Citation
Ringtone: Exploring the Rise and Fall of Nokia in Mobile Phones
TL;DR
Nokia's organizational complexity prevented rapid adaptation
Doz and Wilson's comprehensive analysis of Nokia's decline provides the detailed case study of how a market leader can hit multiple growth walls simultaneously. Their research shows how structural complexity, metabolic limits on innovation, and organizational senescence combined to prevent adaptation.
The book demonstrates that Nokia's failure wasn't execution - it was hitting fundamental limits that couldn't be overcome by doing more of what had worked before.
Key Findings from Doz & Wilson (2018)
- Nokia's organizational complexity prevented rapid adaptation
- Hardware-first culture couldn't shift to software-first
- Multiple growth limits hit simultaneously accelerated decline