Keeley Wilson
It was a sunny December afternoon in 2016. After an intense year of writing, we were close to finishing the first full draft of our book about the rise and fall of Nokia’s mobile phone business and we were on a call with our editor, Adam, to talk about practical things like schedules, cover design, marketing and the production process.
As our discussions were drawing to a close, Adam asked us if we had a title for the book. Funnily enough,
We launched the free online book Operation Elop on February 11th in the Beyond Nokia group. In about 60 hours the book had 9000+ visits and 270 reads. Launch posts in Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have been viewed, liked or shared thousands of times. Already by now, the ebook has even been ripped off from its license terms and re-published without our permission. Wow. We feel humble and grateful. And happy. Maybe even a bit empty after the passionate final sprint in the project?
We? Who is we? And why did we make and launch this book?
Lately I have posted the following statement and picture below on LinkedIn, some of you might have seen it, others not.
One is about the global world and the impact on our lives, mapping that ‘imaginary’ to the Pyramid of Maslow, the other one is more related to the effect share-holders and their requirements have on our life.
I left Nokia some six years ago and during these years I have met a large number of ex-Nokians, both in Finland and abroad.
I am an Engineer and had worked in several organizations before I joined Nokia. At the time of my interview I wished to be a part of the Nokia story very desperately. I saw Nokia go from not having any viable LTE network products to becoming a market leader that ultimately suffered series of layoffs and other struggles.
Here are the things I liked about working in Nokia
I was always fascinated about mobile communication technology. During my intermediate school days, the concept of voice transmission between two mobiles over the air was a mystery for me.
I’ve always wondered how coincidences happen in our lives – people we cross paths with, getting a call or message from someone we just remembered or thought about, events that occur, unforeseen opportunities and challenges that seem to appear….
Dr. Wayne Dyer wrote, “the word coincidence describes that which fits together perfectly”.
Meeting Nokia was a coincidence that grew to be a core part of my life for many years and still continues in some form.
What meaning have I found from Nokia experiences?
I learned how life can be unpredictable, uncertain and tough and, how quickly an organization can go from being the undisputed king
Like many Finns who came of age in the early 00s, my connection to Nokia has been a long and multi-faceted one. One of my parents worked for Nokia in the mid-1990s, and I was far from being the only kid in that position at school. I lived in Espoo, after all, the promised land for telecoms engineers back in the day.
My first entrance to Nokia was Oulu’s Special Products unit in 1997, which was a great place to learn the spirit of handcrafted product making.
It was one of those Nokia R&D units full of hackers and makers.
What was it about working at Nokia that stuck with so many of us long after we left the company? Why are 27 356 of us posting our musings and memories of our time at Nokia on the alumni group on Facebook? These are some of the questions I asked myself after Verena asked me to write something for this blog after I posted this?on the “Beyond Nokia” group earlier this month.
I wrote this from my client’s office in Johannesburg after I had just walked in and heard a colleague chatting to a customer on the phone in Portuguese. It reminded me so much of my days at Nokia.
Now, before I go any further, let me just say I’m a total Nokia fangirl.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén