Revitalizing an iconic company
Everyone knows Ericsson used to make phones. Far fewer people realize that roughly 40% of the world’s internet traffic travels on Ericsson’s networks.
Ericsson’s legacy business, cellular handsets
Problem
Ericsson needed to understand where they fit into a modern world that didn’t know them for handsets anymore. They had an impressive portfolio of products and services, mostly b2b, and some b2b2c. As leadership changed within the company, they recognized a need to get back to their roots and focus on what they do best, network transmission and radio telephony. Our job was to help identify the role of their capabilities in this future, and enable them to achieve these goals.
The Ericsson Black Box at Mobile World Congress 2016
Approach
Our involvement started small, with a single product, Ericsson UDN. As we demonstrated the value of design on a smaller scale our involvement grew.
We worked closely with the innovation office in Silicon Valley to help define new products and services, and at Mobile World Congress in 2016, we showcased this work in the Ericsson Black Box.
We also helped Ericsson to create programs to scale design thinking as a strategic tool throughout their organization.
Ericsson CEO Börge Ekholm
Results
In July, 2018 the financial press praised the success of Ericsson’s CEO Börge Ekholm after eighteen months in the role. Ekholm’s leadership was credited with Ericsson’s “advance of nearly 39 percent this year, after almost no return in 2017.” according to Bloomberg on July 18th, 2018.
Heavily involved in the world’s current and future network infrastructure, Ericsson heads into its future pushing a formidable offering in 5g wireless, edge cloud computing, and IoT among other technologies, backed by the power of design practices that prioritize human needs for great results.