The Innovation Show Who Killed Nokia? How Fear and Emotion Derail Strategy, Innovation, and Truth-Telling.
Mar 5, 2026
Timo Vuori, strategic management professor who studies organizational attention and emotions. Quy Huy, strategy professor known for research on how emotions wrecked Nokia. They discuss how fear reshapes attention and silences truth-telling. They explore power, poker-face cultures, structural drivers of emotion, and parallels to AI and other corporate failures.
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Emotion Not IQ Drove Nokia's Fall
- Organizational collapse often stems from emotion, not lack of talent or strategy.
- Quy Huy found top leaders fearful of Apple and shareholders while middle managers feared bosses, which distorted attention and truth-telling.
Poker Face Masks Destroy Information Flow
- Executives hide emotions behind technical or financial language, making emotional dynamics invisible.
- Quy Huy's interviews showed everyone masked feelings, creating sabotage and poor information flow across levels.
Design Structures To Channel Emotions
- Design structures and practices that intentionally generate beneficial emotions, not just inspirational speeches.
- Timo Vuori: align formal processes, resource allocation, and communication channels to channel attention constructively.