What is the biggest mistake that a big company has made? Nokia’s CEO “we didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost” Nokia. Their biggest mistake was avoiding making a mistake. Nokia was a respected cellphone manufacturer and for a long time became the number one producer of cellular phones until Apple, Samsung and the rest of the smartphone gang came. Nokia’s strategy was to stay the course and do nothing. They didn’t want to change and take risks. In the end, avoiding change to avoid mistakes cost them everything.