Blackberry Case Analysis

A CASE ANALYSIS OF BLACKBERRY’S RISE AND FALL By EHIZOKHALE ROMAN

KELLER GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT HRM 587: MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE CHANGE 7/21/201

 

ABSTRACT

This case aims to analyze an organization process of change. Blackberry limited formerly known as research in motion will be the case study. Blackberry limited, the manufactures of Blackberry smart phones were dominant in the global smart-phone market and was a must have. The organization enjoyed much success but today the organization sales, revenue and shares have dropped drastically .This paper will be analyzing the process of the organization in the times of  change which was brought on by competition in the smart phone market. It will be looking at the various steps the organization has taken to return back to being a force in the market and the effects this steps have had. This paper will also look at possible alternatives course of actions and recommendations that could have been taken.

INTRODUCTION

Blackberry limited formerly known as research in motion is a mobile communication technology company with its headuarters in waterloo, !anada. It was founded in "#$% by &ike 'arzidos and (ouglas )reign who were students at the time. Blackberry limited started out with focus on wireless technology which included point of sale terminals, wireless modems and pagers. In "#$$,

*I&

began

developing products for

mobite+

wireless packet-switched

data

communications networks and was also he first company to develop wireless data technology in  orth merica. The company continued to make progress in the areas of wireless technology and in "## released the digi-sync film keykode reader which was used in the motion picture industry. it was in "### that the first blackberry device was released, called rim $/ wireless handheld, it could send emails, messages and was one of the earliest devices that could connect  people with their email and contact. In that same year the company became a public traded company listing on the !anadian stock e+change. In 00, *I& release its first full fledged mobile phone called blackberry /$".By 01 blackberry had / million subscribers . In 02 the company market share hit a high of 3"0%./", was worth 12 billion dollars and was !anada4s most valuable company. Today the company is worth % billion dollar and it market share at 3$.$0.  5o what went wrong for the organization and what can it do to salvage the situation. The company has made various changes to address the situation it finds itself and none of these changes seem to have hit its mark in raising the company4s current status.&ost of these changes seem reactive to the strategies of its competition. The organization need to restructure and reinvent itself. The 5martphone hardware market is already saturated. The organization will be  better off focusing on network management and service providing. ANALYSIS OF THE CASE

In 02 just as blackberry was enjoying peak success, pple came into the market with the iconic Iphone. The iphone was a full touch screen phone with no physical keypads which was in much contrast to blackberry smart phones which was characterized with werty physical key  pads and rectangular screens..The Iphone hit the smartphone market with a bang taking up ".26 of the smart phone market within a year of its release. The organization e+perienced a drop in demand for its phones due to the hype and strong demand for the iphone. Blackberry lost a third of its market value shares. This signaled something drastic was wrong and change was needed and fast. This began a string of changes by the organization which was led at the time by !o-!eos 7im Basile and &ike 'arzidis. In 0$ with the high demand of the iphone, *I& released blackberry storm. The blackberry storm was *I& first full touch screen phone. The storm wasn4t successful and couldn4t match the iphone. pples4 Iphone and blackberry smart phones were both premium phones but the iphone offered something different than blackberry smart phones. *im prided on its security and  blackberry smart phone were secure which appealed to corporate consumers and governments. The iphone was more of a media fun device with talk and te+t. Iphone had the apple play store which contained various application and this attracted regular consumers to it.  In response to apple pay store, the organization developed its own app store and offered a variety of apps. !ompared to the apple app store ,it didn4t offer much and wasn4t all that effective. 8hile this stiff competition between the two smart-phones was brewing up, 9oogle released the android operating system. This meant another competition had entered the smart phone market with smart-phone hardware manufactures such as 5amsung, htc deciding to use ndroid operating systems on their phones. (espite the completion *I& had a good 0# with its market share increasing to 0.26, iphone had "2."6 of the market and android had :./6

