The failure of Nokia: A lesson about credit union data

Credit unions have a great deal of data on their members – how much they earn, where they spend their money, how much their house is worth. Credit unions now have access to more data than they ever had before. But most fail to leverage that data, and this should be a big concern.

The corporate landscape is littered with companies that couldn’t see or refused to see, changes in their customers’ expectations. For example, Nokia was once the most popular mobile phone provider, dominating the market. However, the company relied on its reputation, which was stellar initially, and in its belief that it knew what the consumer wanted. The problem is that many consumers don’t know that they want something until they see it. Apple, on the other hand, introduced a phone without a keyboard in 2007, something Nokia refused to do until several years after the introduction of the iPhone.

Nokia also believed its Symbian operating system was superior, and it was until Android was introduced in 2008. By 2010, nearly all of the major phone manufacturers adopted Android, except Nokia and Apple. It was hailed as intuitive and easy-to-use, and its commonality drove a proliferation of mobile apps. But Nokia clung to its now clunky-by-comparison operating system and in 2014, sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft.

 

continue reading »