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The ability to discern what else is true is extremely valuable. For example, what else is true of:
My customers
My product/service
My idea
My desired outcome
My problem
My solution
My success
Alternatively, swap out “my” for “my competitor's” and you have a whole new range of insights to be had. Discerning “what else is true of” a situation starts with critical thinking and asking questions. It ends with new conclusions, new insights, and new solutions.
When you hear the name Nokia you might think of phones that were popular in the 1990s and early 2000s (the key word being were). Maybe the famous Nokia ringtone comes to mind.
What you probably don’t think of is a paper mill. But that’s exactly how Nokia got its start, as a paper mill. From the Nokia corporate website about us page:
“From its humble beginning in 1865 as a single paper mill operation, Nokia has found and nurtured success over the years in a range of industrial sectors including cable, paper products, rubber boots, tires, televisions, and mobile phones.”
If you only know Nokia for their phones you might assume they’ve gone out of business. But Nokia has been adapting and reinventing itself for nearly 160 years. In the context of 160 years, the period of Nokia’s rise and fall in cellphone dominance is a blip on the radar.
Today Nokia still makes consumer products, but also offers networking solutions and plays a major role in making 5G networks possible. Additionally, Nokia derives significant revenue from licensing its vast patent portfolio to various industries including smartphone and automobile manufacturers. In 2022 Nokia had sales of approximately 25 billion Euros. A few select highlights about Nokia:
Developed the video encoding technology that set the stage for internet video streaming
Currently working with NASA to put LTE on the moon
Vast patent portfolio deemed essential to 5G networks
Continues to spend billions on R&D every year.
If you ever feel that you cannot reinvent yourself, think of Nokia. Nokia is the nearly 160-year-old company that went from a paper mill to a telecommunications/technology company whose inventions are the foundation for much of the 21st-century digital age.
In business, the potential problem with focusing on too narrow a niche is that technology and the world we live in today move so fast that your niche can become irrelevant so quickly. While it is important to focus on one's core tasks and goals, we also need to be aware of the opportunities and trends in the surrounding environment, in order to make the best decisions and adapt to changes. It’s our metaphorical peripheral vision that can help us identify new market trends, changes in customer needs, or even new technologies that can help our business grow and succeed.
While chasing every new idea can be counterproductive, it seems that training our peripherals is now more important than ever.