Sarah Stolle 
The History of the Nokia Company 

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject History Europe – Other Countries – Newer History, European Unification, grade: 1, 0 Germany; 5 Finland, University of Tampere (Department of History), course: „Finnish History“, language: English, abstract: “Nokia-Connecting People”: this slogan is known all over the world. Nokia employs 50, 000 people in 120 countries. Currently every third mobile phone sold in the world is a Nokia. The Nokia Company is today one of the world’s leading high tech companies. Its rapidly growth in the 1990s coincided with a basal structural change of the Finnish economy and industry. In this restructuring process Nokia played an important role. Despite the fact that Nokia is a leading multinational company, a major part of its business is located in Finland. Nokia plays a significantly role in the economic growth of Finland, which has been one of the fastest in whole Europe. But the roots of the Nokia Company go back to the 19th century when in 1865 a forest industry enterprise in the small town Nokia in South Western Finland was established by mining engineer Fredrik Idestam. At the turn of the 20th century technology came with the founding of the Finnish Rubber Works in 1898 and the expansion of electricity into the homes and factories which led to the establishment of the Finnish Cable Works in 1912. With this development the manufacture of cables for the telegraph industry followed and supported so the new-fangled device, the telephone. The three companies (Paper, Rubber and Cables) were merged to the Nokia Corporation in 1967. Since the 1990s the Nokia Company focuses especially the telecommunication industry. The following essay deals with a detailed overview of the history of the Finnish Nokia company. But besides this, it is also mentioned the importance of this company for the Finnish economy. At the end of the essay I will give an overview of the future challenges for the Nokia Company and its surroundings. At first I start with the development of the Nokia Company; from its roots as a forest industry to a world’s leading telecommunication enterprise.