Course Project: Research In Motion Attempt at Making A Comeback

TM583: Strategic Management of Technology
Professor Syed Ali Nabeel
June 17, 2012

Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Research In Motion’s Strategy 3.1. Current Strategy 3.2. Projected Strategy 3. Core Competencies 4. Industry Dynamics 5. Technology Sourcing 6. Product Development Strategy 7. Strategy to Protect Innovations 8. Bibliography

Executive Summary
This document has been prepared to provide RIM, the makers of Blackberry, with a new insight for a strategic plan that will aid the organization into becoming a fair market leader once more.
RIM transformed into a dominating force in the cell phone industry between the early 1990s and late 2006 with innovative technology for their Blackberry Smartphones. As an avid Blackberry user, I’ve seen RIM prosper into a fine organization, but most recently the company has been in a downturn. Research and Development hasn’t been effective in creating products with greater return on investment (ROI).
With all the new technological advances in the cell phone industry, competitors Apple and the Google Android market, has gained several new customers from RIM. This is mostly due to RIM’s lack of new product innovativeness, such as design and improved system functionality. RIM’s revenue has suffered greatly from what makers of the iPhone and Android product-line has placed on the market for consumers and businesses alike.
In order for RIM to begin to strive in its industry again, a few adjustments need to be made with respects to implementing a better marketing strategy. They will need to re-establish who their target market or demographics will be in order to launch a new marketing campaign.

Research In Motion: Strategy RIM’s current strategy simply is to re-focus their market towards the business segment. The organization started its efforts towards the business segment from the beginning with the technological advancement in device security. Blackberry devices are well-known for its encryption methods to keep the transmission of important information (email, text, calendar items) secure between devices. For this reason, many organizations across the nation and abroad utilized RIM’s Blackberry smartphones. Governmental agencies also saw fit to utilize Blackberry devices due to the rapport its security capabilities gained.
Not only has RIM decided to re-focus its target market to the business segment, they have also restructured their organizational unit. In an article written by David Lee, “the resignation of the firm's co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie came at a time when shareholders demanded a significant change at the top”.
Projected Strategy Approach With the resignation of both co-CEOs, Lazaridis and Balsillie, RIM has started off in the right direction in respects to restructuring its organizational unit. In theory, they decided to resign possibly due to pressure from the organization’s shareholders. This method of restructuring brings in a new outlook for the organization. It allows new individuals to bring in a different perspective to the company. The issue with RIM’s former co-CEO’s, was due to the lack of developing new innovative ideas. It seems as if they weren’t viewing the whole picture. The team was definitely missing creativity.
For RIM to regain its momentum in both the business sector and the consumer market, they must improve the innovativeness of their products. For example, more focus should be placed on the design and infrastructure components in each of their devices. Consumers and business people are looking for better functionality when it comes to web browsing speed, which is something that RIM devices definitely lack.
Not only is increased speed needed for these devices, but also the improvement for the Blackberry’s App World (a similar feature as the app store for iPhones and Android phones). The previous version of the App World included thousands of apps to choose from, but in the latest version most of the previous apps no longer function across the new platform. RIM’s research and development team ought to search for app developers that possess the expertise to develop apps across the different versions of the device. This has been one major issue RIM experienced due to developers having to spend double the time it takes to create apps for one platform. If it takes for RIM to invest additional funds into hiring more developers then it’s a suggestion they should adhere to. Apps are the driving force to what consumers want in order to get more out of their devices. This is what catches the attention of iPhone and Android users. If the makers of Blackberry don’t believe this then they should asks the buyers. This may involve having current Blackberry users participate in studies on what the target market expects from the App World feature. In due time, the same users that participated in the study or questionnaire should be involved in the testing phase before launching a new version or device.
RIM should also research firms in which the organization may be able to form ties in an effort of collaborating. Collaboration may help RIM produce a more effective product that will not only peak new and previous interest, but push the organization back to the top with other industry leaders.
As RIM strikes back to regain its position in the cell phone industry, the organization must utilize their core competencies in a more effective and efficient manner. There’s nothing wrong with using the strengths they currently possess; that’s what initially forged their competitive advantage.

