[Jonesy1966]

The legacy of Thorsten Heins: How he went wrong at BlackBerry - The Globe and Mail


Thorsten Heins is stepping aside as BlackBerry Ltd.�s chief executive after failing to orchestrate a much-needed turnaround. John Chen, a seasoned Silicon Valley executive, will take over as the company�s executive chairman and interim CEO when Mr. Heins leaves, BlackBerry announced on Monday. Here's a look at what went wrong.


Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

What is Mr. Heins� record at BlackBerry?


He cut costs as sales of older BlackBerrys fell steeply, streamlined an oddly organized company that had sprawled under the previous two co-CEOs, and focused the company around launching the crucial new lineup of BlackBerry 10 phones.

But when the phones came out, they didn�t sell well. Mr. Heins then started a strategic review process with the aim of selling the company, but that, too, seems to have fallen apart. At the same time, he presided over worsening quarterly results.

�It�s turned out disastrously,� said Eric Jackson, a hedge fund investor who dumped his BlackBerry shares in June, within minutes of seeing a particularly bad set of earnings.


Mark Blinch/Reuters

Why was he appointed in the first place?


After working his way up the corporate ranks, Mr. Heins, a 6-foot-6 German executive, was appointed BlackBerry CEO on Jan. 23, 2012, after former co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie said they approached the board of directors with him as their pick. The company, which sells devices and a suite of security and network services, is unique in the industry � and it was thought it would be well served by someone familiar with BlackBerry�s structure.

Mr. Heins had a proven track record at the German conglomerate Siemens AG. Mr. Heins was able to turn around Siemens� optical-networking division after tough competition from Chinese companies, though he was unable to do the same thing for the company�s mobile phone unit. Lothar Pauly, who was CEO of Siemens Communications when Mr. Heins worked there and acted as a reference to Mssrs. Lazaridis and Balsillie when Mr. Heins was hired back in 2007, said Mr. Heins has not succeeded as BlackBerry�s CEO.

�He cannot leave with his head [held] high,� Mr. Pauly said. �His mission was to turn the company around and to make the company successful again. The tool should have been BlackBerry 10. But it has not worked.�


Mark Blinch/Reuters

What did he do wrong?


Critics have accused Mr. Heins of a number of strategic errors, though they also said that BlackBerry�s board of directors deserves some of the blame.

Some say Mr. Heins should have decided much earlier to focus exclusively on the business market, where the company still had a niche, rather than on the broader consumer market where Apple Inc. and Google Inc. were gaining share rapidly.

They point to his decision to first launch the all-touchscreen BlackBerry Z10 phone rather than launch a new BlackBerry with a physical keyboard, still popular among business users.

�What we now know in hindsight is that was a critical strategic error and has crippled the company�s potential for a comeback based on the enterprise customer,� said Kris Thompson, an analyst at National Bank Financial. �From the outside looking in, it was obvious to many that Apple and Google would command the consumer market and that BlackBerry should have focused on the enterprise.�

Mr. Jackson said Mr. Heins was awful at communicating to the public and seemed �tone deaf� about BlackBerry�s increasingly dire situation. The hedge fund investor also said Mr. Heins�s decision last year to stop a move that would have made the company�s BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service available on multiple smartphone platforms was a �company-killer.�


John Raoux

Did he do anything right?


Mr. Heins got BlackBerry 10 out the door, after numerous delays. �I think it�s important to point out that this isn�t a trivial exercise,� said one former BlackBerry executive. Also, compared to the company�s widely criticized former co-CEOs, who rarely spoke candidly about the company as things got worse, Mr. Heins made BlackBerry �more public, in terms of participating in the discussion� about the company�s difficulties, the former executive said.

[AnimalPak200]

Ouch...

Posted via CB10

[FFR]

Ouch...

Posted via CB10

Couldn't agree more the stock is tanking.

[branch83wr]

Thorsten Hein's theme song:

[avt123]

So what they are basically saying is he was an awful CEO for BlackBerry.

Spot on. Should of hired new blood from a different company. Not someone who was already helping to sink the ship before he became CEO.

[kbz1960]

I think the part eluding to if they released the Q first might have made a difference. If people were waiting for the Q they would wait no matter what. How well did it sell?

[FFR]

I think the part eluding to if they released the Q first might have made a difference. If people were waiting for the Q they would wait no matter what. How well did it sell?

Compared to what?

[tarektoverso]

Thorsten Heins succeeded in one thing: he took $20 million as a golden parachute when he left.