A fantasy map of Europe - by The Economist

Don't miss the Economist's summary of Europe through the medium of emoticons.

Nokia

Tech hacks spill ink and spew broadband bits speculating and pontificating over Nokia. Was its decline such a surprise? What surprises me is that it was as successful as it was for such a long time. Perhaps they lacked strong competitors during this timeframe? When Samsung got its act together and Apple entered the market, Nokia's longstanding weaknesses were both exposed and exploited.

Is it the problem of being big (complacency)? Could it also be about a lack of diversity in the leadership? When you come from the same country and perhaps from the same university (or university system), you may all think in similar ways.

The lack of diversity reminds me of Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety. If Nokia had more diversity, variety* on its exec bench, it may have better handled changes in its external environment. This also reminds me of Drucker and his Theory of the Business. Every company has a theory about its business. Just like it expired for GM in the late 80s, so it expired for Nokia a few years ago.

Has anyone told them? Perhaps the latest slew of patent lawsuits indicates that they are aware, but clueless as to what to do, other than to come out with primitive responses that only enrich lawyers.

* On the other hand, if you are an electronics hot-shot in Finland, where else can you go within that beautiful country if you want to work for a large tech firm?

LinkedIn

I wonder what the lifetime of a LinkedIn group is? I doubt the company would disclose it, for it is the sort of detail that could affect its valuation. There are many groups on LinkedIn, and as a member of a few, I notice how the creator rapidly runs out of energy, or loses focus. The end result is that the group goes quiet, becoming the living dead. But what of the members of the group? Many appear to join because they wonder what they are missing out on; spongers rather than contributors, if you will. There's a low entry barrier to creating a LinkedIn group, which might be part of the problem, leading many to underestimate the effort and continuing persistence required.

There are probably many groups that are active and add real value to their membership. I just wonder what the ratio is.