As the telecom equipment maker focuses on aggressive growth, Nokia announced plans on Sunday to change its brand identity for the first time in nearly 60 years, complete with a new logo. The new logo is made up of five different shapes that form the word NOKIA. The iconic blue colour of the old logo has been replaced with a variety of colors depending on the application. “There was the association to smartphones, and now we are a business technology company,” said CEO Pekka Lundmark in an interview with Reuters.
He was speaking ahead of the company’s business update on the eve of the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC), which begins Monday in Barcelona and runs until March 2. After taking over as CEO of the struggling Finnish company in 2020, Lundmark devised a three-stage strategy: reset, accelerate, and scale. Lundmark stated that the second stage has begun now that the reset stage has been completed.
While Nokia continues to strive to expand its service provider business, in which it sells equipment to telecom companies, its primary focus is now on selling equipment to other businesses.
“We had very good 21% growth in enterprise last year, which is now about 8% of our sales, (or) roughly 2 billion euros ($2.11 billion),” Lundmark said. “We want to get to double digits as soon as possible.
” Major technology companies have partnered with telecom equipment makers such as Nokia to sell private 5G networks and automated factory gear to customers, mostly in the manufacturing sector. Nokia intends to review the growth paths of its various businesses and consider alternatives, such as divestment. “The message is very clear. “We only want to be involved in businesses where we can see global leadership,” said Lundmark.
Nokia’s move towards factory automation and data centres will pit them against big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon. “There will be a variety of cases, sometimes they will be our partners, sometimes they will be our customers, and I am certain there will be situations where they will be competitors.”
The telecom equipment market is under pressure, with demand from high-margin markets such as North America being replaced by growth in low-margin India, prompting rival Ericsson to lay off 8,500 employees.
“India is our fastest growing market with lower margins — this is a structural change,” Lundmark said, adding that Nokia anticipates a stronger second half of the year in North America.
