The BlackBerry Limited: Business Organizational Challenge - Term Paper Example

The BlackBerry Limited: Business Organizational Challenge Introduction The BlackBerry Limited, which was previously referred to as ‘Research In Motion Limited’, is a designer, marketer and designer of wireless solutions for the international mobile communications market. Apart from creating integrated software as well as hardware, it generates solutions for the flawless access of facets such as instant messaging, e-mail, internet-based applications, short message service (SMS) and browsing. The BlackBerry Corporation's technology also allows for manufacturers as well as third party developers to improve their goods and services by using wireless connectivity to third-party support schemes and software development kits. Its collective portfolio is often used by virtually thousands of consumers as well as corporations all over the world. However, in recent times, The BlackBerry Corporation has suffered setbacks due to its aggressive business rivals in the high-tech industry. Organizational Challenges faced by Blackberry The first BlackBerry appliance was released into the market more than a decade ago in 1999. This appliance was essentially a two-way pager which was then considered to be a novel product because all other mobile appliances of the day only allowed for one way communication. The first BlackBerry also made it possible for the receivers of messages to be able to respond to them. In 2003, the BlackBerry Corporation launched the contemporary smart phone which had additional functions such as web-browsing, the reception of emails and the use of text-messages. This greatly enhanced the image of BlackBerry phones because the use of e-mail was beginning to grow in popularity. According to Reuters (2011) there were many people who wanted to be able to access their email accounts without necessarily having to turn on their computers. The launching of the BlackBerry resulted in increased research in other high-tech companies which were invested in generating phones that had identical functions as the BlackBerry. These newcomers would adversely affect the performance of the BlackBerry Corporation as the business rivals effectively began to steal its market. The ensuing competition, along with technological advancements that were commenced by by business rivals, would effectively result in the sidelining of the BlackBerry Corporation for majority of the decade. The BlackBerry soon sported the modern additional functions such as the addition of apps, a multimedia player and even a digital assistant (Reuters, 2011). However, the incorporation of these functions came too late for the company to benefit considerably due to their existence. According to Tubbs and Gillett (2011), many scholars as well as experts in the telecommunication industry have blamed the then executive leaders of the BlackBerry for the loss of vision which was necessary to sustain them at the ‘head of the pack’ in the telecommunications industry. According to Tubbs and Gillett (2011) the BlackBerry Corporation was essentially a firm that specialized in hardware which could not shake off the influence of its past. Companies which were more attuned to new developments had the chance to take advantage of BlackBerry’s ambivalence about the incorporation of software into its products by starting to offer services such as location tracking. New firms such as ‘Apple’ and ‘Google’ which offered the ‘Android’ model perfected their software in order to appeal to the technologically-savvy, young adult demographic even as BlackBerry clung to the idea of providing products based on superior hardware. How BlackBerry’s Leaders dealt with existing Challenges and might have dealt better with them According to Tubbs and Gillett (2011) even though BlackBerry’s executive leaders were quite dedicated to steering the company in the right direction, they did not pay attention to the new technological advancements that would determine the path for future discoveries in the telecommunications industry. As a result of this slip-up, the BlackBerry Corporation- which was then known as the RIM- experienced the falling of stock prices in 2011 to almost a quarter of its price just 12 months before. In addition, the BlackBerry phone had inferior innards which could not compare to those in Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Apple’s iPad, or those in Android tablets. BlackBerry’s executive leaders dealt with this downward spiral by trying to force hardware based products on its clientele whose interest lay elsewhere. There are different ways in which the Blackberry Corporation could have dealt with the competition. In the first place, its executives could have been more willing to embrace the utilization of new and improved hardware formats. Even though the QWERTY keyboard marked the distinctiveness of the BlackBerry, the corporation’s leaders could have sought to invest in new technologies that involved the use of a touch screen device. When BlackBerry finally became aware of the importance of this option, other companies had already made a considerable investment in the use of touch screens and were already reaping the benefits of marketing them. This showed a marked lack of business vision and intuition on the part BlackBerry’s executives. This resulted in the loss of appeal to the young consumers who were interested in operating with the devices that incorporated the most recent technological advances. This also meant that the BlackBerry corporation’s image suffered and its distinctiveness dissipated. BlackBerry should also have hired people who were trained in finding out the latest trends in technology so that they could remain ahead of their rivals. In the days when it was first created, BlackBerry had robust features like the e-mail solution that endeared it to its ever-increasing customer-base. This is something that worked well in the purpose of attracting mainly corporate clientele. However, this success might have lured the company’s executives into a false sense of security in as far as the importance of trying new advertising functions was concerned. A few years after the introduction of the BlackBerry to the market, consumers turned their attention away from the significance of phone functionality and began to esteem trendy new technologically advanced features. In addition, the BlackBerry executives chose to remain with the safe option instead of investing in new operating mechanisms. For any phone maker to be viewed as the one firm that can be defined as a revolutionary innovator, it has to remain ahead of its competition as well as the information curve so that it is the one firm that can be depended upon to surprise the customer base in terms of cutting-edge inventions (McQueen and Research in Motion, 2012). The BlackBerry corporation’s leaders could also have implemented changes to the corporation’s structure so that it became more open to changes around it. According to Tubbs and Gillett (2011) the BlackBerry corporation had a rigid structure which discouraged external innovations and made it possible for other corporations such as Apple took advantage of apps-driven functions to lure more customers. The leaders of the BlackBerry