RIM’s Core Competencies A business’ core competency “arises from a firm's ability to combine and harmonize multiple primary abilities in which the firm excels into a few key building blocks of specialized expertise” (Schilling, 122). These are the driving forces that potentially set the firm apart from its competitors. RIM’s core competencies include its effective approach in developing a considerably secure device. This aspect alone brought in many buyers from the business segment. Users want to have that sense of security when transmitting sensitive data between their email and texting interactions with other users.
RIM has been quite effective in their marketing approach as far as reaching prospects via different wireless providers. In other words, RIM utilized their advertising abilities across multiple networks and not just one provider, such as Apple initially did with their iPhones (only AT&T carried their devices for a number of years). Blackberry devices were able to be purchased through AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, Verizon, and T-Mobile just to name a few. As a side note, RIM was also able to provide these numerous providers with different types of Blackberry smartphones. The different devices allowed consumers the opportunity to choose a device tailored to their needs.
On a more technical approach, RIM’s Blackberry devices come standard with Blackberry Messenger (BBM). The BBM feature allows real-time interaction between Blackberry devices, also now utilized on the Blackberry Playbook. This has been the feature that ultimately brought in consumers outside of the business sector. The newest version of BBM allows for integration with other apps, such as Facebook and Twitter. Now users are able to update all three statuses through one single app. It can be done from the BBM app alone or through Blackberry’s Social Feeds. The BBM app alone sells the Blackberry product. With today’s advancement in technology, users are expecting more real-time interaction and the Blackberry device is well-known for this capability. The consumer attitude is almost saying “I want what I want and I want it right now” and the Blackberry product line allows for consumers to have this type of attitude. So why not re-focus the marketing strategy to gain notice to a readily available functional feature.
With all that’s been mentioned in regards to RIM’s core competencies, the organization is able to restructure its approach to regaining their market share. The company must start from within and utilize their existing strengths in order to weed out and correct any weakness that’s causing the slow, but steady downturn. RIM’s core competencies are sufficient and significant enough to help the organization thrive in its extremely competitive industry.

Industry Dynamics
The problem that RIM faces has now become quite transparent. The organization lacks in the design structure of their devices as well as the system functionality features. Compared to the iPhone and Android Smartphone devices, RIM lacks the ability to keep up with multiple apps for end-user leisure or business use. This has caused RIM to lose customers to their direct competitors.

RIM’s problems can start to improve with the restructuring of their organizational unit. The shared co-CEO position has been eliminated due to the resignations of both Lazaridis and Balsillie. The position has been given to an individual promoted from within the organization and no longer a dual position. Now that there’s no longer two individuals splitting the CEO position, members of management has relinquished some of their responsibilities in order to focus on getting the company back on track as far as attempting to regain market leadership. There is such a thing as light at the end of the tunnel. It cannot quite be said that RIM will make a complete comeback, but they are starting to recognize where there’s a need for improvement.
For RIM to begin to address their issues stemming from technological innovativeness, the organization has to address any and all issues related to management and other organizational problems in order to maintain motivation to bring the business back to the forefront.
From a personal standpoint, RIM has all of the answers in front of their faces. Merely implementing an organization-wide survey in an effort to receive feedback from lower level employees would help to identify internal issues. This will at least show upper-level management where to begin addressing internal issues, which would eventually lead to improvement for the company as a whole. This is a step to boosting employee morale when they have the opportunity to voice concerns. Employees feel a sense of belonging when they’re allowed to offer solutions to existing issues and how to prevent future issues.
In an effort to improve employee morale, RIM can do so by team-building. After the restructuring from the top of the organizational pyramid, teams should also be restructured. The restructuring of teams should involve the concept of adding or dividing teams into cross-functional teams. “Cross-functional teams consist of members assigned from different functional departments or work units. The expected results from this type of team is higher performance driven by the advantages of better information and faster decision making”, (Wiley & Sons, p. 159). Not only will this type of team help to improve decision-making; it will also help members increase their creativity by offering their ideas to the table amongst other expertise in the organization. Another advantage to using cross-functional teams is that it minimizes the functional silos problem. The functional silos problem occurs when members of one functional unit stay focused on matters internal to their function and minimize their interactions with members dealing with other functions, (Wiley & Sons, p. 159). The organization may well improve employee relations by implementing an employee involvement team as well. This type of team is organized in an effort to identify to discuss “ways to enhance quality, better satisfy customers, raise productivity, and improve the quality of work life. In this way, employee involvement teams mobilize the full extent of workers' know-how and gain the commitment needed to fully implement solutions”, (Wiley & Sons, p. 160).
When RIM takes the opportunity to fix internal organizational issues or concern, then they should immediately start working on the issues that consumers present with their products or services. Another survey or questionnaire should be developed and offered to customers to provide what they feel are the major issues in product design. Once feedback is gathered, RIM has to set goals as to which issues are most pressing and how to handle fixing these issues and within a time frame acceptable to the consumer, but efficient enough where R&D can perform.

