RIM Growth Challenges

RIM is a world-class Canadian company that is now a world-class Global company. We have a hard time as Canadian's praising our children.

Once you get to be the size of RIM, you have the priviledge of being attached on all fronts. Who could not be losing ground to the likes of Apple. Their iPhone is brilliant and has set the soncumer standard for smartphone innovation. The Google's Android platform is also gaining share as its powerful operating system, and zero cost to channel partners, makes it an attractive solution to sell.

Consumer polls that are measuring product desirability consistently favor the iPhone and the Android is now squeezing Rim as well.

What should Rim do and is doing?

1.) Remember the line - Focus on your Core.

RIM has a powerful enterprise niche and must retain its high margin and loyal customers. To do this, enterprise services must always be ahead of the Apples, and Androids (whose dominance is more consumer)

2.) Expand footprint into the consumer garden but not at the expense of preserving the core.

It is easy to have Apple envy, however, my belief is it is better to have a strong foothold and preserve /fight to keep the core strong, as dilution will only erode the foundation on all sides.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment I had was RIM went to market too early on its new iPAD like product (The Torch), it did not deliver product superiority and shipping has had its challenges.

In summary, RIM may have its unique challenges, what it needs to do is not compare itself to Apple or the Android and look beyond these otherwise they are caught in a cat and mouse, function feature game, here are some ideas:

1.) Bring together the brightest engineers (top engineer from each university around the world (say 20) and offer them a $ prize to invent a new product to extent the Torch to levels unimagined (4 month co-op assignment)

See what unfolds - great PR and recruiting benefits, new ideas will emerge as with diversity comes more wisdom.

RIM is highly concentrating with R&D based in Waterloo and increasingly in the valley. It is now a global company, yet when one tests for harmony of culture and vision alignment of what the future holds, there is a worrisome level of concern by RIM employees (the enemy is now us is in RIM's tent), and their practices for engagement (doing business) is well understood to be plagued with difficulties.

All this aside, RIM will find a smart pathway forward, but it has to start with its internal engineers believing they can solve the challenge. This confidence is critical to evolution, feeling like you are in a shadow will breed mediocrity and erode confidence.

If Jim andMike spent one week each working side by side with their most brilliant engineers - some new energy would be unleashed, sometimes as executives we caught up in internal or external meetings and what is really important is ensuring our talent believe in the dream and know they are making a real difference.

Reflections on the Internet on a Monday Morning

For many of us the internet was something we were introduced to in the mid to late 1990's, when AOL became prevalent, giving us services to the web and content that we never knew was even possible.

Then if you recall we had the early search engines like Alta Vista, Yahoo and eventually Google appeared and the internet's vast content and possibilities became more real.

I remember when I was a VC in the late 1990's we still had people questionning the feasibility of buying goods on the internet, despite the early and evident success of eBay. Although when I look back and appreciate we were in our early content days, there really was a limited amount of good quality content back then, even Wikipedia did not exist.

Today there are literally billions approaching trillions of pages and we have literally too many options to choose from, exacerbating a new problem of drowning in possibilities - making search and profile intelligence even more important.

However is the Web dead? - if we can spend an entire day making use of the internet but never in the browser on the web via applications, IM, streaming services, then one needs to think of the evolution - with smart tablet applications with access to only the content the want - we need to be reminded that the power still lies in aps and servicing my needs.

Will we start to have a new generation of curator guides like in museums that are experts on searching for your needs and being your search coach and keep finding us the best content possible. We have crawlers that source content based on our needs, but still the context is often missing let alone the filter of a human mind, and also the coaching back on content value.

Facebook is rapidly shifting their strategy to integrate technology through its site, as you can now use Facebook to log into sites such as CNN, New York Time, recommend stories you have read to your friends, making the environment more porous.

Apple with the iPAD is pursuing a similar strategy with its IOS Platform.

Let's not all forget the internet is not even two decades only .... and it is the environment we rely on daily to do our work, support our personal lives, and stay connected.

What the future holds we can start to see with the increasing consumer electronic companies like Sony, LG integrating the internet with smarter appliances, media and entertainment, cell phones - striving to keep us in their ecosystem.

No one has done this as well yet as the Apple experience. We are in the process of upgrading our office equipment, and my team has finally convinced me the Apple is the only way to go.

What do you think is next?