The Art of
War
by Sun
Tzu
Practical cases in
companies
Enrique González Crisanto
1
INDEX
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….. 3
1. ABOUT THE EVALUATION……………………………………………..… 4
Case: Wal-Mart says goodbye to Germany
2. ABOUT THE INITIATION OF ACTIONS…………………………………. 6
Case: The Peruvian drink consumed by millions in Asia
3. ON THE PROPOSALS OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT …………………….8
CASE: Facebook buys Instagram:
4. ON THE MEASURE IN THE DISPOSAL OF THE MEANS ………..….…9
Social networks and the 2008 US presidential elections:
5. ON FIRMNESS ………………………………………………………………….10
Case: Microsoft attacks Google
6. ON THE FULL AND THE EMPTY …………………………………………..11
Case: Apple iPhone
7. ON DIRECT AND INDIRECT CONFRONTATION ………………………13
Case: Bresler in Peru
8. ABOUT THE NINE CHANGES……………………………………………….15
The twilight of BlackBerry
9. ABOUT THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE MEANS…………………………. 17
Case: Blockbuster, a death foretold
10. ON TOPOLOGY ……………………………………………………………...19
Case: The Secret to Starbucks Success
11. ABOUT THE TYPES OF LAND………………………………………..….. 21
Case: The business of the giant Amazon in the giant India
12. ON THE ART OF ATTACKING BY FIRE ………………………………..23
Case: Kodak – The end of an era
13. ON CONCORD AND DISCORD ……………………………………………25
Case: Stephen Elop, Microsoft's Insider at Nokia?
2
INTRODUCTION
“It is in our hands to insure ourselves against defeat,
but the opportunity to defeat the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”.
Sun Tzu
Today, companies do not face each other on a battlefield like the one that Sun
Tzu walked on, but current business competitive dynamics lead to situations in
which organizations are locked in duels to the death, in which there can only be
one victor.
The relevance of the principles outlined by Sun Tzu, and their application in
current administration and management, are summarized in 4 guidelines:
1) Sun Tzu insists at all times on the importance of positioning yourself on the
ground with guarantees for victory in war. It is the same positioning that
Michael Porter, the great guru of current competitiveness, speaks of.
2) Sun Tzu emphasizes that "War is a hoax", which places the conflict in the
field of perceptions and the appearance of what is perceived. Currently, the
influence of reputation and marketing is based precisely on this subtle game of
perceptions.
3) Sun Tzu constantly emphasizes the importance of speed, agility and
resilience as qualities of great generals and armies, which allows them to
quickly adapt to changes on the battlefield. Currently, organizations require
such adaptation to face the growing complexity of the environment.
4) Sun Tzu places integrity and prudence as the foundation of leadership. At
present, integrity is presented as a requirement for organizational change that
leads to success, and prudence becomes an antidote to risk and financial
excesses in the company.
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1. ABOUT THE EVALUATION
“With careful evaluation, one can win; without it, he can't."
Sun Tzu
Case: Wal-Mart says goodbye to Germany
When the chain tried to position itself in this country with its motto: "Save money
and live better", society and its laws, which are among the most robust in the
world, decided not to give way to the giant of Sam Walton, so much so that the
transnational with more of 6,500 stores and 175 million customers a week
couldn't beat the German iron curtain. The question is why?
The German retail market has a reputation for being very difficult, but in the
case of Wal-Mart it was strategic mistakes that caused it to fail. Wal-Mart's
strategists showed little knowledge and respect for the rules of the commercial
game in Germany and were wrong to believe that American marketing could
simply be extrapolated to the European country.
Wal-Mart's great success in the United States and other markets is the constant
expansion that allows its enormous purchasing power. In Germany it is very
difficult to achieve this rate of expansion due to a series of legal restrictions. For
example, dumping, that is, the long-term supply of merchandise below its
purchase price, is prohibited. This ban prevented Wal-Mart and its enormous
financial power from "stealing" customers from existing retailers.
4
But it wasn't the resilience of German retail that was the main problem. In 1998
Wal-Mart bought and paid 560 million euros for 75 supermarkets belonging to
the "Spar" firm, of regular fame and located in places of difficult access. Spar
himself had paid only $85 million two years earlier for these stores. This
acquisition was one of the main causes of the losses accumulated by the
company that amount to one billion dollars.