Technology Sourcing
In order for RIM to be successful again in all markets, R&D has to step up the innovativeness of its products. The first Blackberry Torch, was a first step that merely failed. Yes, the product had a sleek design being that it’s a touch-screen device that allows for the continuous use of the qwerty keyboard, but the OS still has major issues that should have been corrected in this device. After the introduction of the second Blackberry Torch and the newest Blackberry Storm and Bold, RIM still hasn’t improved much of the functionality from the previous products.
With the new CEO working full force, RIM is continuing with their efforts to acquire the QNX operating system. The QNX operating system, which is currently being utilized on the Blackberry Playbook, “is a mobile operating system that was originally developed for embedded systems”, (Rouse). The operating system is used in conjunction with applications running on the Blackberry device. It functions by turning off tasks that aren’t in use. This feature helps for transitioning between the different apps processing on the device. This will help users to access apps without the delay some devices experience when switching between different programs. This may also help to prevent any lag time Blackberry devices previously encountered on older devices. The QNX OS is currently being utilized in many car models today.

Product Development Strategy As previously mentioned, RIM can focus their strategy towards a collaborative method. In an article discussing RIM’s alternatives, it was mentioned that RIM should team up with Microsoft to dominate the automotive infotainment industry. This is where the QNX OS comes into play and where Microsoft’s existing relationship with Ford may be a driving force.
If RIM teams up with Microsoft, the QNX OS can be incorporated in the technological designs of Ford cars from that point forward. This in turn may cause a domino effect and peak the interests of other automakers to want to utilize the technology in their cars.
Being that Microsoft is a big market leader in the computer industry, RIM would be able to gain additional expertise to help improve the organization’s device infrastructure. The QNX OS can take mobile technology to a whole new level. This may well be the new dominating design for RIM devices.
The RIM-Microsoft collaboration isn’t a new idea. The two previously joined forces in developing new cloud services to work in conjunction with Office 365 and RIM’s Enterprise services. Swan’s article on the previous collaboration states:
The company also flagged upcoming support for more popular messaging platforms. The move is part of an ongoing commitment to Cloud-based enterprise services, which includes BlackBerry Balance, a tool that aims to help separate work and personal data on BlackBerrys to help manage and secure employee-owned smartphones.
Administrators also be able to group users and manage more device policies, as well as change device passwords and settings and locate and manage multiple BlackBerry users at once via search. “Employees will have more self-service options for greater control over their BlackBerry smartphones,” RIM said in the blog.
A continuing collaboration effort between RIM and Microsoft is a start to getting RIM back on a path to innovativeness. There are more options and opportunities being brought to the table. RIM will be well on its way to climbing back to the top of the market with new ventures with Microsoft

Strategy to Protect Innovations In an effort to protect what’s rightfully theirs, RIM has to initiate keeping new ideas safe from its competitors. This will definitely involve patent protection on any new design features and copyright protection for the QNX OS. Patent protection will prevent competitors from imitating any design feature the Blackberry devices utilize. Copyright protection will definitely help to ward off the imitation of the programming used in the BBM feature and the QNX OS (now that the OS has been acquired by RIM).
Not only will RIM need to be sure that their infrastructure and software elements are protected, but also any ideas discussed with any vendors for resources and supplies. This may involve developing a documented trade secret agreement, especially when joining forces with Microsoft. Trade secrets protect against private information being used or sold to outside sources.
Schilling discusses the importance of trade secret protection in detail by describing the Uniform Trade Secret Act:
In particular, the act states that no individual or group can copy, use, or otherwise benefit from a trade secret without the owner's authorization if they meet any of the following conditions:
1. They are bound by a duty of confidentiality (e.g., employees, lawyers).
2. They have signed a nondisclosure agreement.
3. They acquire the secret through improper means such as theft or bribery.
4. They acquire the information from someone who did not have the right to disclose it.
5. They learn about the secret by mistake but have reason to know that the information was a protected trade secret. Conclusion Research In Motion has a lot to work on to improve its market share. With dedication and ambition amongst team members and upper management, this organization will be able to rebuild it rapport with the business segment and even the consumer market. It all starts with restructuring from within in order to understand what needs to be done on the outside. Innovation drives revenue and without creativity from internal expertise, there’s no hope in gaining momentum.
Bibliography
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