Question

Q1. Answer the following questions according to the given scenario

As the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, Nokia, the Finnish company, is a “powerhouse in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with market shares regularly topping 30 percent”. However, in the United States, Nokia phones have lost popularity over the last few years. In March 2002, Nokia led the American market with 35 percent market share. By June of 2009, its share was only 7 percent. What happened and more importantly, what is Nokia doing about it?

As mobile phone usage skyrocketed, Nokia was the most popular choice. It was the “cool” phone—the one that everyone, from business executive to high school student to stay-at-home-mom wanted. In 2005, Nokia had just launched the N series, an innovative new line with a Web browser, video, music, and pictures in a single phone. That device moved Nokia a generation ahead in the race to build the first real smart phone. The “forecast for Nokia was as sunny and clear as an endless Finnish summer day.” Then came Apple and its iPhone with its clever touch screen and sophisticated software and services. With rave reviews and a reputation for being cool, customers flocked to buy one. However, Nokia executives dismissed the iPhone, saying they were “unimpressed by its engineering.”

Now, three years after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, Nokia still has no alternative. It did not anticipate changes in American consumer tastes, like flip phones or touch screens. Another major strategic blunder 246 PART THREE | PLANNING was that its models were based on a European communications standard called GSM when roughly half the United States market used the CDMA (code division multiple access) format. One former Nokia executive said, “Nokia, at the height of its success, decided not to adapt its phones for the U.S. market. That was a mistake and they’re still trying to recover from this.” An executive at a North American network operator said, “The attitude at Nokia was basically: Here is a phone. Do you want it? Nokia wouldn’t play by the rules here, and they have paid a price.” That arrogant attitude and the global economic slowdown have continued to hurt the company’s sales and earnings.

Meanwhile, Nokia set up liaison offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, and Parsippany, New Jersey, cities where the top American operators have big business units. And it has recently revamped its U.S. operations to collaborate more closely with those major operators. For example, AT&T has begun billing its customers who use Nokia services, keeping those customers from receiving a second bill from Nokia. Best Buy began carrying a Nokia netbook, which is a model for its new collaborative strategy. Nokia also forged a deal with Qualcomm, the largest maker of mobile phone chips for CDMA devices in the United States. It also struck a deal with Microsoft to design Windows Office Mobile software applications for phones that use Nokia’s Symbian operating system. Despite these efforts, however, some industry executives remain unimpressed. One analyst said, “They claim they get it and understand the U.S. market. But the execution still is not there.” Mark Louison, president of Nokia’s North American unit, who has a seat on Nokia’s global management board, said, “In the past, we had a one-size-fits-all mentality that worked well on a global basis but did not help us in this market. That has changed now.” The company recognized that its former strategy had not worked in North America and began trying to lay the groundwork for long-term success. Louison says, “Everything you see us doing is to build the broad set of capabilities to take us broader and deeper into the U.S. market.”

2. What type of control—feedforward, concurrent, or feedback—do you think would be most important in this situation? Explain your choice (10)

Answer 1

According to the given situation, following control are the control types:

1) Feed-forward control :

• Feed-forward controls are future directed.
• Feed-forward controls try to detect and anticipate issues in advance of their occurance.
• Feed-forward controls are in-process controls.
• Feed-forward controls are more active and aggressive in nature.
• Corrective actions are taken in advance of a problem in feed-forward controls.

2) Concurrent control :

• Concurrent control is also called prevention control or steering control.
• Concurrent control is taken at the time of proceeding of an activity.
• Concurrent control is not taken after the proceeding of an activity or after the completion of an activity.
• In concurrent control corrections are made at the time issues arise.
• Concurrent control deals with current proceedings of an activity.

3) Feedback control :

• Feedback control is also called post action control and it is historical in nature.
• Feedback control is future orientated.
• Feedback control is used when an activity has already occured and it is not possible to go back and correct the performance of that activity.
• Feedback control deals with corrections after the action or activity.
• Feedback controls as post action controls concentrate on the end results of an activity or process.
• The results derived are not utilized for the activity that has already been completed.
• Results are used for future activities of same nature.
• Information derived from feedback controls help a manager to take corrective actions on future activities which are same in the nature as previous activities.
• The basic concept of feedback controls is to prevent and correct mistakes in the future.

After discussing all the three traditional management controls, according to the given situation and as asked in the question, Feedback control would be most appropriate and important for Nokia to use. Reasons are following:

• Nokia has done mistakes in past so it is not possible to take corrective actions in-process or concurrently.
• So, feed-forward and concurrent control will not be appropriate.
• Only feedback control will provide Nokia opportunities to take corrective actions in future in order to improve or correct previous mistakes.
• Feedback control will provide all the necessary information that will be useful for future activities for Nokia  
• As Nokia is planning to regain it's previous market share in United States, then it has to follow feedback control.
• Nokia needs improved activities for the products in future and only feedback control can help in this by correcting previous mistakes.
• As feedback control deals with post action controls and Nokia needs controls on the actions that already have been taken.
• Nokia requires future oriented controls to make the brand successful and feedback control is completely future oriented.
• It is very important for a company to improve or correct previous mistakes in order to get the success in future and feedback control provides this facility.

So, these are some reasons why feedback control is most important for Nokia to get success in the United States market.

If you like the answer then kindly give good ratings this will motivate me to answer well. Thanking you.