Another mistake was to disregard the local experience. Rob Tiaras, who in the
United States oversaw 200 warehouses, was assigned to the German
warehouse management.
On the other hand, the multinational's policies were not well accepted. The court
denied the consortium the possibility of setting up a telephone line where
workers could "report" violations of the code of conduct by colleagues. Also the
regulations that prohibited love affairs between staff were rejected by the court.
With its withdrawal from Germany, Wal-Mart, one of the largest consortiums in
the world with a presence in 15 countries, put an end to 8 years of efforts to
position itself in the German market and sold its 85 subsidiaries to the German
giant Metro.
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2. SOBRE LA INICIACION DE ACCIONES
"Consequently, an intelligent general fights to deprive the enemy of his food"
Sun Tzu
Case: The Peruvian drink consumed by millions in Asia
Few beverages "made in Peru" or anywhere else in Latin America have
achieved the global expansion of Big Cola, a soft drink routinely consumed by
an estimated 100 million people in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India and
other Asian nations, according to its manufacturers. It is also the most
consumed drink among Indonesia's 250 million people and is beginning to make
inroads in the gigantic market of India.
Probably the vast majority have no idea that the soft drink is manufactured by a
Peruvian company. But they have grown loyal to a drink that presents an
unusual challenge in a global market dominated by American multinationals.
The company behind the Big Cola, Aje, emerged in Peru in the 1980s. The
violence surrounding Sendero Luminoso had left parts of the country virtually
cut off from communication, so the founders of Aje, five Peruvian brothers with
the last name of Añaños, decided to then bottling in Ayacucho a soft drink that
years later expanded in sales to Latin America and several other continents.
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How can a company that had its origins in the Peruvian province compete with
multinational giants with millionaire budgets? "In emerging markets there is a
young population, 70% in emerging markets, who want something new and
different," Jorge López-Doriga, head of communications and sustainability at
Aje, told BBC Mundo. "We understand the young public in emerging countries
much better than these big brands that have been in the market for 70 or 100
years," he says.
It is also a matter of money. A large part of its commercial strategy is focused
on reaching sectors that could not consume traditional soft drinks. "The young
public in these markets could not afford a soft drink because it was very
expensive", admits López-Dóriga, who points out that while in the United States
the annual consumption of soft drinks per capita is close to 160 liters, in
Indonesia it was barely 2 liters when Aje arrived.
Perhaps the biggest challenge that this Peruvian company undertakes is to
seek to enter the Indian market, a nation of 1,200 million people and potential
consumers. They have already entered the state of Maharashtra, around the
country's commercial capital, Bombay. This area of the country alone has 110
million inhabitants. And Big Cola already controls 8% of the market there, says
Rengaraj Viswanathan, a commentator for Gateway House, an India-based
international think tank.
Most Asian consumers don't know where Peru is, but they see (in Big Cola) a
global alternative. A global brand," suggests López-Dóriga. So thinks
Viswanathan. "People don't know that this drink comes from Peru. They just see
a bigger, cheaper bottle", he says.
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3. ON THE PROPOSALS OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT
“Como regla general, es mejor conservar a un enemigo intacto que destruirlo”.
Sun Tzu
Case: Facebook buys Instagram
In practical terms, large companies that absorb startups should leave their
teams and products intact. An example of this happened in 2012 when
Facebook made the purchase of Instagram for 1,000 million dollars, thus, the
main social network in the world acquired the fashionable application for sharing
photos.
Born in October 2010, the Instagram application had, in September 2011, 10
million active users. To make the purchase, Facebook and Instagram reached
an agreement. Rather than absorb Instagram into the full suite of products that
Facebook already has, the latter has committed to leaving Instagram as a
standalone product.
After the purchase, Mark Zuckerberg himself posted a message on his official
Facebook profile where he gave hints about his intentions regarding the work
that its developers could do: "We will try to learn from the Instagram experience
to include similar features to other of our products".
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4. ON THE MEASURE IN THE DISPOSAL OF THE MEANS
"Thus, good warriors take a stand on ground where they cannot lose, and do
not overlook the conditions that make their adversary prone to defeat."
