Professor Kennedy comes to Ivey following a 10-year career at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business where he has served in multiple roles that include Executive Director of the William Davidson Institute, Director of the Ross School Global Initiative, and the Tom Lantos Professor of Business Administration.

At Ross, Professor Kennedy published more than 50 cases and notes used in the school’s international business curriculum. Prior to his tenure at Michigan, Kennedy was a member of faculty at the Harvard Business School from 1995 through 2003. During that time, he published more than 60 case studies and notes on business issues in emerging markets.

Vertu: Nokia’s Luxury Mobile Phone for the Urban Rich (Simplified Chinese)
by Ken Kwong-Kay Wong

Nokia, headquartered in Finland, was a global telecommunications equipment manufacturer. It operated Vertu, a luxury mobile phone brand that had pioneered the luxury mobile phone market in the late 1990s by using precious materials such as diamonds, sapphires, titanium, and exotic leather for phone production. The company had enjoyed impressive growth in almost 70 countries and had sold hundreds of thousands of phones in the eight years since its launch. On February 11, 2011, Stephen Elop, the new CEO of Nokia, announced a new mobile strategy to adopt Microsoft’s new but unproven Windows Phone as its primary smartphone operating system. The market reacted poorly, and the company’s share price took a 14 per cent dive on the day of announcement. How should Vertu respond to this new Nokia mobile strategy? Was Vertu well positioned to take the brand forward under the new Nokia? Should this U.K.-based wholly owned subsidiary be left alone and continue to be managed at arm’s length from Nokia? Changes to Vertu were inevitable — it was not a matter of if, but when.

Learning Objectives:

• This case aims to introduce students to the world of luxury consumer goods. The issues surrounding product, pricing, promotion, and distribution channel strategies for luxury mobile phones will be analyzed in connection to the latest trend in the global luxury goods market. Organizational behaviour, entrepreneurship, finance, business marketing, and corporate strategy will also be touched upon in this case. After studying the case, students will be able to:
• Identify the unique characteristics of the luxury consumer goods market and describe the latest trend in global luxury goods consumption.
• Conduct competitive and brand positioning analysis.
• Discuss the important relationship between a brand and its founder.
• Explore the possible outcomes as a result of company restructuring.
• Understand the impact of a strategic corporate decision on its stakeholders.

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