GLOBAL - Nokia Research Center may conjure up visions of a kooky sprawling Willy Wonka lab for phones tucked away in an address-less wilderness, but the reality is in some ways far more engaging. Far from fantasy, with labs dotted across the globe in ten locations, including Beijing, Bangalore, Nairobi, Tampere, Helsinki, Lausanne, Cambridge UK, Cambridge USA, Hollywood and Palo Alto, the Nokia Research Center (NRC) is a huge operation that to many may feel intangible – partly because a number of the projects that are being researched are indeed secret, but mostly because the connection between NRC’s research and real-life end products has appeared pretty disconnected.

But a more tangible connection between NRC and the real world may be beginning to emerge, helped simply by the very recent launch of its newly designed and more openly engaging website. Click through for the full lowdown.

Nokia’s new breed of workplace

The ‘workplace’ is fast evolving beyond traditional recognition, and Nokia is one of the many companies creating radical mould-breaking working environments. Is this change being born purely out of enhanced communication tools and the advent of high-speed Internet culture? Yes, in part.

It’s also clear that there’s a greater human angle to the new approach towards how we work, with core values such as freedom and good health (mental and physical) at the heart of the formula. These new-wave working environments are designed to echo the culture and ethics of a company. So therefore, increased productivity, innovation and results have to come into the equation, don’t they?

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The Nokia Concierge

GLOBAL – If you’ve ever read or watched Hotel Babylon, you’ll know the Concierge as the all-seeing, all-knowing lynchpin of the establishment. They’re the ones that can get you what you need, when you need it, no questions asked. As the quest to develop and establish new ways of working continues at Nokia, adding a touch of five-star service has found its way onto the agenda, in Beijing and Southwood at least.