Sun Tzu
Case: Social networks and the 2008 US presidential elections
The King of social networks. This is how “The Washington Post” referred to
Barack Obama during the campaign in the 2008 Presidential Elections. Obama
was one of the first candidates to have a profile on the main social networks
and the first to allocate resources and personnel to administer them as part of
its communication strategy with the electorate.
The marketing plan needed to achieve two very different goals: grow the
audience through broader messaging while also targeting very specific
audiences.
His advisors designed a large-scale strategy based on having a presence on
virtually every major platform. On MySpace they created profiles for each state,
while on LinkedIn they posed questions to potential voters. Facebook and
Twitter served as amplifiers of their message, while YouTube and Flickr were
chosen to spread the multimedia content among their followers.
His campaign not only used young volunteers, as most campaigns do, but he
created a campaign specifically designed by and for the current generation
(Millennials), who are very comfortable with technology, and he did it using the
tools communication tools that young people use and trust. The result? Youth
turnout was reflected in the polls in record numbers, with 66% voting for
Obama, turning the tide in several key states.
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5. ON FIRMNESS
“When you induce adversaries to attack you in your territory, their force is
always empty (at a disadvantage); As long as you don't compete in what the
best are, your strength will always be full.”
Sun Tzu
Case: Microsoft attacks Google
In business, you may be tempted to attack directly. Consider the 'Scroogled'
campaign that Microsoft launched against Google.
During the 2012 holiday campaign, Microsoft aggressively campaigned warning
consumers to choose to use their Bing browser over Google, as they might get
results influenced by the economic partnerships Google has with different
brands, rather than getting the best deals.
Microsoft's main focus is to position its Bing search engine above Google's
Chome, especially the service called Google Shopping, which focuses mainly
on finding the products you want in different online stores, so that you can
compare and buy yourself. what seems best to you.
The campaign was considered hypocritical and criticized by many. The frontal
assault on your competitor can backfire, so you have to find more creative ways
to weaken him.
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6. ON THE FULL AND THE EMPTY
"Those who anticipate, prepare and arrive first on the battlefield and wait for the
adversary are in a rested position"
Sun Tzu
Case: Apple iPhone
On January 9, 2007, when Steve Jobs addressed his audience at the MacWorld
event in San Francisco, he confessed: "I have waited for this day for two and a
half years." With that phrase he began to slip that what he was about to present
would be something big.
“Today we're not going to introduce one revolutionary product, but we're going
to show you three: first, a widescreen iPod with touch controls; second, a
revolutionary mobile phone and third, an innovative online communication
system. These are not three devices: it is only one, the iPhone". Thus, the cofounder of Apple unveiled the smartphone that would mark a before and after in
the field of mobile telephony.
Jobs did not rush to show the iPhone, but first stated: "Today Apple is going to
reinvent the telephone", and went on to show the weaknesses of the phones
that dominated the market at that time: the Moto Q, from Motorola; the
BlackBerry Pearl; the Palm Treo and the Nokia E62, all with their respective
physical keyboards. Jobs focused on the difficulties of use that these presented
and, later, how outdated or uncomfortable their design was.
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Jobs also gave a detailed explanation of how the touch interface worked,
replacing physical keyboards, which he would incorporate into his iPhone and
which would later become the norm in the field. He then went on to show iOS,
his "Revolutionary software" for the phone, with these words: "The graphical
user interface of the iphone was the result of years of research and
development to achieve excellent integration between the hardware and
software of the computer”.
With that presentation, Apple introduced a revolution in the mobile phone
industry, especially with the push it gave to the touch interface in favor of
physical keyboards. The first iPhone only hit the market at the end of June
2007, but its arrival on the market marked a change of course for the segment.
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7. ON DIRECT AND INDIRECT CONFRONTATION
"Only when you know every detail of the ground condition can you maneuver
and make war."
Sun Tzu
Case: Bresler in Peru
There are markets in Peru that are hard to win. In the ice cream market,
D'onofrio is the leader par excellence. However, in 1996, Nestlé and Unilever,
the two largest in the world ice cream market, set their sights on Peru due to its
low per capita consumption, a perfect opportunity to boost the segment (we
consumed 0.87 liters, while in Chile consumption per person was 3 liters).
Entering the business meant facing the king of the Peruvian market: D'onofrio.