In 0" apple releases the first Ipad which was uite successful, *I& responded by releasing its own tablet called the playbook. It was a flop and could not compare to apples4 Ipad and a couple of other android tables already in the market at the time. This year began the fall of the organization. pple market share increased to "1.26, android surged to 0/./6 while *I& fell to "%.26 In 0"", the organization began downsizing its workforce worldwide. The following year !o!eos &ike 'arzadis and 7im Basille stepped down and Thirsten ;eins took over as the ceo. The organization smart phone market share dropped to "."6 by the end of 0"0.the company was sinking and fast.  couple of problems led the company to where it is currently< "= >oor vision from the leadership of the co founders and strategy into address the introduction of competition in the smart phone market. 0= The lack of application to make their phones more fun to have. := )ailure to listen to the consumers wants but instead chose to dictate what they thought the consumers will need. )rom our te+t the Burke-'itwin model which is a diagnosis model for change fits the organizational change pattern at blackberry limited. The Burke-'itwin model has "0 factors and it e+plains that change of these factors cases changes in any organization. The most key factor in this model is the e+ternal environment. !ompetition from pple and ndroid ignited major  changes at blackberry limited which in turn caused changes within the organization. The change  process for blackberry was a long one and it has applied three types of changes "= daptive< .from releasing the blackberry storm to its own app-world and tablet. These changes where adaptive to the innovations of the competition

0= *e-orientation. In 0": blackberry made 7ohn chen its ceo bringing a change in it leadership and management. The company also released an upgrade of its operating system called  blackberry " in the same. These are steps the company took to reorient itself to towards the market :=*e-creation< the organization under john chen leadership is reorganizing the itself around a few key areas, including services for businesses, the BB& messaging product, the handset business and the world of non-phone devices that use the ?@ operating system which it acuired in 0".it also uses the android operating system one of its smart phone called the priv. (espite the various changes made by the company, its hasn4t seen glory days since its fall in 0".the company is still reporting heavy uarterly losses with news flying round that a sale of  the company is in the works. ALTERNATI!E ACTION TO MAKE THE CHANGE "ROCESS MORE EFFECTI!E

Blackberry is now shifting focus to other key areas in which its can carve a string market out for  itself. The organization has made all sorts of changes to ensure its survival. The follow alternative may make the change process more effective  )ocus on its strengths. Blackberry is pushing to focus on other areas such as mobile security,  blackberry enterprise servers and internet of things AIot=.Blackberry smart-phones had an advantage over its competition. It had a high level of security which made it a favorite of  cooperate customers and government officials. It can still offer security in other areas such as network security. The organization recently signed contracts with the software deals with the nited 5tates government and the .5 coastguards. It also has its blackberry messenger which is

now available on android and iphones. The organization should continue to e+pand the application to make it better and wanted (iscontinue the smart-phones< The organization upgraded its operating system and released new  phones with the aim of meeting the customers4 wants in a smart-phone and revitalizing the company. This move hasn4t worked has the company is still reporting uarterly losses in revenues. It4s clear to say discontinuing the manufacture of smart-phones will be essential to the company4s survival >ro of the alternative< blackberry has seen a massive drop and need to do what it can to ensure it survival. By discontinuing the smart-phone, resources for the organization will be available to focus on other areas which will ensure its survival. !on< By discontinuing its smart-phones it will lose its regular customer and remaining stake in the smart-phone market. 'oyal fans of the phone may be worries that this means service to already e+isting phones may drop in terms of uality but the organization has said it will continue to provide service to its already e+isting smart-phone customers and may not discontinue making ?8C*TD smart-phones. RECOMMENDED

 The smart-phone market is already saturated with various manufacturers. (espite the various attempts to revive the blackberry smart-phones to being the top choice for a smart-phone hasn4t  been successful. 8ith a market share of about "6, the organization will be better off build its core around other area where it is still is a strong hold. !urrent ceo john !hen wants BlackBerry to transform itself from being a Emobile technology companyF that pushes handset sales to Ea mobile solution companyF that takes a broader approach to serving the mobile computing needs

of its customers. In doing this the organization will lose what is left if their consumer base but this give them the chance to find new markets that will ensure its survival. G#$#%&'()&*(+$,

The blackberry story is one that wasn4t foreseen by observants in the tech industry. The organization practically invented the smartphine insustry and today is a shadow of them-self.  few lessons to be learnt from blackberry are "= Be a step ahead< !hange is inevitable. In some industries change happens instantly and constantly .one of those industries is the one which blackberry finds itself in, the mobile communications industry. In order to stay relevant to fully understand your environment, think ahead and keep up with the latest trend. 0= 9ood leadership< blackberry co founders &ike 'arzadis and 7im Bassile created a company and led the company through successful times but they failed to anticipate the competition. Blackberry stayed comfortable, enjoying the present and sat on the throne. Its leadership failed to assess and make decisions in its environment with a futuristic lifespan. They failed to look to the future.

REFERENCES

Brad, &oon A"G0#G0":=.  A brief history of research in motion. *etrieved A2G"$G0"1= from http