神壇崩塌,芬蘭人的諾基亞情結(1)

Nokia's past and what could have been Nokia's future come together in the evening sun on the Helsinki waterfront, outside a café housed in the Finnish group's old cable factory. Harri Kiljander, a former Nokia manager, is showing off a prototype of the chunky, half-moon-shaped 7700, one of the company's first forays into the touchscreen devices that now dominate the mobile phone market.

赫爾辛基濱海區，一家咖啡館外，夕陽照耀下，諾基亞(Nokia)的過去與原本可能擁有的未來在這裏交織。這家咖啡館就坐落在諾基亞的舊電纜廠。在諾基亞做過管理人員的哈里•基爾揚德(Harri Kiljander)正在展示一部外觀粗短、呈半月形的7700原型機。這款手機是諾基亞首次試水觸摸屏設備的成果之一。如今，觸摸屏設備成了手機市場上的王者。

The 7700, which dates from 2003, was never released. A follow-up model was discontinued. When Apple revolutionised the smartphone market with its iPhone in 2007, Nokia, the world's largest handset manufacturer until last year, was left trailing. On Tuesday, the company passed to Microsoft the supremely difficult mission of catching up with rivals, agreeing the takeover of its mobile phones business in a $5.4bn deal.

諾基亞7700於2003年研發出來，但從未上市。一款後續型號停止研發。2007年，蘋果(Apple)的iPhone引發了智能手機革命，自此以後，諾基亞就逐漸被拋在了後面。而直到去年，諾基亞依然是全球最大的手機制造商。今年9月3日，諾基亞把追趕對手的艱鉅重任交給了微軟(Microsoft)，同意微軟以54億美元收購其手機業務。

The announcement helped lift the market value of the whole of Nokia to 15bn, which is only a fraction of the 100bn it was worth five years ago. Nokia will keep its network equipment and mapping businesses, as well as a portfolio of patents and the ownership of the Nokia brand, but it will hand to the US software company what was once Finland's greatest source of corporate pride.

宣佈這項交易後，諾基亞總體市值上漲到150億歐元，但與5年前1000億歐元的市值相比，微不足道。諾基亞將保留其網絡設備和地圖業務，以及大量專利和諾基亞品牌的所有權，但它交給美國軟件企業微軟的，一度是芬蘭在企業領域的第一大自豪感源頭。

Former Nokia employees and executives, politicians, economists and many ordinary Finns agree that while Tuesday's announcement came as a shock, it was not a surprise. It may even prove to be positive, though in a country that is still suffering economically, as traditional businesses such as forestry, shipbuilding and papermaking decline, it is hard for ordinary Finns to be very upbeat.

諾基亞昔日僱員和高管、政界人士、經濟學家以及很多普通芬蘭人都認爲，微軟收購諾基亞手機業務的消息雖然令人震驚，但並不出人意料。這項交易最終或許是好事，儘管在芬蘭經濟依然低迷，林業、造船業、造紙業等傳統行業衰退之際，普通芬蘭人很難感到歡欣鼓舞。

Pekka Ala-Pietila, president of Nokia until 2005 and author of a government-commissioned blueprint for alleviating the impact of restructuring in the technology sector, sums up the mood: “There's a feeling of sadness for something that had a lot of national pride attached to it but Finns are very practical and they look forward. You need to . . . go through that period of sadness and not deny it, and then get on.”

原諾基亞總裁、2005年卸任的佩卡•阿拉-皮蒂拉(Pekka Ala-Pietila)總結人們此刻的感想：“在諾基亞身上寄託着很多民族自豪感，失去它帶給人一種傷感，但芬蘭人很務實，他們放眼未來。你必須克服這段傷感期，而不能否認這種感情，然後，繼續向前奮進。”受政府委託，阿拉-皮蒂拉撰寫了一項計劃，闡述如何緩解科技行業重組帶來的衝擊。

Jan Vapaavuori, Finland's minister of economic affairs, echoes the sentiment: “This is the most pragmatic country in the world – so what happened happened and we'll now go forward.”

芬蘭經濟事務部部長讓•瓦帕沃裏(Jan Vapaavuori)深有同感，他表示：“芬蘭是全球最務實的國家，所以已經發生的事情就讓它過去，現在我們得向前看。”

It is probably harder for Finns to show stoicism about this blow than nationals of other countries with a more diverse corporate economy. At its peak in 2000, Nokia was responsible for 1 per cent of total employment in Finland, 4 per cent of gross domestic product and last year still accounted for 31 per cent of corporate research and development.

與企業領域更加多元化的其他國家的國民相比，芬蘭人可能更難對這一打擊淡然處之。在巔峯時期2000年，諾基亞提供了芬蘭1%的就業機會，貢獻了4%的國內生產總值(GDP)，去年仍佔了企業研發的31%。

It was a stunning turnround story: an ageing conglomerate producing timber, tyres and rubber boots that in the early 1990s dragged itself – and recession-hit Finland – back to health by refocusing on mobile phones, spotting that what started as a business tool would become an indispensable consumer product.

諾基亞書寫了一個令人驚歎的轉型故事：一家生產木材、輪胎和橡膠靴的老企業，在發現手機這種最初作爲商業應用工具出現的東西會成爲不可或缺的消費品後，把重心轉移到了手機業務，從而在20世紀90年代初期把自己、也把深陷衰退的芬蘭經濟拖出泥潭，重煥生機。

What went wrong? In the search for a scapegoat, Finland's tabloid newspapers have targeted the current chief executive, Stephen Elop, himself a former Microsoft chief executive. Brought in three years ago to attempt a second difficult turnround, the Canadian issued a memo saying Nokia needed to jump from its “burning platform” and quickly allied the company with his former employer.

後來是哪裏出了問題？在尋找替罪羊時，芬蘭各家小報把矛頭對準了現任首席執行官斯蒂芬•埃洛普(Stephen Elop)。埃洛普本身曾是微軟高管，3年前諾基亞把他請過來，希望在他帶領下實現第二次艱難轉型。這位加拿大人在備忘錄中表示，諾基亞必須跳離“燃燒的平臺”。很快，在他領導下，諾基亞與他的前東家結盟。

He selected the Windows smartphone operating system for Nokia smartphones, abandoning internally developed options and shunning Google's fast-growing Android software. The assumption was that with Microsoft's marketing dollars and Nokia's handset and design expertise, the two companies would carve out a third smartphone “ecosystem”. They have done this but in terms of market share the strategy has failed. At the same time, the bedrock sales of Nokia's basic mobile phones in markets such as China and India have crumbled.

他爲諾基亞智能手機選擇了Windows智能手機操作系統，放棄了內部開發的系統，也拒絕使用谷歌(Google)快速發展的安卓(Android)系統。他們的想法是，憑藉微軟在營銷方面投入的資金和諾基亞的手機與設計，兩家公司有望開創第三個智能手機“生態系統”。他們確實做到了，但從市場份額來看，這一戰略失敗了。同時，諾基亞低端手機（這是其基本銷售收入來源）在中國、印度等市場銷量大跌。