Corporation should also have encouraged its employees to act as look-outs who would sport new technologies that were becoming trendy among the younger demographic. According to Sweeney (2009) this actually took place at one time but was dismissed by the then CEO of BlackBerry, Jim Balsillie. This may have been as a result of the suggestions to the executives at BlackBerry having gone through the wrong channels in such a way that they sounded as though they were indicative of insurbordination. In many large corporations such as ‘BlackBerry’ there are hierarchical structures which help the executives to run the company efficiently. While flatter structures would be more conducive to the establishment of corporate structures that allow for more cooperation, such systems are quite difficult to install. They would require the revision of the company’s corporate culture so that the workers are encouraged to think for themselves and find innovative ways of improving their performance of their responsibilities. The BlackBerry corporation, unlike the more innovative high-tech companies like Apple, did not encourage the formation of this type of culture. This resulted in apathetic employees who were only concerned with the prospect of maintaining their jobs even when they were faced with stiff competition from companies such as Apple. These workers felt that the responsibility of overseeing changes that would return BlackBerry to its former celebrated position was the responsibility of the leaders. It is evident that transformational leaders who had the means to share their visions with the workers would have been more successful in this respect. How Future Leaders can Strategically avoid Similar Challenges in Future According to Johnstone and Evers (2005) one of the responsibilities of high-tech companies in the present world is to invest in products that will impress clients today while also planning on investing in cutting edge products for tomorrow’s market. The main responsibility of BlackBerry’s current crop of executives is to invest in researching into new forms of technology. According to Johnstone and Evers (2005) research into different types of innovations is usually focused on manufacturing line extensions, new merchandise, or products that are an improved version of their original form. It is a recognized fact that reaching past product innovation is the hardest thing for high-tech companies to realize. Even designing a noticeably better smartphone which is accompanied by a new and improved system of operation will not bring about the kind of fundamental change required so urgently by BlackBerry so as to charge in front of its business competitors. The stark reality is that the BlackBerry corporation has to restructure itself and start investing in a science that will drive products that have not yet been invented. One in which, for instance, all modern gadgets such as smartphones are rendered irrelevant. The next thing that the BlackBerry corporation has to oversee is the change in the functions of leadership. The firm essentially has to do with executives who still believe that success can only come when five-year plans are envisioned. The firm has to emphasize on the importance of creating plans that only concentrate on what is important at present. Suggestions for overcoming BlackBerry’s Challenges In any tech corporation, it is essential for there to be a leader who provides visionary leadership. This type of leadership can easily inspire devoted workers who sincerely believe in the future of the corporation in question (Northouse, 2007). Mike Lazaridis and Thorsten Heins, both of whom were former CEOs of BlackBerry, were both demanding as well as dramatic leaders who provided visionary leadership. The absence of technology vision in a high-tech company could result in satisfactory decisions that will generate a structurally inferior internal corporate structure or strategy. This would emerge when the company was soundly defeated by its competitors in its own market. It is thus necessary for companies to have visionary leaders who can create the best conditions for workers to be able to generate cutting-edge ideas. Moreover, while supporting a technological vision is hard, managing the process of implementing that vision is even harder. Corporate leaders who are tasked with this responsibilities have to be strong, fearless and idealistic. They also have to have the qualities of persistence, patience and perseverance. This is because it may be years after implementing the visions before a company can know whether it made the right decision. This means that the visionary leader has to be able to guide his workers or crew through times of great uncertainty and apprehension. He has to remain hopeful even when the facts do not support the notion that he has made the right decisions. While visionary leaders can be quite inspirational and function well in times when companies go through problems, they may harbor autocratic tendencies and appear to be rigid to many of their employees. This further blinds them to any new developments in their industries. Under the reign of BlackBerry’s celebrated visionary leader, Jim Balsillie, the corporation developed at a breakneck speed and virtually transformed the established hierarchy of the wireless world. According to Dalum, Pedersen and Villumsen (2005), however, he could be quite rigid and was feared by his senior executives as well as junior workers. The workers who dared to challenge his own beliefs on the right way to move forward were quickly put in their place. The BlackBerry Corporation might require more forms of versatile leadership so that workers can benefit from understanding the revolutionary views of their leader without fearing to make astute that will only benefit the firm in the long run. Conclusion The BlackBerry’s visionaries have to put more effort in creating innovative products in an environment that is rife with uncertainty and low levels of trust. In such circumstances, it is critical to develop an important purpose or objective which will guide and direct the company through times of hardship. A new sense of purpose that is more in keeping with modern technology will also help the corporation to be able to rediscover its motivation and create more momentum to propel it into its original position at the head of the telecommunications industry References Dalum, B., Pedersen, C. Ø. R., & Villumsen, G. (2005). Technological Life-Cycles, Lessons from a cluster facing disruption. European Urban and Regional Studies, 13(3), 229-246. Johnstone, C., & Evers, R. (2005). Professional BlackBerry. Indianapolis: Wrox. McQueen, R., & Research in Motion. (2012). The Blackberry. New Delhi: Hachette India Northouse, G. (2007). Leadership theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Reuters. (2011). BlackBerry’s corporate dominance fades. Retrieved from http://business.financialpost.com/2011/07/01/blackberry-­‐losing-­‐corporate-­‐hold/ Sweeney, A. (2009). BlackBerry planet: The story of research in motion and the little device that took the world by storm. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Tubbs, G., & Gillett, T. (2011). Harvesting the Blackberry: An insider's perspective. New York: Wheatmark, Inc. Read More