Is "Thor" doing the right thing?
- Howdy,
I have been sitting back, reading posts, transcripts, news articles and taking in what Thor/RIM have been doing and saying the past few weeks.
Is he "really" doing the right things?
On the good side it looks like he is willing and able to make BIG cuts/changes in the upper levels of RIM. Good or bad is yet to be seen.
He likes to talk. Even though at times it is a challenge to understand him and what he is attempting to get acrosss to people. Much better than hearing Jim and Mike make fools out of themselves and RIM. Much better.
Thor also is under the thumb of the Board of Directors, unlike his two predecessors.
So how much of this is Thors doing and how much has he been affected by the wishes of the board members or member?
One big concern is the fact that Thor indicated RIM would refocus on what made them a force in the cell phone world, the Enterprise world.
Couple of things here.
1. Wasn't that Jim and Mikes thoughts a few years ago? Battery life was more important than adding a MP3 player...Sounds the same to some degree doesn't it?
Of note, I have not seen a strong statement out of RIM that says that folks got it wrong
thinking RIM is getting out of the consumer phone market. Have you? Maybe I missed it. With all the news articles that went out on the major new sources you would think RIM would come out screaming, "No your wrong about that!".
2. Isn't it the consumer phones that are causing the issues with RIM loosing enterprise customers?
Is it not the demand of the folks using the Enterprise systems to have the IPhones and the Droids? I have not seen anyone come out with a better top to bottom secure Enterprise level cellphone system, yet, to replace RIM.
Rather, we have seen less secure phones but with a higher fun factors and appeal tear the heck out of RIM in this area.
So if RIM is unable to get the consumer phone side of things working than how does Thor expect to take back the Enterprise side, if they continue to want fun "consumer phones"?
So with this all in mind, is Thor doing what needs to be done?
Is he doing the right thing or is he just the same horse but a different color?
Was Thor brought in to breakdown RIM and sell off parts or all of it? I could see Jim and Mike not being able to bring themselves to do it.
Silence is golden, but when one breaks it, make it loud and clear.
TimLast edited by trsbbs; 04-05-12 at 08:50 AM.
04-05-12 08:46 AMLike 0 - No matter how much your post angers me I have to think that you may be right. If RIM was going to be broken down and sold bring in new leadership so the founders don't look bad when they write a book about the company or get paid for speaking engagements. I love RIM and its BlackBerry products but I just wish they could get back on track.04-05-12 08:58 AMLike 0
- Everybody has bought into the lazy reporting on the call and thinks that RIM is abandoning the consumer space. Perhaps you should take in larger sections of the conference call, or the whole thing. Here are some snippets from the call:
We plan to refocus on the enterprise business and capitalize on our leading position in this segment. We were delayed to the bring-your-own-device movement and we saw a significant slowing down in our enterprise subscriber growth rate as a result. I am committed with my team to reclaiming lost market share in this space.
The Enterprise business, led by Robin Bienfait, RIM's CIO, is already aggressively moving to upgrade our enterprise space, the new BlackBerry 7 devices and to drive the adoption of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, RIM's next-generation enterprise mobile device and management solution, allows organizations to efficiently manage existing BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, upcoming BlackBerry 10 devices, as well as devices running Android and iOS.
Other products competing in the bring-your-own-device segment is to create a compelling consumer offering. We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we try to be everybody's darling and all things to all people. Therefore, we plan to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments, and we will seek strong partnerships to deliver those consumer features and content that are not central to the BlackBerry valuable position, for example, media consumption applications.
Another key area where we will be making significant change is in our services business. Here, I'm referring specifically to the consumer-oriented, value-added services business that we have attempted to build over the past 2.5 years through numerous various acquisitions.
Following my evaluation over the last 10 weeks, it became clear to me that it would be extremely difficult for RIM to develop this initiative into a profitable value-added services business at this time, and that the heavy ongoing investment required to continue this initiative does not make sense given RIM's current market position and our relative strength. As a result, we will be looking at ways to scale back these activities and refocus resources on developing an integrated services offering that leverages RIM's strength, such as BBM, security and manageability. The intent would be for these services to add value to our customers and generate service revenue for the company.
The competitive environment has become increasingly challenging. We are continuing to face pressure on our subscriber base in the United States, and the lack of an LTE product and a high-end consumer offering in this market is hurting our performance. BlackBerry 10 product and platform will address this later this year.
I know I've provided a lot of information for you to digest this afternoon, but the simple messages I want you to understand and take home is that we're making the necessary changes at the company, and that we're focused on: first, realigning the business to build on our strength including the Enterprise, driving BlackBerry 7 upgrades, onboarding new customers around the world to the BlackBerry platform and redefining our services model; second, an on-time and successful launch of our first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, which are on track for the latter part of calendar year 2012; third, aggressively reshaping the organization for increased accountability and efficiency; fourth, and evaluating a wide variety of options to drive stakeholder value.
