However, from 1993 to 1996, Nokia experienced rapid growth. Due to the fact that the return on investment ratio does not exceed the growth rate, except for 1993, Nokia was always able to increase its solidity so that in 1993 the equity to total assets ratio was already 47%. It's obvious to see that the people behind this company, like Bengt Holmstrom and Jorma Ollila, definitely knew what they were doing in order to bring a company that had negative profits in 1991 to profits exceeding $1 billion dollars in 1995. Nokia continues to create profits for themselves and in 1999 they had almost $4 million dollars in profits.
Nokia has operating standards for its management systems, transfer of technology, and standards for business practices throughout its business units. The company has joint ventures in nine different countries and a big number of contract manufacturers who share the technology and expertise of the company. See Exhibit B for a list of Nokia's joint ventures. As of 1998 Nokia had 21 main production sites and all were required to build an ISO 14001 based environmental management system. ISO 14000 provides the framework for an overall strategic approach to establishing and defining environmental plans, policies, and actions. It is stated by the chief researcher of Nokia Research Center, Ilkka Tuomi, that knowledge creation, supply, and utilization is the most essential task in modern business world. The Strategic Manager of Nokia Telecommunications, Mikko Kosonen, created four elements for Nokia in order to achieve great performance. The elements are as follows, the atmosphere in Nokia should create a culture for continuous improvement, performance management should be aligned to corporate strategies and Nokia values, the organization should be re-engineered to create value and finally, controllership is built to efficiently support product and customer commitment processes but also management and support processes.