Nestlé opted to acquire the company, leaving Unilever empty-handed, so it had
to start from scratch (in terms of factory and distribution). This meant the first
stone for the current success of the company Unilever finally decided to come
out in front.
Thus, in the summer of 1997 Bresler announced with great fanfare the launch of
the brand with the aim of obtaining 15% of the market share in the first year.
This was a very demanding figure for the company, but for this it invested 5
million dollars, acquiring 2,000 ice cream carts and a modern cold chain that
allowed them to reach all of Lima.
One of the most important points, for which it did not achieve adequate
distribution either, was that they never had a production plant; all its products
came from Venezuela and Chile. This is how they launched the famous
Magnum, Calippo, which faced D'Onofrio's BB and Jet. In this business, it is not
only about winning over the consumer but also the seller, so in addition to giving
them the trolley in uniform, Bresler gave them a circulation permit and dry ice.
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At the end of 1997, the government dictated certain changes that ended up
knocking down Bresler (which came in handy): Tariff and para-tariff measures
were raised, thereby raising the prices of Bresler's import duties by 150%. The
brand had to withdraw from the Peruvian market, a market in which it had
already gained an 8% market share, although far from the 15% target for the
first year.
What could Unilever have done? Before introducing Bresler to the Peruvian
market, a more in-depth market study of the Peruvian consumer had to be
carried out, which involved product testing, deepening their tastes and
preferences, as well as their customs and habits. Then, new products could
have been created with flavors that the Peruvian consumer would adopt as their
favourites.
Another important factor was the mistaken strategy of setting a price that was
not reasonable or in accordance with the product that was offered, since due to
its attributes it was considered to be of a lower rank than that of D'Onofrio. They
should have opted for a price similar to that of the competition.
In general, not evaluating the market and its preferences correctly or correctly
was the mistake that Unilever made when launching its Bresler ice cream
brand.
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8. ABOUT THE NINE CHANGES
"If the generals don't know how to adapt to their advantage, even if they know
the condition of the ground, they can't take advantage of it."
Sun Tzu
Case: The twilight of BlackBerry
Between 2007 and 2011, the leading brand in the smartphone industry was the
Canadian firm BlackBerry. However, at the end of 2013 this industry began to
go into a tailspin.
In 2009, two years after the launch of the iPhone, BlackBerry was still at the top
of the mobile phone world. Their shares traded high and they were the company
with the highest financial growth in that year.
BlackBerry's initial market was businesses and government agencies, but it
gradually captured individual consumers as it grew. With the advent of touch
devices from Apple and Google, that market was gradually lost.
In a desperate attempt to keep customers, the company lost focus, reneged on
the features that represented it (for example, the keyboard) and adapted late,
incorporating the features of its competitors.
Its attempt to catch up with its competitors with a new touchscreen device (the
Storm) was a failure that ended up leaving the company far behind its
competitors.
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In 2013, the same day that Apple published a sales record for its new iPhone,
BlackBerry announced the dismissal of 40% of its workforce and its subsequent
sale to a consortium led by the Canadian investment fund Fairfax, its largest
shareholder.
BlackBerry's problem was that it adapted late and badly, not having previously
seen that the future of Smartphones was in the consumer market. A company
that fails to overcome the challenges that its own growth imposes on it is
doomed to fail.
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DISTRIBUTION OF THE MEDIA
"The enemy who acts in isolation, who lacks strategy and who takes his
adversaries lightly, will inevitably end up being defeated."
Sun Tzu
Case: Blockbuster, a death foretold
In the year 1985, a Dutch businessman named Wayne Huizenga opened a
movie rental business called Blockbuster. A few years later we could talk about
an entire industry with 8,900 establishments and 90,000 employees in 25
countries. Its turnover reached 11.820 million dollars.
The business model seemed simple and 100% replicable for almost the entire
world geography. The establishments were made up of about 10 people who
were experts in cinema and video games with promotions segmented by day.
When Blockbuster was going through relatively good times in the year 2000,
there was already a clear threat from Internet sharing movie piracy. In this
context, the possibility of buying a startup called Netflix arose that sold monthly
online subscriptions and that allowed with that fee to rent all the movies you
wanted. Finally, the high command decided not to execute the purchase that
was around 50 million dollars. Netflix is currently valued at $8.5 billion on the
stock market.
The movie rental company did not realize that its market was changing, that
there were new consumer trends that took its users to another time, to the
future.
