for Nokia as it will help the company in gaining a
competitive advantage over its competitors through the pricing of its products and hence in
reaching out to more number of people worldwide (Rothaermel, 2017.).
TASK 5
Resource implications of recommendations that company has to address and critical analysis and
application of strategic implementation models
It is very essential for a company to analyse and assess overall environment of a business
so that they can develop strategies as well as plan accordingly and effectively. Along with this
firm also need to conduct management of their resources because they have some valuable

resources which help them in conduct work accordingly and effectively. The main resources of
Nokia is their financial position and skilled staffs through which firm able to conduct each and
every activities effective as well as it will also lead them in attaining pre determined goal. This is
so because staff involve in all activities with their full efforts which lead to accomplishment of
work impressively. Moreover financial position of company is also very high which help
management in providing resources according to employees requirement for attaining goal. In
addition to this by conducting analysis of above factors, there are several recommendations for
Nokia which help them in conducting work in most effective manner. From which some are
mentioned below:-
 For Nokia it is essential to consider each and every regulation while developing strategies
for performing business performance in effective manner. Through this firm able to
conduct their enterprise operations and functions in smoothly.
 It is also essential for respective company to provide proper training and development to
their staffs so that they can conduct their work in impressively as well as this will also
help in improving quality of work by minimising accidents and wastage (Hill, 2017).
 The firm may also adopt advance technology in their products as well as production
process because through it they can attract more and more customers towards products.
This will also beneficial for staff because through it they can conduct their work
effectively as well as easily.
 It is also suggestion for respective company to develop long term as well as short terms
goal so that they can conduct work accordingly. Along with this management of Nokia
must also involve their staffs in decision making process because it will help them in
understanding procedure in more effective way.
 It is also essential for respective company to conduct evaluation of both internal as well
as external environment so that they can develop strategies accordingly. Moreover it will
also help them in developing strategies for new products development which help in
attracting more and more customers (McKiernan, 2017).
 It is also essential for respective organization to conduct proper management of their
financial as well as non financial resources because through it they can maintain
resources in effective manner. This will also help them in minimising wastage or wrong
usage of resources.

These are the main recommendation which can be provided to Nokia so that they can
conduct their business operations and functions in effective manner in order to attain their pre
determined goal and target.
CONCLUSION
From above discussed point it can be analyse or summarise that for every company it is
essential to conduct proper strategic management so that they can conduct their work in effective
manner for attaining goal. There are different types of strategy which a company that are related
to strategy concepts and schools of strategy such as value creation, business transformation and
many more. Along with this before develop effective strategic management process a firm need
to conduct analysis of competitive drivers and competitive position, for which they may adopt
different methods such as PESTEL and porter's five force model. Moreover it is also important
for an organisation to conduct internal analysis by using effective models or tools such as SWOT
analysis, VRIO model and so on. They also need to conduct evaluation of its competitive
position and for that they may adopt Ansoff matrix as well as porter's generic model. It is
effective do conduct all these analysis because it help in developing proper action plan for
attaining goal.

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