Business Environment and Corporate Culture of Nokia - Case Study Example

?Contemporary Issues Portfolio Table of Contents Introduction 3 Relevance of Environment and Corporate Cultures in Nokia 4 External Business Environment 4 Social or Socio-cultural Environment 5 Technological Environment 6 Corporate Culture 6 Critical Evaluation 8 Conclusion 9 Reflection Note 11 Reference List 12 Bibliography 16 Introduction The business environment can be defined as the set of factors related to economic, political, social, legal as well as technological aspects in which the business activities are conducted. On the contrast, the corporate culture of the organisation depicts major elements of the internal environment of the organisation (Ghemawat & Reiche, n.d.). It is worth mentioning in this regard that these factors tend to create strong influences on the identity of every organisation, especially those operating in the global sphere. For instance, Nokia Corporation has established its global position within the mobile market. The organisation is well-known for its exceptional deliverance of telecommunication and networking services across the different regions of the world paying due attention towards the business environment of the particular region along with its corporate cultural features. The organisation practices an effective as well as flexible decision making and operational process which considerably focuses on product innovation and technological advancements of its range of electronic devices (Henten & et. al., 2004). The report hereby intends to briefly discuss the business environment and corporate culture of Nokia in the global cellular market. The discussion henceforth will be focused on highlighting the business environment through the appropriate identification of the internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company in the global mobile technology market. Moreover, the report will further include the role and significance of business environment and corporate culture practiced by Nokia paying due consideration towards its challenges in the global market. Relevance of Environment and Corporate Cultures in Nokia External Business Environment Business environment, in the 21st century context, principally consists of four major dimensions such as political, economic, social as well as technological factors which can be grouped through the implementation of a PEST analysis model (Lorat, 2009). Political Environment Political factors are often observed to have a major bearing upon a business organisation to efficiently coordinate its number of vital operations. These factors can create positive impacts upon an organisation’s business in terms of making its operations smoother; however, political disturbances and imbalances, as well as unsympathetic governmental regulations can also create obstructions for a business to operate efficiently within a nation (Macmillan Publishers Limited, n.d.). Contextually, the political factors identifiable in the external business environment of Nokia are regarded as quite vital as the company focuses on practicing flexible policies in its global business operations. In order to efficiently operate its business operations, the organisation significantly involves obtaining effective supports from the public sector through rapid and flexible change adoption within its operational processes (Blomstrm & et. al., 2002). Economic Environment This particular dimension encompasses the type of economic movement which constitute the livelihood of the people, wealth sources as well as the degree of the country’s industrialisation (Chernev & Kotler, 2008). Observing the international strategic practices of the company, the business strategy of Nokia significantly complies with the economic environment and stability of the country where the organisation attempts to operate its business practices. Furthermore, the organisation renders due significance towards the income level and economic conditions of the customer segments, with the sole intention to address customer demands effectively through needful innovation and effective pricing strategies (Macmillan Publishers Limited, n.d.). For instance, the pricing strategy of Nokia is extensively different in the Chinese market, comparing to the product line available in the US markets. Contextually, the pricing strategies of Nokia products can be observed as quite higher in the US market in comparison to the Chinese particularly owing to the economic differences of the two economic regions (Nokia, 2013a; Nokia, 2013b). Social or Socio-cultural Environment The social or socio-cultural environment factors that can significantly affect the business operations in a country encompass its various ethnic and demographic dimensions. The major elements of socio-cultural environment are identified as languages, population growth rate, religious and cultural standards, degree of social cohesion as well as the scope for women in employment within the country (Macmillan Publishers Limited, n.d.). According to the rapid development of technological environment, Nokia significantly focuses towards ensuring its sustainable development through effectively maintaining the environmental and societal considerations which are observed to reflect different consequences in terms of innovation and operational practices (Scribd Inc., 2012). For instance, Nokia has different product lines or characteristics in the US market comparing to the products offered by the organisation in the Chinese market (Nokia, 2013a; Nokia, 2013b). Therefore, it can be identified that the business strategies of Nokia in the Chinese market is significantly different than strategies implemented in the US market being strongly influenced by the different socio-cultural needs of the two distinct economies. Technological Environment Technological environment depicts the nature and scope of technology up-gradation and advancements which are used to practice business operations within a particular country. The technological factors considerably represents the governmental spending on Research And Development (R&D), energy efficiency and cost, transportation infrastructure, degree of technology transfer as well as innovation system efficiencies and availability of skilful workforce (Oxford University Press, 2007). From the perspective of business strategies of Nokia, the organisation can be examined to pay due attention to