1- Consumers discovered a new way of accessing entertainment by
downloading free content over the Internet. This was time consuming and the
fact that it was free was too attractive.
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2. Television stopped being the medium where you could enjoy a movie.
Perhaps Blockbuster thought that the multiplication of mobile phones had
nothing to do with its business, since telecommunications and entertainment are
different industries... but history has shown us that they are already one and the
same.
3. The consumer wants his brands to know who he is. That they make
recommendations for content that may interest you based on your history or
your state of mind. Just like Netflix does today as soon as the user enters his
account.
4. In an era where time is more valuable than money, it became increasingly
annoying to return to Blockbuster stores to drop off the DVD.
In fact, a consumer upset because the chain charged him $40 for not returning
the movie "Apollo 13" on time decided to create his own company that would
avoid this punishment for the consumer. That consumer is Netflix founder Reed
Hastings. To all this, although a bit late, Blockbuster hired Accenture for its
“Blockbuster online” service, but already knowing that its main competitors had
a lot of advantage in a market segment in which they are not experts.
The chain had the signs in front of its eyes and ignored them. In 2010, the day
of the news of the closure of its stores, the president and CEO of DISH (owner
of Blockbuster), Joseph P. Clayton, declared: "It is not an easy decision.
However, the consumer is clearly migrating to entertainment on digitally
distributed video". They did not realize that the consumer was not migrating,
they had already migrated. In 2011 Netflix already had the equivalent of the
entire population of Australia in subscribers.
In the last quarter of 2013, Netflix reported an increase of 2.3 million users
subscribed to its online movie and series service. Shooting its shares by 18% in
just under an hour.
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10. ON TOPOLOGY
“When the terrain is accessible, be the first to establish your position”
Sun Tzu
Case: The Secret to Starbucks Success
In 1971 three partners decided to open the first Starbucks store in Seattle,
inspired by the sale of beans and coffee machines. In 1982 Howard Schultz
joined the company with new ideas, selling espresso coffee and other
innovations, which his partners rejected because they thought that coffee was
something that should be prepared at home. Turning a deaf ear to his three
partners, Howard decides to open his own chain of coffee shops. A year later,
his three partners sell him Starbucks. Starbucks currently has more than 18,000
stores and is present in more than 50 countries.
Many people believe that when they enter a Starbucks they drink a coffee,
without realizing that this is the least of it. If they only drank coffee, they would
not pay the Starbucks price, but any other cheaper one with similar
characteristics. What is the key to Starbucks success and how did your leader
make it possible?
The main key is to create an extraordinary customer experience. Starbucks is a
place where you know you're going to be fine, comfortable, and enjoy coffee, a
book, and good company. It's hard for a person to forget the Starbucks they've
been to. Starbucks leaves you a unique experience around the consumption of
coffee and in a pleasant and warm atmosphere.
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Another key is to have a personalized product. A Starbucks customer can
choose from various combinations, something that any consumer greatly
appreciates “doing it your way”. Customizing the product (and even naming
your takeaway coffee cup) is one more way to create customer experience.
It was also key to grow quickly. Howard took the McDonald's model as a source
of inspiration, rapid growth worldwide to position the brand and avoid
substitutes.
A customer-focused approach. Baristas at Starbucks points of sale receive
training fully focused on customer orientation. They must not only offer the
service, but they must make each client feel unique and special. It is not
uncommon for regular customers to be addressed by name and for their tastes
and preferences to be known in order to be able to advise them.
Quality based approach. Its products are of quality and its price is high
compared to other similar ones. They have used a high added value approach
that is valued by many upper-middle-class customers, but which also invites
low-income customers (particularly teenagers) to spend a good part of their
weekly allowance there spending an afternoon with the friends.
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11. ABOUT THE CLASSES OF LAND
"If you are capable of great adaptation, you can traverse this territory."
Sun Tzu
Case: The business of the giant Amazon in the giant India
Amazon.com debuted as an online bookstore in 1994. Its original business
model was fairly simple: source and offer a single type of product from
wholesalers to sell directly to consumers through the then-fledgling internet.
India has over 1 billion people and a largely untapped e-commerce market.
When Amazon decided to enter the Indian e-commerce market, it was clear
from the start that it would have to dispense with the business model that had
made Amazon one of the powerhouses of the Internet in the United States.
