Recently, BlackBerry had been infested by myriad of problems and managerial muddle. In fact, it was on the verge of losing its big title. It’s not until their realization of what they would lose that they considered a change in the management structure. Thorsten Heins who had been BlackBerry’s interim CEO stepped down after the foiled sale and was replace by John Chen; who has taken a new dimension and implemented policies towards the company’s success. There were many setbacks that even saw resignation of co-CEOs Mike and Lazaridis Jim Balsillie. Their resignation clearly showed faux pass and anomalies in the company. The fall of their shares in the market was evident after these CEOs’ resignation. BlackBerry’s glory gradually started to fade out leading to their dreadful decision to sell the company.
There were many prospective buyers of BlackBerry, who involved their all-time greatest competitors and other giant corporates. Fair fax financial holdings, their largest shareholders, further saved the day by pumping one billion dollars to Blackberry. This was a good deal comparatively to the company sale which had been announced to be four billion seven hundred million.
Another issue that threatened and also cost BlackBerry was when all BlackBerry users’ internet connections were dimmed. Unimaginably, it happened for three consecutive days, leading to complains from the public users of blackberry products. In fact, some users shifted to BlackBerry’s rival smart phone manufactures. BlackBerry RIM (Research in Motion) was to be criticized since it was supposed to foresee the hitch.
In an attempt to salvage the company, Mr. Chen announced a launch of BES10 that not only supports multiplatform MDM, but also saw the company cocoon from the longtime said phrase “BlackBerry devices are not for everyone” to being everyone’s device. Mr. Chen went a mile further by stating that the new device software will be retailing with the lowest cost possible which is an innovational incentive for flocky buying. His timing raised hope of achieving great profits to the investors since it came shortly after they canceled the sale of BlackBerry Company.
Their devices; that were not meant for everyone also saw them loose a great market opportunity. If at all the new CEO didn’t reconsider that, the rate at which their sales have picked up would have been the exact opposite. These new BlackBerry devices, in the market “for everyone”, is an innovative move for BlackBerrys future. Suffice to say that that was a great move.
In case the BlackBerry Company hasn’t noticed, they have a very big opportunity in the ever growing market demand. For instance, we look at their rivals’ market diversification; of which they are not solely dependent on hardware production only. These rivals always have a variety of diverse innovations; they will deal with both Hardware and software. This move helps the rivals since it acts as protective financial lining in case one product sale deteriorates.
If BlackBerry, builds its strengths, rather than enforcing its weak areas; the company would have surpassed all odds of failure. RIM, for BlackBerry, was a great innovation, but for some time it had been abandoned. Unfortunately, as a result of diverted resources, innovation, talent, attention and investment , the current consumer smartphone era passed RIM. In another dimension, Mr. Chen raised hope a few days ago by his keen interest to rekindle the RIM initiative considering the market demand and the current era of smartphones.
BlackBerry also noticed their long term omission; customer relation. It’s, in fact a good innovation how their swift response works. In regards to my friend, a new BlackBerry phone he had bought wouldn’t play music continually for 5 minutes without him touching the smart screen to avoid idling that would in turn discontinue the music. After days of trouble he decided to contact the customer service desk at blackberry and in return they sent him a piece of software that read the phone details and sent them back to Blackberry Technical department. It was found to be a resultant of a bug in his software system. They requested for shipping back for repair purposes. It took approximately two weeks to ship it back, but the overwhelming thing was that, they not only fix the bug but also repaired its screen that had been partially damaged. It shows how serious they are in regards to customer relation even on post-sale. It was more astonishing only to find a notification in the mail that they had automatically signed the phone, a new six month warranty agreement.
The marketing strategies change has also changed. An inquiry of a phone model, on the company’s website was often not addressed. However, the newly released model under Mr. Chen’s management is so marketed such that you own it with a free BES10 for an evaluation. It’s a new strategy BlackBerry has embarked on only to find its reaping big.
In the past years, BlackBerry website was almost inaccessible. You had to wait up to late night when there was low internet traffic to access it. Mr. Chen changed all these innovatively by installing several servers in all the continents. Accessibility of the website has now been improved for customer support.
Though traumatizing, BlackBerry has come up with one of viable decisions to cut down the number of workers. Apparently, these workers had been substantially dragging down the productivity of the company and draining the meager earnings it was making as their pay too. Furthermore, the company had an excessive accumulation of workers than the workload itself.
A recommendation in the future is that change in officials should be done once in a short while to avoid the downgrading of the company yet again. The hardest part in a company or society is change management which is quite stressful. Most people cannot adapt to change. This leaves them in a state of wonder and confusion. BlackBerry executives came up with a group of trainers who have been tasked with counseling the workers when massive managerial shuffle has been planned. This equips everyone including Mr. Chen with the knowledge and wisdom of dealing with the change.
As is evident from the market trend on the graph below, blackberry is clearly making a comeback from its downfall late last year. The new policies adopted by the company are putting the company back on the map.
Sources
Quentin Hardy (2014, march 7) .company must be about more than phones. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/blackberry-boss-says-company-must-be-about-more-than-phones/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Matt Hartley (2013, December 2). BlackBerry Ltd CEO John Chen issues open letter to smartphone maker’s enterprise customers. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/12/02/blackberry-ltd-john-chen-open-letter-monday/?%20Isa=f7e3-018a&__lsa=f2e6-7543
Steve Kovach (2013, December 2). The company is no longer for sale. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from
http://www.businessinsider.com/blackberry-no-longer-for-sale-2013-12
CBC news (2014, march 17). Blackberry lays off 120 workers in waterloo Ontario. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/blackberry-lays-off-120-workers-in-waterloo-ont-1.2575718
