Nokia Nation – Why Australia has a little too much in common with this fallen giant
I think most of you will agree that Australia is a pretty great place to live? It is among the safest countries in the world, we have a high standard of living, amazing beaches, a plethora of natural wonders and, not to forget, possibly the worlds biggest population of craft beer brewers.
Setting aside the economic rise and rise of craft beer, a bit of the shine has gone off Australia in recent years. Is this just a temporary slump, or should we be a little concerned? We only need think of once great brands like Nokia to realise that all too many times in history the once great have been brought low. But do we have something to worry about here? Let’s take a look…
The Nokia 1100 sold approx 255m units world wide.
When I mention the brand Nokia, what comes to mind? Is it the famous (or perhaps infamous, depending on how grating you found it) ringtone? Their stylish “brick” shape? Or that they were almost indestructible, especially compared to modern smart phones, which are the subject of Newton’s little known fourth law of motion; For every dropped smart-phone, there is a cracked screen. Prophetic stuff.
But if you are a Gen Z’er, you’d be forgiven for not having a clue of what I’m talking about. Because, while Nokia became the world’s No.1 mobile brand in 1998, grew to a global mobile market share of 50% in 2007 and were making billions of dollars in profits through that period, they had a spectacular fall barely ten years after rising to dominance. By 2013 their profits were less than 10% of their peak, and they are now a little-bought alternative to the likes of Apple and Samsung. But does Australia really have anything in common with a once great mobile phone company? Surely not, right?
Both Nokia and Australia came from humble beginnings; Nokia started as a single paper mill in 1865, while Australia was invaded in 1788, starting its modern life with years of conflict between European convicts and Indigenous Australians. But from those humble beginnings, both built towards some stunning successes through the 1990’s and early 2000s. We’ve heard briefly about Nokia’s peak above, but Australia was achieving some extraordinary things at the same time;
The Sydney 2000 Olympics was a great success.
A strongly performing economy, generating GDP above the average of developed countries.
Sporting dominance beyond our population size. Think Olympics, Tennis, Rugby, Cricket.
Australian Actors dominating Hollywood; the likes of Mel Gibson, Paul Hogan, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crow, Hugh Jackman, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette and Heath Ledger.
Australian bands with international success; INXS, AC/DC, Crowded House, Silverchair, The Living End.
Never mind that a number of these were actually poached from New Zealand (that’s the Australian Way!), Australian’s were finding success, Australian culture was broadly respected and celebrated and most importantly, Australians were generally considered by the international population to be good people with integrity, a great place to visit, and a better place to live.
Okay, so both Australia and Nokia rose to greatness from humble beginnings. That’s kind of like saying Crocodile Dundee is akin to Michael Myers (of Halloween fame) because they both carry a knife! Many other countries or corporations could claim the same, so hardly grounds for worry.
So let’s take a look at Nokia’s fall and see if there are any closer comparisons there? Reviews of Nokia suggest there were three core factors at the heart of Nokia’s rapid decline:
Inferior Technology
Lack of Vision
Arrogance of Top-Level Managers
So how does Australia currently fare against these measures?
Inferior Technology: Nokia’s operating system was not up to scratch; much inferior to iOS developed by Apple. But instead of addressing it and spending the time and money needed to upgrade it, they continued on with this old technology which ultimately let them down. That doesn’t sound too much like Australia; I mean our presentation at the recent COP26 climate conference in Glasgow was all about new technology! Pledges to investing in advanced technologies of Carbon Capture and the like! That hardly sounds inferior. Nothing speaks of advanced technology like investing in band-aid fixes to keep the old, inferior and highly polluting energy technologies of Coal, Gas and Oil around? As opposed to investing in actual new energy technologies that are both viable and clean. Sure, we have coal, gas and oil resources in Australia. But we also have a huge abundance of clean energy resources; we are the sub-burnt country after all! Add to that significant lithium deposits for important battery storage, along with plenty of space and opportunity for wind turbines, tidal turbines etc.
While we are investing in carbon capture technologies, perhaps we should switch off audio streaming services and also invest in film-friendly cassette tape technologies? Seems logical. Photo by Elijah O'Donnell from Pexels
We could invest and be at the forefront of these technologies, leading in the export of energy, technology and skills and building a strong economy around these. Or we can persist with an inferior technology, which will fall quickly into decline anyway as the world moves away from fossil fuels, do huge amounts of damage to the environment in the meantime, lose credibility from the international community, and ultimately be even further behind everyone else when eventually we are forced to move to cleaner technologies anyway. At least we have the world class NBN roll out! Except for the fact it’s original plan and concept has been pillaged and downgraded over the last ten years, delivering something far inferior to the original plan.
Okay, so we might have something in common with Nokia on the technology side of things. But at least there is another two points that we can establish our superiority on.
