Nokia’s lessons for Canada

In 2006 Nokia was making 40% of the smartphones in the world. Today it makes none, having sold its failing business to Microsoft. Nokia’s home country, Finland, has been reeling ever since and recently saw its credit downgraded by one major rating agency. In my latest column for the Economy Lab feature in the Globe’s ROB, I dissect Nokia’s spectacular collapse and find some lessons for Canada. The main one is not to become complacent and start to think that what your company wants is more important than what your customers want. And the most obvious places where exactly that is happening are the industries (airlines, broadcasting, telecoms, dairy, taxis, etc., etc.) where companies shelter behind bureaucrats with rule books, protecting them from sharper competition from abroad, as well as from their own customers. That way decline lies….