There was once a technology company which appointed a banker to run it. Where the rest of the world's technology companies decided, to go slow over a switch from analogue to digital technology, the banker decided to go full steam ahead.
The company's engineering departments complained about the difficulties of the technology and the expense being incurred. But the banker persisted with the effort.
Then the digital technology was perfected and the first person to demonstrate it, in 1991, was the Prime Minister of the banker's and the company's country.
In 1992, the company had expected a 40 million unit market for sales in 1999. Instead the market was for 250 million units, and the company was on its way to dominating that market for over a decade.
MORAL: Technological Change Equals Market
So the MORAL here is that Banker's are savy risk-taking indiviuals with technical foresight?
Wow - and I thought they were all plonkers.
Thanks for the story.
Well Jimmy 2 Times it doesn't happen often. I guess Jorma Ollila was more than just a banker.
I think it's a bit misleading to call someone with an MSE "just a banker". That's like saying Einstein was "just a patent clerk".
However, Nokia definitely dominated and I think engineering & scientific knowledge mixed with business savvy and financial prowess should be the model for ALL technology CEOs. Too many are "just bankers". It'll be interesting to see if they can find another Ollila to keep them/put them back on top.
Thanks Chris, I didn't know that he had a scientific/engineering degeree.
Is the moral we should appoint bankers to run engineering companies and engineers to run banks?
Curiously, Peter, it turned out that the Chairman and CEO at both RBS and HBOS did not have any banking qualifications. So may be the moral is that proper bankers should run banks, proper engineers should run engineering companies and only the sort of genius who can recognise the importance of digital telephony long before the market leader, should be let loose upon a forestry and rubber boot company.