Forced to reduce staff but still extremely conscientious: Nokia grants 630 million VND/person to encourage former employees to start a business, change lives

Tram Ho

The policy of reducing personnel has 1 no 2

The years 2011 and 2012 witnessed the peak of the decline of Nokia phones – the brand that once dominated the mobile phone market. In just 2 years, the company had to cut up to 40,000 employees, and finally accepted to let Microsoft buy the handheld device segment, officially ending the flourishing period of the late 90s and early century. 21.

However, even in the dying days of its phone business, Nokia has adopted a unique layoff policy, perhaps unprecedented in history, and no other major company after that. This dare to follow. It’s Nokia Bridge policy

Nokia has set up several centers in Europe, India and the United States to help employees facing unemployment find new work, either inside or outside the company.

The Bridge program was launched in April 2011. For those with new business ideas in need of support, the program can connect them to start-up capital and exposure to angel investors, venture capitalists and other entrepreneurs.

Buộc phải cắt giảm nhân sự nhưng vẫn cực có tâm: Nokia cấp 630 triệu đồng/người khuyến khích cựu nhân viên khởi nghiệp, thay đổi cuộc đời - Ảnh 1.

According to Techcrunch, laid-off Nokia employees can apply for seed funding of up to 25,000 euros (nearly 630 million) from this program, with up to 4 employees can link together to access potential capital of 100,000 euros.

In addition, each eligible startup can receive additional funding of up to 50,000 euros. According to Juha-Pekka Helminen, former head of strategic planning at Nokia, like other incubators, Nokia Bridge also provides training and support services. Nokia Bridge also takes on other roles, such as helping to find a new job within Nokia, or job placements at other companies.

Buộc phải cắt giảm nhân sự nhưng vẫn cực có tâm: Nokia cấp 630 triệu đồng/người khuyến khích cựu nhân viên khởi nghiệp, thay đổi cuộc đời - Ảnh 2.

Opening up life-changing opportunities for former employees

Kimmo Saarela, a former Nokia employee who was fired and later became the chief executive officer of TreLab, a company built on funding from the Nokia Bridge program, says Nokia encourages employees Former members form a group. It took him just 5 minutes to convince the company’s current CTO, Tero Kärkkäinen, and the company’s CMO, Harri Koskinen, to join him in August 2011.

“We had to convince our spouse that we weren’t insane. We were serious, we had a substantial personal investment in this, so we made a business plan, Interviewed potential customers, evaluated, convinced our spouse that we weren’t insane, and finally got a sponsorship from Nokia,” Saarela said.

The startup also got help from another company in growing the business: Saarela joined hands with the startup hub Protomo, which has a branch in Tampere, home to one of Nokia’s research centers . Protomo works closely with the Nokia hub in the region and provides Saarela with the facilities, training, networking opportunities, and insights into what it means to be an entrepreneur.

“I think supporting this multi-action is an important part of the Bridge program and it has been very successful in the Tampere region,” he said.

Another former Nokia employee, Juha Rämälä, leveraged funding from the Bridge program to develop a device called Runteq, which helps runners track their performance. For Rämälä, the Bridge program gave him access to lectures from serial entrepreneurs, angel investors and business development experts.

Buộc phải cắt giảm nhân sự nhưng vẫn cực có tâm: Nokia cấp 630 triệu đồng/người khuyến khích cựu nhân viên khởi nghiệp, thay đổi cuộc đời - Ảnh 3.

“The business ideas were discussed with each member of the Bridge board as well as external consultants to get the most out of it. It was an encouraging atmosphere,” says Rämälä.

Funding from the Bridge program created a flow effect, allowing Rämälä and co-founder Tommi Ojala to raise additional funding from TEKES, Finland’s Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.

Startup Telyo – works through an app and a small device that turns a user’s mobile phone into a remote, allowing them to watch a TV show for 2 or 3 minutes and share via social network – also a company that benefits from the Bridge program.

Telyo’s CTO, Jakub Majkowski and co-founder, Justyna Kowalska, are the only ones eligible to apply for Bridge funding, as former Nokia employees.

Telyo received funding approval from Bridge in late 2011, and the company has since launched versions of the app on both Android and iOS.

More than 300 successful startups

Since its activation, the Bridge program has helped more than 300 companies with start-up capital. It’s a debt that Trelab’s Sareela admits his company wouldn’t exist without Bridge: “This program gave us the final push we needed from the corporate world to entrepreneurship. ”

Buộc phải cắt giảm nhân sự nhưng vẫn cực có tâm: Nokia cấp 630 triệu đồng/người khuyến khích cựu nhân viên khởi nghiệp, thay đổi cuộc đời - Ảnh 4.

Koivisto – CEO of Telyo also shared similar feelings: “Without Bridge, Telyo would still be just an idea that we love.”

Obviously, the Bridge program has brought great benefits to former Nokia employees, but what does Nokia benefit?

Runteq creator Rämälä thinks that in the eyes of society and the government, it is the right thing that Nokia did. Maybe one day, startups like Jolla – built with Nokia’s backing capital – will come back to rescue the Nokia phone brand itself.

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Source : Genk