technological factors persisting within the targeted region (Scribd Inc., 2012). According to the product features and characteristics, the organisation includes different applications and software programmes according to the desires and needs of the customers. With this concern, Nokia involves different technological involvements in product configuration which again differs according to the usage of the customers in different markets (Nokia, 2013a; Nokia, 2013b). Corporate Culture The emergence of corporate cultures can be stated as a vital element of the global organisations to achieve competitive advantages that ensures to offer sustainable position. It has often been observed that the organisations of the present business world significantly focus towards developing the internal business environment with due consideration towards culture which enables high productivity and profitability from a long-run perspective. An effective and strong corporate culture involves sharing a set of moderately reliable and consistent guidelines along with values perceived by each individual while performing the business operations. Therefore, this type of corporate culture tends to provide considerable insights to the business while performing operations through culturally diversified workforces within the external business environment (Kotter, 1992). Reviewing the business strategies of Nokia, it can be observed that the organisation practices successful business operations through effectively maintaining a unique corporate culture in the global markets. From an in-depth perspective, it can also be affirmed that the corporate culture of the organisation is one of the major aspects of Nokia to facilitate its long term sustainability. The organisation strictly complies with its traditional core values as well as shared philosophy concerning diversity within the workplace. The organisation is operating its global business operations through its diverse workforce from different backgrounds including race, gender, ethnicity, age as well as skills and capabilities which effectively supports the organization to facilitate its working environment. Moreover, the increasing diversity in the workforce further facilitates the organisation to understand and recognise the needs and desires of the global consumers with greater efficiency. In addition, Nokia also prioritises individual values and beliefs for the people from different religions or ethnic backgrounds (Nokia, 2013). Contextually, owing to its operations in varied economic regions, Nokia also had to face different challenges concerning frequent alterations in its business environment and corporate culture. Therefore, the organisation tends to develop its corporate culture in a flexible way in accordance with the changing phases of its business environment. As the environmental and corporate culture is becoming a major issue for the modern organisations due to rapid changes within the business policies of the firms and their external environment. The external environment of the organisation tends to create severe problems within the organisation’s performance in terms of conducting any global operation (Macmillan Publishers Limited, n.d.). Critical Evaluation The factors related with business environment and corporate culture has significant relationship which possesses major efficiencies for an organisation to achieve competitive and sustainable advantages within the market. According to the modern competitive business scenario, it can be identified that range of organisations transform their corporate cultures in order to effectively build effective productive business environment. The culture of the organisation therefore should be accomplished with adequate values to its economic performances. Hence, in order to build an encouraging and strong corporate culture, the organisation must be capable of developing effective leadership within its business processes (Cordes & et. al., 2010). Reviewing the business strategies of Nokia, it can be observed that the organisation possesses an effective and strong corporate culture that ensures the enhancement of the efficiency of its business environment. For instance, the organisation generates its sales through advanced manufacturing facilities different emerging markets. However, in various nations, the organisation has often been observed to witness different challenges including environmental and public health, political and economic turmoil as well as labour unrest issues in terms of conducting manufacturing and distribution processes of its products. During the year 2011, Nokia witnessed political disturbance in various global markets which caused a negative impact on the overall sales of its product range (Nokia Corporation, 2012). The leadership approach of the organisation significantly enables to promote long-term sustainability through delivering adequate number of products to its customers. The organisation has diverse workforce, encompassing people from different ethnic and demographic backgrounds which further enables the organisation to effectively recognise the needs and desires of its customers. From a practical perspective, it can be apparently observed that recruiting locales provides the company with an extra advantage of obtaining greater in-depth understanding of the targeted region. In its current performances, Nokia has been observed to significantly focus towards developing its internal and external business environment in order to achieve competitive advantages. Contextually, the business environment of Nokia encompasses major elements in its external environment factors that create considerable influence on the overall organisational performances. To be summarised, the common elements of external environment comprise customers, suppliers, competitors, stakeholders, labour unions as well as governmental agencies which are found to be effectively maintained by the organisation within the global market. In the similar context, the internal environment of the organisation includes different aspects such as working conditions, business policies and human resource policies among other crucial elements which further intend to promote effective business environment in the global context (Nokia Corporation, 2011). Conclusion Nokia can be recognised as one of the major dominant companies in terms of attaining long-term sustainability in manufacturing communication devices across