Explosion of mobile devices

I've been talking about how internet-connected mobile devices will become ubiquitous around us.  By 2016, number of connected devices will exceed the world population.  As mobile devices becomes mainstream, there is explosion of consumer options for mobile devices.

This week has been a good example.  Amazon announced 3 new models of Kindle Fire along with Kindle reader with back-lit screen; Motorola announced Droid Razr HD, Droid Razr Maxx HD, and the Droid Razr M running Android; and Nokia also hurried up and announced Lumia 920 and 820 running Windows 8.  Oh yeah, and there will be iPhone 5 announcement happening next week along with mini iPad.

Lesson from Nokia: CEO sets the tone

One thing that I learned working in startups with 5 different CEOs is this:

CEO sets the tone.  

Every little things that CEO says or does have enormous impact on everyone in the company.  Reason is really simpile.  It's because CEO is the top boss.  Everyone looks for type of decisions that he or she makes and tries to emulate.  Everyone takes cues from CEO as to what behavior will be awarded and what won't be.

Therefore it is critically important role for company's success.  Depending on how CEO interacts with executive staffs and makes decisions, it will empower executive team, directors and every managers in the company or stifle them.

When I read accounts of what happened at Nokia, I got reminded how important CEO's role really is.  WSJ ran an article about how Nokia created smartphone way earlier than Apple and spent much more resources on R&D than Apple, yet it was not able to lead smartphone market.  Even worse it could not even recognize the threat that iPhone posed to Nokia's business when iPhone launched.

Guess when this Nokia smartphone was released.
It was launched back in 1996.
That's 8 years earlier than PalmOne Treo 650.