Lack of Vision: I was feeling optimistic on this one, but I’m now a little nervous for Australia, given what we’ve just discussed on Climate policy and the NBN. But surely we are visionaries in other areas!? In Nokia’s case, they were shown to have focused on short term goals rather than putting thought, time and resource towards longer term planning. But Australia has long term vision. I mean, we just secured the Olympics for 2032!! That’s a long way off, right?
Investment in world-class education proves our credentials in long-term vision. Mandela said that Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world after all! I mean, Australia is 4th in the world in reading, 8th in Science and 11th in Math; that’s pretty epic! Wait, what’s that? That was back in the early 2000s? So what are we now? 16th in Reading, 17th in Science and 29th in Math. Hmm.
Is this what they get up to in party meetings? Photo by Nothing Ahead from Pexels
The reality is vision is seriously lacking in Australia. Why do you think we haven’t seen a prime minister last more than one term over the last fifteen years? If the opposition hasn’t been doing their utmost to cut them down, then their own parties have done the dirty work. I mean the most consistent and successful election promise in recent times has been Don’t vote for the other mob because they’ll F@*% it up. I’m not sure that technically constitutes “vision” anymore than the second most prominent election promise of Oh, and we will Lower Taxes. If their own parties can’t unite under a common vision, then clearly their vision is lacking. The result has been a highly reactive and increasingly defensive government.
Arrogance of Top Level Managers: Nokia’s high level management were shown to have lacked technical competence, and to have intimidated their middle managers to try and force results. In turn, middle management were frightened and hid the truths from their leaders. But Australian’s arrogant? Never! I mean, we are among the most humble people in the world; especially our leaders! So, at least on this point Australia has a clean slate and point of difference from Nokia; phew!
Except for that one blip when Tony Abbott promised to “shirt front” the Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that was just a one-off. Oh, and there was that time when Scott Morrison brought a lump of coal into parliament, reassuring in sardonic tones “Don’t’ be afraid!” Not super arrogant, really. And I guess there was that other time when he responded to nation wide youth protests on climate changes by claiming. “What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools.” I get the feeling that was the problem Scott; the children were learning about the realities of climate inaction, and learning that you were doing nothing about it! Discouraging the youth of the nation to be engaged in politics is an interesting choice for our political leaders!
“Don’t be afraid”? Maybe “Don’t be a patronising drongo!” is more apt.
Okay, so other than a little arrogance, Australia is being really well managed. Except for the federal government’s handling of the COVID vaccine roll-out which saw Melbourne become the most locked down city in the world. Oh, and also except for when Morrison entered a nuclear submarine deal with the US & the UK and in the process not only blind-sided France, but also forced the US into damage control with France and Europe, and has now deepened the problem by leaking private text messages between Morrison and French President Emmanuel Macron to the media. And the fact they have allowed previously reasonable relations with China, the world’s largest economy and most populace country, sour to the point of animosity.
“Ditch the Bitch”. No respectable business would allow their staff to talk of, or promote messages about, work colleagues in this way. But apparently it’s okay for our nation’s leaders to do so?
The reality is you only have to watch Question Time in Parliament to see arrogance, bullying and other poor behaviours at play among our leaders. Behaviours that, in any other workplace in Australia would result in disciplinary action (and probably law-suits) quicker than you can say “where the bloody hell are you?” The response to the protests following the Brittany Higgin’s rape allegations talks to the culture of secrecy, cover-ups and abuse that exists within parliament. While the party structure is designed to offer alternate points of view, the job of all sides of politics is still to run the country. But how can they expect to do their job well when they are making enemies of their work colleagues at every opportunity, and are plagued my distrust, blame and defensiveness?
But at least our leaders differ from the Nokia leaders in that they have the technical competence to run the portfolios they are across. Actually; do they? If we look at our current Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley, we find someone who studied in taxation and accountancy. Is there anything that actually equips her for competence to hold the Environment Portfolio? Where is her background in marine biology perhaps? Or Geology maybe? Environmental Science wouldn’t be too much to ask, would it? But I have heard she recycles her plastics and paper; does that count?
So not only is her technical competency on holding the Environment portfolio questionable, she has actually worked across four other portfolios in her time in office: Education, Health, Sport and Aged Care. We can’t reasonably expect someone to have technical competence across five very different areas, yet this seems to be typical of most politicians who pick up portfolios like they’ve just been hit with a “draw 4” card in Uno. Sussan Ley is just one example. Can we expect good results from leaders who don’t know much about the things they are meant to be making decisions on? We can; as long as they have good working relationships with their advisors and staff who are experts in these areas, and are not bullying these advisors, having affairs with their staff, covering up abuse perpetrated by their staff, etc. Wait a second…oh crap.
Three from three. Huh. So should we start playing the Nokia ringtone in place of the national anthem at school assemblies now? Or should we actually demand a cultural change from our leaders, demand that they work together rather than make enemies of each other, and stop the slide before it becomes a free fall?