The country represented a classic case of good news/bad news. The good
news: 1. A very young population – more than 65% of the population was under
35 years of age. 2. Increasing levels of disposable income and 80% of the
population used mobile phones. The bad news: 1. 67% of the population lives in
rural areas with underdeveloped infrastructure. 2. Only about 35% of India's
population is connected to the internet. 3. India enacted a strict policy restricting
internet sales to foreign retailers. That is, any business should sell products
made in India 4. In India, most of the country's sellers are small.
To respond to these challenges, Amazon required an innovative business
model that began by finding the products to sell. After launching its Indian
website in 2013, Amazon launched a program to recruit an army of suppliers
and convince them that it represented a trusted partner, one that could help
them grow the market for their products. He traveled more than 9,400 miles
(about 15,000 kilometers), visited more than 31 cities, and interacted with more
than 10,000 vendors.
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Amazon also had to adapt delivery and order fulfillment based on a centralized
distribution platform to store and distribute the products it sells. To date it has
built nearly two dozen warehouses there.
The company also adapted its distribution platform in India to the local
environment by introducing Easy Ship, whereby Amazon couriers pick up
packaged goods from the seller's business address and deliver them to
consumers, and Seller Flex (flexible selling). , whereby sellers designate an
area of their own warehouses for products to be sold through Amazon.in. Then
Amazon coordinates the logistics of the shipment.
Amazon has contracts with several major courier services in the country,
including India Post and freight carrier Blue Dart. Last year, it created a
subsidiary, Amazon Transportation Services Private Limited, to increase
shipments and has bicycle and motorcycle couriers for last-mile deliveries in
both urban and rural communities.
Its funding and efforts are outpacing rivals including Flipkart and Snapdeal. The
stakes are high. A study by Google and A.T. Kearney predicted that by 2020, ecommerce in India will grow to 175 million shoppers, three times the current
number. This means 137,000 million dollars in transactions. And with mobile
wallets already surpassing credit cards and continuing to grow in popularity, the
loot could be even bigger.
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12. ON THE ART OF ATTACKING BY FIRE
"It is essential to prevent a disastrous defeat"
Sun Tzu
Case: Kodak – The end of an era
On February 19, 2012, pioneering photography company Eastman Kodak Co.
filed for bankruptcy protection in New York State courts, asking creditors for
time to pay off their debts.
Although the 130-year-old firm had tried to restructure for several years to
become a seller of consumer photo products, it failed to adapt to more modern
technologies such as the digital camera.
What many may not know is that it was precisely the Eastman Kodak company
that invented the first digital camera in 1975, however the executives decided to
"shelf" it, considering it a counterproductive product, since their main source of
profit was not cameras, but the rolls of photographs. For Kodak, cameras were
simply a side product that helped people buy and develop more rolls of photos.
This Kodak business strategy advocates selling a product at a price that is very
close to the cost of production in order to generate higher profits with another
product linked to the first. Something very similar to what printer manufacturers
do, which is to sell the printer at extremely low prices, in the hope of recouping
the money on the sale of the inks that the printers use.
As the photography market began to move to the digital world, the sale of film
rolls and their eventual development processing began to decline at
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astronomical speeds. When Kodak finally realized that its business strategy no
longer fit in a digital world, the company dusted off its old patents and started
making digital cameras, but it was too late. The public never associated the
Kodak brand with high quality digital cameras, that place was already occupied
by Nikon, Canon and Sony among others.
Experts already consider the case of Kodak as a classic example of a company
that had the opportunity in its hands to revolutionize an industry and wasted it
by refusing to change its business strategy. Kodak simply failed by trying to
follow a rigid model in the midst of a world that was changing by the day.
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13. ON CONCORD AND DISCORD
"Spies are useful everywhere"
Sun Tzu
Case: Stephen Elop, Microsoft's Insider at Nokia?
The wooden horse, brought into Troy with soldiers hidden in its belly to destroy
the city from within, was a childish joke compared to what Stephen Elop has
done with the technological symbol of Finland. In just three years he has
finished off Nokia and handed it over to Microsoft, his former company, like a
trinket.
