“Mike Lazaridis couldn’t imagine that consumers would be spending hours watching and streaming video to their devices, he couldn’t understand it,” the former exec continued. This is why we don’t see RIM excelling in spaces like camera technology, or displays — because the company never even attempted to anticipate the smartphone trends we’re seeing today. “RIM is a reactionary company.”
BGR’s Jonathan Geller takes an inside look at RIM and the culture at the company. Former executives describe Mike Lazaridis as being paranoid and having lost his touch and vision. He walks around RIM headquarters with bodyguards — seriously Mike?
And this is the guy the shareholders want running the company. This is an eye-opening story.
Even with strong disagreement from sites like ASYMCO, there does seem to be some weight to the theory of “Stupid Manager” or “Bad Manager” behind corporate failure. I’ve read more recently about the foibles of the WaterlooWhizzers than about any other CEO, except maybe Eric Schmidtenstein…
But, it does seem that the two guys from Canada were geniuses just a few years ago. I’m sure the paranoia isn’t new. It just mattered a whole lot more when the profits dried up.
Considering the amount of criticism lobbed in Steve Jobs’s way, we are more than happy to dismiss his supposed shortcomings as long as sell throughs and cash hoards keep growing. But if that should ever change….
Interesting article, if accurate. The purported quotes make sense, considering what we’ve seen of Lazaridis’ public statements lately.
Lazaridis hasn’t been the same since he got that call from Rebekah Brooks wanting to the know if he’d like his voicemail back.
This is absolute garbage – come on, Dalrymple, what have you become?
A gossip magazine hack? This reads like something from the disgraced tabloids of England.
You are better than this – you are stooping far beneath yourself to be putting this on the web.
Gawd, Steve Jobs was a porn lover, according to some media reporters – so are you going to do an expose on that too?
Stick with what matters and leave out the personal sleaze reports about business leaders (all of them, that includes Steve Jobs who deserved much better than to be trashed by those kinds of articles)
Tech analysts, really?
Unreal.
Please tell us how remarkably functional RIM management actually is.
Unless this interview is over because I’m being unfair.
I do not work at RIM so how could I know? The duo turned a start-up from the late 1990’s into a 17000+ employee company that makes substanial revenues and has 68 million subscribers in a dozen years, so that says something I think – every company hits the skids and the duo-CEO’s appear to be floundering lately, just as Apple did in the ’80s and 90’s, and IBM did many times – but this is not the point.
Look – it is not a case of reporting management functional performance issues – nail Laziridis for the “unfair” comments to the UK reporter, if you wish (it begs it) – it is in the public domain and also allows for objective discussion concerning the reporter’s questions, etc…but smearing an exec as being “paranoid” based upon hearsay and so-called “insider scoops” on this website is beneath Dalrymple and The Loop – take a look at the tabs at the top – see any categories for “smear” or “insider gossip”? “Making sense of Technology” is the mission statement at the top – would “Was Jobs was a Porn Addict?” fit the bill? Who knows what he did or still does while at Apple headquarters, hmmm? If anyone has something against him ( and a lot do, to be sure) what a delicious way to take delight in throwing mud. Pathetic.So this whole escapade into personal smears based upon hearsay is the domain for some websites but it certainly does not belong on The Loop – it makes Dalrymple and The Loop appear smug, mean and small and nothing else – and it certainly does not make sense of technology!
I do not work at RIM so how could I know? The duo turned a start-up from the late 1990’s into a 17000+ employee company that makes substanial revenues and has 68 million subscribers in a dozen years, so that says something I think – every company hits the skids and the duo-CEO’s appear to be floundering lately, just as Apple did in the ’80s and 90’s, and IBM did many times – but this is not the point.
Look – it is not a case of reporting management functional performance issues – nail Laziridis for the “unfair” comments to the UK reporter, if you wish (it begs it) – it is in the public domain and also allows for objective discussion concerning the reporter’s questions, etc…but smearing an exec as being “paranoid” based upon hearsay and so-called “insider scoops” on this website is beneath Dalrymple and The Loop – take a look at the tabs at the top – see any categories for “smear” or “insider gossip”? “Making sense of Technology” is the mission statement at the top – would “Was Jobs was a Porn Addict?” fit the bill? Who knows what he did or still does while at Apple headquarters, hmmm? If anyone has something against him ( and a lot do, to be sure) what a delicious way to take delight in throwing mud. Pathetic.So this whole escapade into personal smears based upon hearsay is the domain for some websites but it certainly does not belong on The Loop – it makes Dalrymple and The Loop appear smug, mean and small and nothing else – and it certainly does not make sense of technology!
