One-size-fits-all goal a sure way to lose market

Uh oh, Nokia — bad idea. Very bad idea.

Nokia’s boss, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, effectively said in a recent interview that he wants the company to be all things to all consumers.

The mobile-phone giant, he says, intends to aim for high-end and low-end handset markets simultaneously.

It wants to cater for the business market and the consumer market.

It wants to dominate both advanced-economy and developing markets.

Whenever I hear a CEO spouting that kind of ambition, alarm bells start going off in my head.

All my experience as a strategy adviser suggests a simple truth: the company that tries to be all things to all customers in all markets, fails.

Until quite recently, banks were all talking about the ‘supermarket’ approach to banking: the idea that customers want to satisfy all their financial needs — retail banking, investment banking, insurance and brokerage — in one, trusted, mega-institution.

Citibank pioneered this approach 10 or so years ago, and it became received wisdom for a while.

Well, the credit crunch put paid to that idea.

Now, both regulators and boards of directors are recognising the futility of the concept.

Regulators have forced megabanks to break up into their constituent parts. And customers have voted with their feet.

Why so?

The supermarket approach sees a company with a strong customer connection as a shopfloor, a channel into which many products can be stuffed.

Unfortunately, the quality of products suffers.