神坛崩塌,芬兰人的诺基亚情结(1)

Nokias past and what could have been Nokias future come together in the evening sun on the Helsinki waterfront, outside a café housed in the Finnish groups old cable factory. Harri Kiljander, a former Nokia manager, is showing off a prototype of the chunky, half-moon-shaped 7700, one of the companys first forays into the touchscreen devices that now dominate the mobile phone market. 赫尔辛基滨海区，一家咖啡馆外，夕阳照耀下，诺基亚(Nokia)的过去与原本可能拥有的未来在这里交织。这家咖啡馆就坐落在诺基亚的旧电缆厂。在诺基亚做过管理人员的哈里基尔扬德(Harri Kiljander)正在展示一部外观粗短、呈半月形的7700原型机。这款手机是诺基亚首次试水触摸屏设备的成果之一。如今，触摸屏设备成了手机市场上的王者。 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 worlds 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. 诺基亚7700于2003年研发出来，但从未上市。一款后续型号停止研发。2007年，苹果(Apple)的iPhone引发了智能手机革命，自此以后，诺基亚就逐渐被抛在了后面。而直到去年，诺基亚依然是全球最大的手机制造商。今年9月3日，诺基亚把追赶对手的艰巨重任交给了微软(Microsoft)，同意微软以54亿美元收购其手机业务。 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 Finlands greatest source of corporate pride. 宣布这项交易后，诺基亚总体市值上涨到150亿欧元，但与5年前1000亿欧元的市值相比，微不足道。诺基亚将保留其网络设备和地图业务，以及大量专利和诺基亚品牌的所有权，但它交给美国软件企业微软的，一度是芬兰在企业领域的第一大自豪感源头。 Former Nokia employees and executives, politicians, economists and many ordinary Finns agree that while Tuesdays 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. 诺基亚昔日雇员和高管、政界人士、经济学家以及很多普通芬兰人都认为，微软收购诺基亚手机业务的消息虽然令人震惊，但并不出人意料。这项交易最终或许是好事，尽管在芬兰经济依然低迷，林业、造船业、造纸业等传统行业衰退之际，普通芬兰人很难感到欢欣鼓舞。 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: “Theres 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.” 原诺基亚总裁、2005年卸任的佩卡阿拉-皮蒂拉(Pekka Ala-Pietila)总结人们此刻的感想：“在诺基亚身上寄托着很多民族自豪感，失去它带给人一种伤感，但芬兰人很务实，他们放眼未来。你必须克服这段伤感期，而不能否认这种感情，然后，继续向前奋进。”受政府委托，阿拉-皮蒂拉撰写了一项计划，阐述如何缓解科技行业重组带来的冲击。 Jan Vapaavuori, Finlands minister of economic affairs, echoes the sentiment: “This is the most pragmatic country in the world – so what happened happened and well now go forward.” 芬兰经济事务部部长让瓦帕沃里(Jan Vapaavuori)深有同感，他表示：“芬兰是全球最务实的国家，所以已经发生的事情就让它过去，现在我们得向前看。” 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. 与企业领域更加多元化的其他国家的国民相比，芬兰人可能更难对这一打击淡然处之。在巅峰时期2000年，诺基亚提供了芬兰1%的就业机会，贡献了4%的国内生产总值(GDP)，去年仍占了企业研发的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. 诺基亚书写了一个令人惊叹的转型故事：一家生产木材、轮胎和橡胶靴的老企业，在发现手机这种最初作为商业应用工具出现的东西会成为不可或缺的消费品后，把重心转移到了手机业务，从而在20世纪90年代初期把自己、也把深陷衰退的芬兰经济拖出泥潭，重焕生机。 What went wrong? In the search for a scapegoat, Finlands 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. 后来是哪里出了问题？在寻找替罪羊时，芬兰各家小报把矛头对准了现任首席执行官斯蒂芬埃洛普(Stephen Elop)。埃洛普本身曾是微软高管，3年前诺基亚把他请过来，希望在他带领下实现第二次艰难转型。这位加拿大人在备忘录中表示，诺基亚必须跳离“燃烧的平台”。很快，在他领导下，诺基亚与他的前东家结盟。 He selected the Windows smartphone operating system for Nokia smartphones, abandoning internally developed options and shunning Googles fast-growing Android software. The assumption was that with Microsofts marketing dollars and Nokias 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 Nokias basic mobile phones in markets such as China and India have crumbled. 他为诺基亚智能手机选择了Windows智能手机操作系统，放弃了内部开发的系统，也拒绝使用谷歌(Google)快速发展的安卓(Android)系统。他们的想法是，凭借微软在营销方面投入的资金和诺基亚的手机与设计，两家公司有望开创第三个智能手机“生态系统”。他们确实做到了，但从市场份额来看，这一战略失败了。同时，诺基亚低端手机（这是其基本销售收入来源）在中国、印度等市场销量大跌。