[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]
Ah-hahahahaha, now this is a good one. It’s stories like this, where obviously smart people say something that sounds completely boneheaded to my poor little proletariat ears, that make me love this job sooooo very much. And this one is about RIM, erstwhile manufacturers of Blackberry phones. Y’see, their new CEO is someone hand-picked by their former CEOs, and who seems to be as bad at adapting to the market as they were. They need someone new, and they need to change, right?
Yeah, not according to RIM board member Roger Martin, in an interview with Globe and Mail. No, he says that doing so would’ve been a bad idea. Well, that was the subtext, anyway; what he actually said was far more lulzworthy…
Now, before we go any further, I want to make it very clear that Roger Martin is clearly a very clever man. It’s apparent, just from looking at his CV, that the man is smart. Very smart, in fact, and he knows business. And the fact he is clearly so intelligent makes what he said a lot funnier, ‘cos he said, “So we’re supposed to hand it over to children, or morons from the outside who will destroy the company? Or should we try to build our way to having succession?”
LOL!
Y’see, the thing is, right, that just because he knows business, it does not necessarily mean that he fully understands the mobile world. I’m not saying he doesn’t, but the facts here speak for themselves, I reckon. RIM are falling behind, and that can be attributed, I believe, to the fact that Blackberry phones simply cannot capture the public’s imagination in the same way as the likes of the iPhone 4S or, from the world of Android, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Yes, they have that Blackberry email access, but right now, that’s all they have, and let’s not forget that new CEO Thorsten Heins is the man who said, “We are a great innovative company, but sometimes we innovate too much while we’re building a product.”
As much as I’m tempted to say that they didn’t need to look elsewhere to find a moron because they’ve managed to hire one from within the company, I won’t, because I’m not that childish…
As much as I hate to say it, RIM are coming across these days as a company who believe their own hype, and believe they can do no wrong. But still, we shall see what happens, ‘cos these things have a way of working themselves out. It’s like evolution, really, where only the fittest (as in literally, they fit the environment better) survive.
And right now, from where I’m sitting (and it pains me to say this, ‘cos I really liked their phones, once upon a time), RIM don’t seem that fit…
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