An explosive memo from Finland is making its rounds on the email, Facebook and Twitter circuit this past week.

Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop has apparently sent out a ‘burning platform’ missive to some 132,000 employees of Nokia, warning them that if the company does not change its ways, it will go down in flames.

The memo starts off as follows:  

"There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

"As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a 'burning platform' and he needed to make a choice.

"He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times - his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a “burning platform” caused a radical change in his behaviour.

"We too, are standing on a 'burning platform' and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour."

The Nokia CEO then went on to talk about how Apple and Google have been 'eating Nokia's lunch' with their iPhone and Android platforms in recent years.

Then on February 11, during a strategy and financial briefing, Elop announced what that radical change he had talked about would be.

In a nutshell, Nokia will be partnering Microsoft and adopting their Windows 7 platform for its smartphones. Will Nokia be able to escape the ‘burning platform’ and become a viable ‘third force’ to contend with Apple and Google in the smartphone sector?

Only time can tell but for sure it's a radical move. And desperate times call for gutsy moves. In looking at Nokia's situation, I can't help but wonder if one's platform has to be burning before one takes decisive action.

Letting the past go

From what I can observe, local companies certainly don't think so. They resist change until they absolutely have to. And sometimes that's really too late. It's much better to initiate the reforms while you are still relatively strong rather than from a position of weakness.

Local companies can learn a thing or two from Nokia actions.

a) Bringing in new blood:

Let's face it, it's very difficult to initiate major change from within. You need to bring in fresh talent who can look at things differently and implement change without being held back by sentimentality. Nokia took in Elop, the first non-Finnish person (he's Canadian) to helm Nokia. It would take an outsider like Elop to push for the kind of radical changes Nokia needs.

b) Give the mandate:

If you bring in someone new into the organisation to initiate change, don't hamper them by tying their arms to their backs. Give them a real mandate to do what needs to be done. Unlike his predecessors, Elop has been literally given carte blanche to revitalise the company.

c) Let go of the past:

Old companies have legacy systems and practices. They tend to stick with them because it requires a radical new mindset to shed old ways. Often it's very painful to do so and sometimes quite costly too. But if the old system is not delivering the results you want, you need to adopt a new approach. In Nokia's case, it has pretty much given up on Symbian (the operating system it uses for all its phones) and is banking on Microsoft's new mobile OS Windows 7.

As for applications, Ovi is pretty much history. Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace.

d) Be willing to spend.

Nokia was using the Symbian operating system that it didn't have to pay any royalties for. It could have adopted Android that is free of charge. It could even go with MeeGo that it was developing with Intel, that would not require a fee. Instead, it went for Windows 7, that requires royalty payments but which is an OS that has received positive reviews from industry critics.

e) Abolish the ‘not invented here’ attitude:

Many companies face this problem. They want to do everything in-house. And their legacy teams will resist anything new brought in by the newcomer. Elop has announced that Nokia will cut back substantially on R&D. Why? Because it is partnering Microsoft and adopting their new mobile operating system.

f) Collaborate:

When you are making a comeback, it is hard to do it on your own. Joining forces with another who is also trying to make a return to form is a good approach. And Nokia is doing just that by partnering Microsoft. It's a real collaboration and not just a client-vendor relationship.

Microsoft gets the Nokia Maps license while Nokia uses Microsoft AdCenter and Bing Search. Both companies will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align the evolution of mobile products.

 

OON YEOH's new social media book 'Like Me, Follow Me' is published by MPH. You can connect with him via Facebook and Twitter .