THE FOUR TOXIC SYMPTOMS OF SUCCESS

All companies make mistakes but success – especially huge success – can blind companies to their mistakes until it’s too late to recover. Risto Siilasmaa, Chairman of Nokia, shares hard-earned lessons from Nokia’s near-death experience in 2012: How to recognise and prevent the toxicity of success.

When I joined Nokia’s board of directors in 2008, Nokia was on top of the world. In the late 1990s, Nokia had emerged from obscurity to become a powerhouse in the hottest new industry of the time: mobile phones. Its phones had cutting-edge technology and sexy designs, and people around the world were gobbling them up. The company owned over half of the global smartphone market. It had better brand recognition than Toyota, Intel, Walt Disney – better even than McDonald’s.

Four years later, Nokia was fighting for its life. Blindsided by the iPhone and Android operating system, the company that once sold more cell phones than anyone else in the world had lost over 90 percent of its value. By the time I was appointed Chairman in May 2012, we had announced two profit warnings in three months. The value