What does Nokia have that you don’t?

Ed Zander is the CEO of Motorola (NYSE: MOT). In a recent interview with CNBC-TV18 he was asked what exactly Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has which Motorola doesn’t:

I was reading this interaction you did with Harvard Business School and you said that a really important part of your success is that you study your competitors very closely. What does Nokia have, that you don’t?

We have a lot of things that they don’t. I don’t want to tell you what I know about them, let’s keep that a secret. I will be very general. I think they have done very well in a couple of things – they really understood about scale maintenance and supply chain.

They have a very well developed supply chain manufacturing organization, that is pretty much worldwide and which gives them the necessary cost structure. So,they have cost structure and scale towards manufacturing- what we call ‘platforming,’ -  they have that commonality in all components.

If you look back at Motorola 3-4 years ago, every one of these units was like a special product. The second thing was back in 2001-2002, the company invested in the emerging markets, so when you are sitting here in India with the kind of marketshare that they have or South-East Asia or the size which came in from the Eastern European area and places like Russia – that is where the action is going forward for the next five years, in terms of a lot of the growth.

That is the kind of the thing that we’ve got to do. I think we have a really good understanding of the product – it seems iconic and with some other capabilities and features, we have got a great brand. We just have to bring it to more people.

Source: Rediff: Inidia Abroad

Let me wipe the tears of laughter off my face as I write this. Has this man ever used a RAZR? Short of being the most backwards operating system with horrible performance and a user experience about as intuitive as the space station, there is a reason Mr. Zander you aren’t #1. Having a strong supply chain and investing in emerging markets are things Motorola could have done as well, but they didn’t. With the news today that a Nokia office is opening in Africa you have to ask yourself: why didn’t I think of that?