Elop's work at Nokia (2010-2013) has been most crude and shameless in favor
of Microsoft and against the very company that paid him, given the passivity of
the Board of Directors. Canadian Stephen Elop, formerly of Microsoft, took
Nokia with 34% of mobile market share and leaves it at 3%; he took the
company with the action at 12 dollars and leaves it at 3; Of the 125,000
workers, only 97,000 remain.
When Elop arrived, Nokia had quarterly profits of 820 million euros, now it loses
more than 100. The Symbiam operating system was the first in the world and
now practically does not exist. It has also had time to shut down all of Nokia's
phone manufacturing plants in Finland. Everything, as Elop repeatedly
repeated, for a bright future for Nokia. Well no, it will be for a bright future for
Microsoft.
Elop has been the great betrayer of Nokia. His signing caused criticism from the
outset for coming from Microsoft, and after a few months they justified
themselves by announcing that Nokia would do without its operating system,
the first in the world, Symbian in favor of one from Microsoft that was still going
to take a year to come out. .
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With that announcement, he hastened the death of Symbian and therefore of
Nokia. No consumer was going to buy a mobile with a system that was going to
disappear a year later.
There is no similar case in the mobile industry: From 34% to 3% in less than
three years. Such a setback is no coincidence. It is the consequence of a
methodical and premeditated work to sink a brand and favor a third party:
Microsoft. Because Elop didn't just decide that Nokia's operating system was
crap. It also decided its replacement, Microsoft, and also, most suspicious of all,
exclusively. Samsung, Huawei, HTC, LG, ZTE manufacture phones with
different systems. Nokia only with Microsoft.
If the 21st century Trojan horse strategy was Steve Ballmer's, he deserves a
golden retirement. He has managed to buy Nokia for a ridiculous price, he has
had a trusted Nokia executive working for him, but his salary, bonuses, cars and
house were paid by Nokia.
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La trampa del éxito ¿Por qué BlackBerry falló?, Eduardo Laveglia, Recuperado el 17 de Enero
de 2017, disponible en: http://www.eduardolaveglia.com/empresas/la-trampa-del-exito-por-queblackberry-fallo/
Netflix vs Blockbuster: Cuando no se llega a tiempo al cambio, IEDE Business School,
Recuperado el 17 de Enero de 2017, disponible en: http://www.iede.cl/netflix-vs-blockbustercuando-no-se-llega-a-tiempo-al-cambio/
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Hace siete años, Steve Jobs presentaba el primer iPhone, Infobae, Recuperado el 17 de Enero
de 2017, disponible en: http://www.infobae.com/2014/01/09/1535971-hace-siete-anos-stevejobs-presentaba-el-primer-iphone/
El negocio del gigante Amazon en la gigante India, HBR, Recuperado el 17 de Enero de 2017,
disponible
en:
http://hbr.es/modelos-de-negocio/176/el-negocio-del-gigante-amazon-en-lagigante-india
Blockbuster una muerte anunciada, Expansion.mx, Recuperado el 17 de Enero de 2017,
disponible en: http://expansion.mx/opinion/2013/11/11/blockbuster-una-muerte-anunciada
Wal-Mart se despide de Alemania, DW, Recuperado el 17 de Enero de 2017, disponible en:
http://www.dw.com/es/wal-mart-se-despide-de-alemania/a-2112998
El gran traidor, Tecnología-El país, Recuperado el 17 de Enero de 2017, disponible en:
http://tecnologia.elpais.com/tecnologia/2013/09/03/actualidad/1378225641_315612.html
Kodak – El fin de una era, Tecnomundo, Recuperado el 17 de Enero de 2017, disponible en:
http://www.tecnomundo.net/2012/02/kodak-el-fin-de-una-era/
La clave del éxito de Starbucks no es el café, Cesar Piqueras, Recuperado el 17 de Enero de
2017, disponible en: https://www.cesarpiqueras.com/clave-del-exito-de-starbucks/
La clave del éxito de Starbucks no es el café, BBC Mundo, Recuperado el 17 de Enero de 2017,
disponible en: http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/05/150525_economia_bebida_asia_lf
D’onofrio: Un monopolio difícil de perder, Themarkethinkblog, Recuperado el 17 de Enero de
2017, disponible en: https://themarkethinkblog.com/2013/04/30/articulo-donofrio-un-monopoliodificil-de-perder/
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