全通翻譯/翻譯社

Nokia: Playing Catch-up

The new CEO assembled the company's workers and informed them that their whole outlook was wrong. He put them on the spot, asking which of them used their competitors' products. Tentatively, several hands went up. The CEO was dismayed. However, his disappointment was not due to his employees' lack of faith in their own products. On the contrary, he had hoped more of them would be sizing up the competition.

The company in question is Nokia. The CEO is Stephen Elop, a Canadian who in September 2010 became the first non-Finn to helm the communications corporation. “I'd rather people have the intellectual curiosity to understand what we're up against,” Elop said of employees' reluctance to try iPhones or Google Androids. He has good reason for this attitude.

Last year, Nokia's share of global phone sales dipped below 30 percent for the first time in more than 10 years. Although the brand sold 450 million phones in 2010 — more than 10 times as many as Apple — it has seen its market value plummet by 75 percent. Furthermore, Google is snatching the middle ground, and emerging markets are being raided by Chinese manufacturers.

Nokia saw a fivefold increase in sales from 1996-2001, spurred by its British-designed operating system Symbian. What has gone wrong since this golden age, when the company helped create the GSM standard and churned out cheap, reliable handsets?

諾基亞嚴重危機下奮起或從此告別

新任執行長召集公司員工，告知他們公司的整體展望是錯的。他直截了當地問他們當中有誰使用競爭對手的產品。幾名員工猶豫不決地舉起手來。執行長感到沮喪。然而他會失望不是因為員工對自家產品缺乏信心。相反地，他希望有更多人去評估競爭對手。

這家出問題的公司是諾基亞。執行長為加拿大籍的史蒂芬‧伊洛普，他在二○一○年九月成為此通訊企業首位非芬蘭籍掌舵者。「我寧願大家有想要了解我們在對抗什麼的求知欲，」伊洛普在提到員工們不願去試用 iPhone 或 Google 的 Android 系統時這樣表示。他這樣的態度是其來有自的。

去年，諾基亞全球手機銷售市佔率是十多年來首度下跌至 30% 以下。儘管諾基亞在二○一○年售出 4.5 億支手機，比蘋果還多出十倍以上，其市值卻驟降 75%。此外，Google 在搶奪中階手機市場，而新興市場正被中國製造商大舉侵襲。

拜英國設計的 Symbian 作業系統之賜，諾基亞一九九六年至二○○一年間的銷售成長了五倍。從這個黃金年代之後，這家協助創建全球行動通訊系統標準並大量生產廉價、可靠手機的公司，到底哪裡出了問題？

資料來源：biz 互動英語電子報