the different regions of the world. Moreover, the corporate culture of Nokia can further be stated as a major element for the organisation which also ensures the continuous development of its product line. The organisation possesses a strong corporate culture that enables to increase productivity as well as overall performance of the organisation to a considerable extent. According to the observation of the business environment, it can be recommended that Nokia should also focus on developing its business policies concerning political considerations while performing global operations. In order to achieve a greater competitive position in the global technology communication industry, the organisation should maintain flexibility with the governmental policies to reduce political and economic interruptions restricting those elements from hampering the business process. One of the most significant strengths of the company to manage its challenges in the external business environment is its flexible corporate culture which emphasises on facilitating human resource involvement from every level of the organisation structure. However, in order to preserve its strengths in the internal organisational environment, the organisation needs to focus on rendering due significance towards it values, mission as well as vision. Thus, it can be stated that the elements in the external business environment and internal business environment of a particular global organisation are interlinked and interdependent. Reflection Note My previous assignment was based upon the topic, Changes in People and Culture which was focused on identifying the change of perceptions among people which can affect the organisational performances. In this assignment I was able to obtain certain valuable feedbacks which are more relevant to accomplish the overall objective of the course. The feedback of the assignment provided valuable guidelines to improve quality as well as the overall formatting style in order to successfully accomplish the aims of the assessment. I believe that these valuable guidelines depicts the use of relevant and appropriate sources along with proper evidence based materials related to the issue concerned are crucial to portray the overall concepts of the assessment. In addition, I observed that the mentioned guidelines have also represented the importance of using reliable sources which has apparently provided me with major support to complete my second assignment. Therefore, this report has been prepared through effectively complying with the guidelines specified through the feedbacks I received in my first assignment. These feedbacks have ultimately helped me to accomplish the second assessment with proper identification of the issues and relevant information gathered from different reliable sources. Reference List Blomstrm, M. & et. al., 2002. Growth and Innovation Policies for a Knowledge Economy: Experiences from Finland, Sweden, and Singapore. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://swopec.hhs.se/eijswp/papers/eijswp0156.pdf [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Chernev, A. & Kotler, P. 2008. Strategic Marketing Management, 3rd Edition. Elsevier. Cordes, C. & et. al., 2010. How Corporate Cultures Coevolve with the Business Environment: The Case of Firm Growth Crises and Industry Evolution. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Vol. 76, pp. 465-480. Ghemawat, P. & Reiche, S., No Date. National Cultural Differences and Multinational Business. Globalisation Note Series. [Online] Available at: http://www.aacsb.edu/resources/globalization/globecourse/contents/readings/national-cultural-differences-and-multinational-business.pdf [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Henten, A. & et. al., 2004. New Trends in Telecommunication Innovation. Communication and Strategies, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 131-158. Kotter, J. P., 1992. Corporate Culture and Performance. Simon and Schuster. Lorat, N., 2009. Market Audit and Analysis. GRIN Verlag. Macmillan Publishers Limited, No Date. Business in the Global Environment. The Enterprise in the International Environment. [Online] Available at: http://www.palgrave.com/business/morrisongbe3/about/sample_chapter.pdf [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Nokia Corporation, 2012. Nokia Form 20-F 2011. Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(D) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. [Online] Available at: http://i.nokia.com/blob/view/-/1015984/data/3/-/form20-f-11-pdf.pdf [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Nokia, 2013. Our People & Culture. Meet Our People. [Online] Available at: http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/about-us/culture/our-people-and-culture/ [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Nokia, 2013a. Nokia Home USA. Products. [Online] Available at: http://www.nokia.com/us-en/ [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Nokia, 2013b. Nokia Home. Products. [Online] Available at: http://www.nokia.com/cn-zh/ [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Nokia Corporation, 2011. Nokia Sustainability Report 2011. Nokia and People. [Online] Available at: http://i.nokia.com/blob/view/-/1961956/data/1/-/nokia-sustainability-report-2011-pdf.pdf [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Oxford University Press, 2007. PESTEL Analysis of the Macro-Environment. Foundations of Economics. [Online] Available at: http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Scribd Inc., 2012. Pest Analysis On Nokia. Scribd Inc. [Online] Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48284929/pestel-analysis-on-nokia [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Bibliography Berry, L. L., 1999. Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success. Simon and Schuster. Krizan, A. C. B. & et. al., 2010. Business Communication Business Communication Series. Cengage Learning. Madu, B. C., No Date. Organization Culture as Driver of Competitive Advantage. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, pp. 1-9. Mowat, J., 2002. Corporate Culture. Why is it Important to Understand the Corporate Culture? [Online] Available at: http://www.herridge.ca/pdfs/corp_cultures.pdf [Accessed December 31, 2012]. Reino, A. & et. al., 2007. Organizational Culture and Environment: Dynamics in Dynamics. Case of ORDI. Trames, Vol. 11, pp. 124-138. Read More