Nokia Press Bulletin Board

Chairman’s special corporate innovation award recognizes Nokia’s dedication to innovation

Nokia was the sole corporate recipient in this year’s Economist Innovation Awards. At the seventh annual Economist’s Innovation Awards ceremony on October 30 at the Science Museum in London, UK, Nokia received an award in the corporate use of innovation category and was recognized for its innovative culture, renewal ability and rapid response to new consumer trends.  

The Economist Annual Innovation Awards celebrates the achievements and innovations that have positively transformed global business with commitment to new ideas and creativity. A distinguished panel of judges selects the winners in all eight categories. This was the second year running that a chairman’s special award for corporate innovation has been given to a company. The seven additional awards are typically conferred to individual recipients. 

Mark Selby, Vice President of Industry Collaborations accepted the award on Nokia’s behalf: “We are honored to be the sole corporate recipient of The Economist’s prestigious Innovation Award in recognition of Nokia’s corporate use of innovation. Nokia has a 140-year history of reinvention from its roots in pulp and rubber to a leader in mobile devices. ‘Passion for Innovation’ is a Nokia core value that permeates our culture as well as the products and services we deliver to our customers around the world. Our customers and the developer community have directly contributed to this innovation and we thank them for their valued engagement. Today, we continue our renewal with the addition of services that will improve peoples’ lives by connecting them in new and better ways.”

Nokia Growth Partners, a global venture capital management fund, today announced the debut of its China operations. Nokia Growth Partners also announced an investment in Madhouse, a leading mobile advertisement network in China. 

“China is an incredible place to witness the ongoing convergence between mobility and the Internet. We see China rising to the forefront of innovation that is equally relevant both locally and globally”, said David Tang, Vice President, Sales, Nokia China. “The expansion of Nokia’s partner ecosystem in China is all about building momentum for innovation.”

“Nokia is committed to connecting people in new and better ways, as well as maintaining and extending its leadership in the mobile and Internet space.  China is an important part of our plans to create investment vehicles to support innovation around the world.  Developing a systematic and sustainable private equity and venture capital strategy provides Nokia with a holistic approach to access the innovation and partnering opportunities in China”, says Rick Simonson, Chief Financial Officer of Nokia.

Nokia Growth Partners was established in 2004 by Nokia as a growth stage venture firm focused on mobile technology, services and media.  Nokia Growth Partners has $250 million under management for direct investments. Nokia Growth Partners invests in companies, funds and people that are changing the face of mobility, communications and the internet.  Recent investments involve promising companies developing innovative mobile applications in context aware location services, mobile payments, mobile advertising and mobile entertainment etc.

The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) at Nokia is much more than Chief Technology Officer Bob Iannucci, and more than the Nokia Research Center (NRC) labs across the world. A new site, CTO.nokia.com, has been launched to spread OCTO’s vision of the mobile future and engage the outside world. 

Since Nokia embraced the Open Innovation research model two years ago, the collective work of OCTO extends far out into a global network of researchers and thought leaders at universities, think tanks, and the broader industry. OCTO’s eight hundred or so employees are its heart, but this broader community is becoming ever more critical to

its success. Sharing OCTO’s vision for the future of mobility with the worldwide community, sparking an active dialogue, and fostering feedback channels are all necessary for bringing OCTO’s ideas to ever-higher thresholds. 

In order to facilitate communication within the global network, and within the Internet community as a whole, CTO.nokia.com was launched in late June 2008. Designed as a sister site to the pre-existing research.nokia.com the new CTO site will revolve around editorial content from sources both inside and outside of Nokia. 

The research.nokia.com site has always been a repository of unbiased, opinion-neutral content about OCTO, NRC, specific research projects, initiatives and collaborations, in addition to providing profiles of facilities and staff. The new CTO site is designed to be its editorial counter-part. Its aim is to be a place where Nokia can paint a vision of the future, propose potentially disruptive ideas, reflect on industry happenings, and encourage direct communication from any and all interested parties.   

The initial set of content revolves around blogs from Bob Iannucci, internal staff, and eventually external partners. There is also information on upcoming speaking events where OCTO and NRC staff will be presenting, and a stream of news stories that impact Nokia and the mobility industry as a whole.   

In the upcoming months further content, features and new communications capabilities will be added to the site, evolving it into a full bilateral communications portal going forward.