With respect I have to disagree at least in part. The news that RIMs leadership didn’t have the vision to embrace digital media as part of their product roadmap does indeed help make sense of why their technology appears to be so far behind the rest of the pack. As far needing body guards, that could indicate that they even knew they were way off track. I’ve worked at many companies much larger than RIM and I’ve never seen Sr leadership use that kind of security on the premises. It does shine a light on a part of the company culture at least, which could easily be interpreted as a degree of isolation between the leadership and the rest of the organization. I think both of these things are relevant to understanding why RIM is falling as far as it is.
Which is in part why my first comment above was “interesting article, if accurate.”
If BGR has actually had access to genuine former RIM employees, we may assume that at least a few of the sour grapes in that story derive from a shared experience of an environment we don’t have access to. The rough consensus that these purported ex-RIM people appear to have reached is that Lazaridis has become—like many individuals who’ve reached his level of success—insular, defensive, and unwilling to consider differing points of view about a market he now has difficulty understanding or competing within. This aligns well with what RIM has said and done publicly over the past few years. It helps explain the environment in which a lot of bad business decisions are being made. If it’s true.
If the BGR article is pure fakery, however, we have to go back to guessing why Lazaridis and Balsillie keep shooting themselves in the foot. How could such successful people have lost their way?
As for your analogy, what would an attempt to smear Apple accomplish? Where’s the equivalent motive? Explaining why the company is an unprecedented success story?
Higher-level Apple employees leave because they either get better offers or want new challenges to overcome. Show me an ex-Apple employee throwing mud at Steve Jobs and I’ll show you someone who couldn’t handle retail.
We should also realize that this BGR story is far from a single incidence of these types of comments about the inner workings at RIM. The open letter to their leadership released supposedly by a Sr exec a couple of weeks ago made many points all of which support the BGR story. An isolated example is easy to dismiss. That’s not what we’re seeing here.
As far as your point about a lack of vision or a wrong one – that is fair and relevant enough. Vision statements abound in companies and even a clear one can be a very wrong one (and a muddled one that is also one is even weaker).
However, headlines of a “paranoid” person and unproven accusations of having bodyguards (how does anyone know for sure) walking around with the CEO is quite another. This makes no sense of anything, esp. technology, except assuring those who believe nasty things about people that they have reasons for believing.
As far as corporate culture goes, well it takes objective consultants a good while to decipher an existing culture, its causes, its effects, through interviews with a good pile of employees. So to me, a few snippets from either fake or anonymous (not one source named, not one) disgruntled employees from a number of over 17000 sounds feeble in terms of reliability, statistical and otherwise. The problem then becomes exactly what you stated: the findings “could be easily interpreted” – it is too easy to interpret anything we hear according to what we already believed or wanted to believe.
So your former point I can agree with , but the latter point I must confess to find lacking
🙂 I’m not trying to put anyone on trial, just saying it seems odd that we’re hearing more of the same from various sources. Would any of this convict anyone, no. Is the circumstantial “evidence” building, maybe… We should should also note the the stark contrast from the rumor community and the public statements coming from RIM’s leadership. They could not be further apart. Spin? Maybe, or the conspiracy in the media against those individuals is wider than just this blog. Further, their leadership’s claims seem at complete odds with the market data we’re seeing. At least Nokia had the sense to admit they had a problem.
“If it’s true” – amen to that. Since we don’t know, why grasp it and take great delight in smearing someone with unsubstantiated gossip?
Smearing Jobs would accomplish the same thing – nothing but nastiness. Both Jobs and Balsillie have thrown a few smear bombs back and forth, and quite frankly it did nothing for anyone except those who like the cheap vicarious thrill of watching/reading about it.
The equivalent motive would have occurred when Jobs was pushed out by the Apple directors a few decades ago. Check out the nastiness in some of the archives. There may be all kinds of motives to smear, however, and none of them are professional nor help people makes sense of technology.Apple is a great success story (unprecedented is a stretch) but in my opinion, all it would take is another fall for Apple and the rats will chew the sheets again – that seems to be human nature. Some people will secretly be overjoyed when Jobs passes – can you believe that? Sorry, but numerous employees have thrown mud at Steve Jobs, and it was not because they failed at an Apple retail outlet! Contrary to what some may believe, the guy is not Jesus (at least, as far as we know!):)
I’d give more credence to your answer if there weren’t so many people defending RIM by saying “but look what they’ve accomplished!” as though it has any relevance to their current situation. You’re hiding behind a double standard, I think.
Mike has now installed gates with “Armed Guards” sign this Summer at Amber Sands, the retreat Cottage south of Amberley Ontario. The same security measures have been placed at his new Home. Apparently he’s fearing abduction attempts on his Children.