Nokia's New Hunting Grounds

Nokia's New Hunting Grounds
Nokia's ambition to become a services and media solutions firm (Nokia Looks Beyond Handsets, BT cover, April 4) bears a close analogy to what Mark Twain wrote in 'Adventures of Tom Sawyer': There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

— Alok Rai, Chennai

Services and Apps Makeover
Mobile phones are modern day's version of the Swiss Army Knife. Not only are they expected to deliver voice but also whizzier services and super-cool applications, all at blistering speed. I am sure Nokia's latest initiative to adopt Internet protocols and build software apps for bringing about a seamless union of phones with TVs, computers and other digital devices will propel the company to branch out and create another mega business.

— Vineet Achyut, Delhi

Reloading Nokia's Biz
Nokia has a history of blazing new ventures at critical junctures in the past. Whenever rivals have horned in on its business, the company has transformed itself. It has moved from being a maker of car tyres and rubber boots to becoming the world's biggest cell phone company today. But sensing a gradual erosion of its cornerstone business, the company is once again rethinking its strategy to invent the future. By building its own digital platform to compete across all categories of communications, Nokia hopes to fulfill the modern itch for constant connectivity and content.

— Rajneesh Thakur, Delhi

Finding Gold in the Backyard
Riches From Rags (BT special, March 21) shows how companies are nosing in on consumer groups at the bottom of the pyramid. By offering basic services like providing drinking water, primary health care and education at affordable cost these firms have shown that there's an economic upside to doing business in underserved and undeveloped areas and it's no longer a zero-sum game catering to the market for the bottom strata of society.

— B. Rajasekaran, Bangalore

A Correction
In the story Rush for 'Coach' Class (BT, March 21), the quote attributed to the Volvo Buses India MD should have read as “after the introduction of Volvo buses, now one can travel between Mumbai and Hyderabad in only 11 hours.” It went as “...between Delhi and Hyderabad” instead. The error is regretted.

Corporate Go-getters
India Inc's up-and-comers in The Hottest Young Executives (BT Special, April 4) prove that top managers are all cut from similar cloth when it comes to having gold-plated CVS and business grit. But these spunky managers' rise to the top is more on account of their ability to develop ahead-of-thecurve strategies as well as the passion to boost the competitive metabolism of companies they work for.

— Vineet Madhukar, Delhi