The Making Of RAZR !

Couple of years back, a friend of mine (AB) forwarded this article to me that talks about the creation of RAZR. It covers almost everything; the conception of the idea from Jellicoe's sketches in a Libertyville pub, the formation of the RAZR team, the time constraints, focus on the "style factor", the daily status meetings that always got extended, the secrecy, the brainstorming sessions on the antenna and battery positioning, rule breaking and not to forget, Geoffrey Frost's marketing stunts!

My favourite part in the article is the end portion that says -

Last July several key players from the RAZR development team were asked to appear at a meeting of top executives at company headquarters. They weren't told why.
"Even when we were sitting in the room waiting to be called in, nobody was really quite sure what was going to happen," says Tadd Scarpelli, the young engineer who designed the RAZR's antenna.
Then, as the team members filed in, the executives awaiting them rose in applause, delivering a standing ovation - followed by news that the team members would also be rewarded with a boatload of stock options.
"It was surreal," says Scarpelli, who to this day approaches strangers in airports and asks them if they like "his" phone. Successful rule breakers, after all, have certain privileges.

The RAZR certainly has the 'wow' factor, but the way it was created is surprisingly simple, few innovative new components and space management by simple rearrangement of components.

I have lost count of the number of times i have read this story, but whenever i do, this inspiring tale gives me goose pimples...:)

Nokia's Strategy in India

Finland based Nokia commands a 70% market share for mobile phones in India.How did Nokia take the lead?What were the other mobile giants doing?What was Nokia's strategy to win the Indian market?

Well, here are some of the answers ->

a) The company was completely focused on two core businesses - mobile phones and telecommunications networks.It exited from all it's other business domains. This gave it an edge over others who had consumer electronics, home appliances etc to take care of!

b) It made an early investment in the brand, people, infrastructure, manufacturing, distribution, design and R&D of the handset domain. Nokia entered the Indian market in 1994. The first ever GSM call in India was made on a Nokia 2110 mobile phone on its own network in 1995.

c) It was successful in utilizing the fundamental consumer differences between India and other countries.In other words it started thinking locally.Some of the examples::
1) It came up with tunes like Sare jahan se achcha in its 5110 model in 1998.
2) In 2000, its first Hindi user interface in the 3210 model gave it the confidence to target its product development efforts at the Hindi-speaking population.
3) It introduced the Hindi text messsaging facility in the 3610 in the year 2001.
4) The Nokia 1100, the first made-for-india phone was a huge success.It incorporated a flashlight, a sheath-covered keypad for dust protection and a slip-free grip.

d) It established several R&D centres, labs and manufacturing facilities in India before it's competitors. The $150 million handset manufacturing facility established by Nokia in Chennai in the year 2005 has a total production of over 25 million handsets!!!

e) It took care of building it's brand in India.With great marketing skills and promoting each platform(like the E and N series) rather than each product, there was no looking back!

Well,that summarizes Nokia's strategy for success in India.I might have missed out some stuff so do let me know in case anyone has a point to be added to this list!

For those who know me well, do not worry, i am still a hard core Motorola fan :)
As someone has rightly said -
“You have to like math. You need to learn it and be able to apply it to the problem in front of you, and some of it is just learning from other competitions.”