Month: September 2013

Microsoft strategy success: Nokia no more

Albert Zenkoff

Now it should be painfully obvious to everyone that the long-term strategic plan of Microsoft to bring down and absorb Nokia worked. Many years of hard work by high-profile managers and large investments are finally set to bring home profit for Microsoft.

Now that Nokia is bought by Microsoft, Microsoft can finally make the mobile devices that are, well, mobile devices. They will have the technology, the market, and the people. Unfortunately, they still have to make it all work. They still may run this very successful business of Nokia into the ground. And there is a high chance they will.

There was a time when I was wondering if it was just a Microsoft venture, or a joint venture by Microsoft and Samsung. Actually, no, I would not go as far as to say it is all clear now. We will see how things pan out.

The hole in the market remains though and the market share of Nokia is still up to grabs. The biggest problem is really the patent pool. This is the time when you wish there were no such things as patents. The market could flood with new and exciting mobile phones now if …
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Insourcing – a new fashion trend

Albert Zenkoff

There is a new trend, a new fashion in the high-tech industry. They already coined the most natural term for it and it is called “insourcing”. A recent article was called “Insourcing QA to gain more control over the resources”. Yes, indeed, so outsourcing has outlived its hype by far and we need a new something for the managers to get bonuses about.

Not surprisingly, the new trend is a direct reversal of the previous trend. So, there is nothing new there really. In a decade or so we will be high on outsourcing again, so the Indians and others should just hang in there for a while and we’ll be back.

Reality is that neither outsourcing nor insourcing are the ultimate answer to anything. No magic bullet is going to cure an ineffectively managed business. The best one can do is ignore these fashions completely. Unless you are a consultant of outsourcing, of course, because now you will be consulting with equal vigour on insourcing.

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