WHEN Ravneet Singh Phokela joined Nokia India as brand marketing and CRM manager four months ago, he walked into one of the flattest organisations imaginable. There were effectively only two key designations: executives and managers. That meant, unlike most Indian companies, no routine promotions every 2-3 years. And no fancy designations.

There were other striking differences. Within four days of joining, Phokela was informed that since his immediate boss was on leave, he would have to chalk out a marketing plan to ramp up mobile phone sales. The EMI-based plan that he came up with wasn't quite what managing director Sanjeev Sharma had in mind. Yet, Sharma okayed his ideas. As if that was not enough, within10 days Phokela was in Goa making a presentation to distributors. "In less than a fortnight I felt like a veteran Nokia employee," says Phokela.

Despite its very flat structure, the opportunities for career development at Nokia are immense. Ask Suman Bhandari. A secretary till a year ago, today she is a project coordinator in the R&D division. Employees can map out their own career-growth plans in consultation with the HR team.

The HR department also closely tracks every employee's progress. Every September, Nokia employees across mobile phones, networks and two R&D divisions set up teams comprising 6-8 employees. Each of these cross-functional teams has employees from marketing, sales and logistics, who would already have submitted a performance rating of themselves, the company, the division and so on, on various parameters. The teams are told to formulate an action plan and improve on the parameters with the lowest scores. The HR department coordinates this exercise and reviews progress every quarter.

Nokia runs like a true commune: all employees are treated equally. So everyone flies economy class and stays at Taj Hotels. All Nokians have a Communicator as their mobile phone. And everyone from the head to the guy who joined yesterday - all 52,000 Nokia employees worldwide - have the same profit sharing arrangement. This could range from 1-5% of its EPS globally.

What seems to spur Nokia employees to perform well are the non-monetary benefits. Take V. D. Raju, manager (digital services), who has been with Nokia since December 1995. Raju spearheaded the Kodak initiative with the Nokia 7650 camera phone. Congratulatory emails poured in from everywhere - a strong motivator for Raju. The company is even replicating his initiative across Asia Pacific.

The Nokia culture is the same world over. Sanjay Bhasin, director (India strategy) who has spent two years in Finland and a year in London observes: "Nokia is a melting pot of people, based on the egalitarian society that exists in Finland." Nokia also offers a lot of opportunity for its employees to work globally.

So, what does all this translate into? Well, one of the lowest industry attrition rates for one. In India Nokia has a lean team. There are just 19 people in the mobile phone business. The networks division is fatter - it has 56 employees. This compact team probably keeps Nokia nimble as it tries to tighten its hold on the mobile telephony market in India.