So they are going to try to keep what business customers they have now with OS7 and Mobile Fusion. That is the focus he is mentioning there. He then goes on to say that BB10 will be the consumer play and hopefully the thing that makes people want to get a Blackberry for the BYOD movement. They know that OS7 simply isn't a platform that consumers in developed wireless smartphone markets want. They have also realized that trying to do everything themselves (video, music, cloud storage, etc.) will not generate the value for the company that the dynamic duo sold everyone on and it is best to leave these things to partner company's that can do these things, and do them better than RIM.04-05-12 10:01 AMLike 3 -
RIM is either not saying anything as it may be true in the end or they are messing up again in the area of customer perception/relations and keeping the press honest.
I do not argue with what was actually said but two things are always in play:
1. Folks don't always say what they mean or mean what they say
2. John/Jane Q. public heard "RIM is leaving the consumer market" loud and clear, but they have not heard the denial/clarificationcation with near the bravado from RIM.
In the end the statement can be taken either way when read in whole or in part.
So I am not so sure this was not done on purpose to leave options open and to"test the
water's in a very subtle way.
Tim04-05-12 10:18 AMLike 0 - Everybody has bought into the lazy reporting on the call and thinks that RIM is abandoning the consumer space. Perhaps you should take in larger sections of the conference call, or the whole thing. Here are some snippets from the call:
And then later
So they are going to try to keep what business customers they have now with OS7 and Mobile Fusion. That is the focus he is mentioning there. He then goes on to say that BB10 will be the consumer play and hopefully the thing that makes people want to get a Blackberry for the BYOD movement. They know that OS7 simply isn't a platform that consumers in developed wireless smartphone markets want. They have also realized that trying to do everything themselves (video, music, cloud storage, etc.) will not generate the value for the company that the dynamic duo sold everyone on and it is best to leave these things to partner company's that can do these things, and do them better than RIM.04-05-12 10:25 AMLike 0 - kbz1960Doesn't MatterJohn Qpublic could care less about stocks. They just want to know they can do whatever everyone else does without side loading or going thru extremes.
For the consuming public RIM has to have what the others have or they will be fighting to hang onto enterprise also and be niche company hanging on by a string.randall2580 likes this.04-05-12 10:49 AMLike 1 - Read the N4BB headline. Sounds like we could see Thor making a move here. Interesting. He was testing the water.
Wait for the other shoes to drop.
Tim
http://n4bb.com/united-vision-market...rs-acquire-rimLast edited by trsbbs; 04-05-12 at 11:06 AM.
04-05-12 10:59 AMLike 0 - You are correct.. Frankly for allegedly such an intelligent bunch of folks there are few people on CB who understand what was said and, more importantly what was NOT said..
04-05-12 12:13 PMLike 0 - PR and communication are skills which RIM have clearly not learned.
Keep the message clear and simple. Repeat it often.
Bubblespeak doesn't work.04-05-12 12:35 PMLike 0 - I honestly dont think anyone on here can truly answer if the new CEO is doing the right thing or not. I dont even think "Thor" himself can. This is one of those situations that is going to take time to work out and see results.
I am sure some of he decisions he is making are going to be good ones and I am sure there are some that are not good.
Until BB10 comes out no one truly knows.Chrisy and app_Developer like this.04-05-12 02:58 PMLike 2 - ChrisySeeker of the WayAt least he's doing SOMETHING. We'll have to wait and see if it was right.BlackBerry Guy likes this.04-05-12 03:21 PMLike 1
- I don't think he's making the right decision, but he isn't making the wrong one either. His big problem is that he strikes me as someone that doesn't understand the consumer industry, although I think that he's trying really hard to.
I think that's part of the reason why he wants to focus in business, because he "gets" that and he knows that this is where Blackberry's fort is. The problem with that, however, is that I fear that he's going to rely on partnerships to satisfy the consumer end of things. That could be bad.Last edited by Bozarth; 04-05-12 at 06:41 PM.
04-05-12 06:38 PMLike 0 -
- Recognizing there is a problem is the first step to change. Lazaridis and Balsillie didn't even think there was an issue until it was way too late. Whether Thorsten will make a real difference remains to be seen.
On the surface, his strategy seems good. Concentrate on those areas that are RIM's strengths, and partner with 3rd parties to work on areas where they are weak. I'd rather see them work on making the communication experience rock solid on BB10 and letting someone else deal with building apps and running a content store. The key will be getting the right partners to work with, and integrating them into the BlackBerry experience (ie. all payments through your bbid).kbz1960 likes this.04-07-12 10:53 AMLike 1 - I like the fact that he is realistic about their situation. I like that he's not prone to ridiculous hyperbole.
He does need to learn to speak more directly and clearly, but I think that will come in time. He still speaks like a COO, but I'm not worried about that this early.
As for PR, RIM has an incredibly ineffective, even incompetent, PR function. They need to fix that this year.VerryBestr likes this.04-07-12 11:19 AMLike 1
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Is "Thor" doing the right thing?
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