Technology Venturing Case Study
Imperial College Business School
By Rebekah Law
Example section
How do companies create momentum in technology venturing to promote the acceptance of their technologies? In what ways can managers promote the adoption of a new venture? This study will look at the initial challenges faced in persuading a company to take on this technological development which was a new departure for Nokia, the use of external and internal departments to develop the idea and the problems that the company faced with changes in the industry. The process raised questions and posed several challenges: How do you continue with a strong vision over such a long time period? How do you cope with the ever-changing market with internal and external reshuffling and new developments from competitors?
In 2001 Nokia believed that mobile phones would become “gateways” giving connectivity to a whole host of other devices and accessories. This was inspired by the Bluetooth technology that had come onto the market a few years before. The original technology was designed as a method for a variety of devices to send information to a mobile telephone. The existing wireless technology was not compatible with the idea of extensive external connectivity and the external devices did not have the technological capabilities to connect to the internet independently. Nokia recognised that a wireless link could be developed to a gateway device could collate data by allowing several small accessories to connect to the internet. The potential to connect mobile phones to heart rate monitors, watches, cameras and video-cameras via a Personal Area Network (PAN) inspired Nokia to look into the technology. Nokia recognised the need for a technology that enables this vision of mobile phones becoming a gateway device. This would require low cost and low energy technology to reduce the battery drain on mobile devices whilst keeping mobile devices within a saleable price range. Bluetooth technology already existed and it made sense for Nokia to work with the existing technology rather than developing its own from scratch.
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