Nokia

Nokia earns its income today by building the invisible 5G towers and wires that let our phones talk to each other and by charging other companies to use its thousands of inventions. They give phone companies the “pipes” they need to make the internet fast and reliable for everyone. Their strategy was a massive “pivot”—they stopped making the phones we hold in our hands and started making the machines that run the whole network. Their secret is a giant treasure chest of patents; because they helped invent how mobile phones work, almost every other phone maker has to pay them a small fee. They use IP and Code Leverage to run an Infrastructure and Licensing model via direct B2B sales.