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First Nokia, Now RIM: The Mighty Are Falling

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Re: First Nokia, Now RIM: The Mighty Are Falling

#3
I'm a little sad for RIM and would like to support a Canadian company but in the end they just aren't able to adapt. I don't think they ever will unless there is a management change. Seriously a tablet that can't receive email Nativity? That's what they were know for yet they can't use there strength right. QNX is a decent system, open it up, let others use it, in the end they won't be able to stop the tsunami of apple and android without help, other manufacturers using their QNX platform could help.

Re: First Nokia, Now RIM: The Mighty Are Falling

#4

To me, they are both victims of a paradigm shift. The only thing that saddens me is that their employees will pay the price for their lack of vision.

as a former multi-year employee of a formerly glorious company that fell victim of its self-denial to recognize a paradigm shift i can say that employees can blame only themselves.

Re: First Nokia, Now RIM: The Mighty Are Falling

#5
esr also keeps a close eye on the developments in the mobile phone market. His latest blog post on this is at http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=3493 , a short quote:

"Nokia’s strategy, insofar as it’s actually had one since the tie-up with Microsoft, has been to hang in there on volume sales of dumbphones until it could deliver world-beating WP7 handsets. The major risk here, other than the wild unlikelihood of WP7 ever becoming anything consumers actually want, was that the Chinese electronics industry would undercut them on price-performance. I predicted this would happen, it is happening, and Nokia’s disastrous July earnings call is the result."

Re: First Nokia, Now RIM: The Mighty Are Falling

#6
I don't think I've ever seen a company cut employees en masse like this truly help a company come from behind to regain their former status. It sends so many wrong messages. If those 10% of your company aren't worthwhile, why were they hired and employed in the first place?

If management can afford to cut staff by 10%, the C and VP level management should be fired. Start by cutting at the top, not at the bottom.

Cutting that deep means that management was fine with spending money like drunken sailors. Nothing RIM or Nokia has announced in the last few months in terms of changes has shown that they are going to do anything other than wither and die on the vine.

Re: First Nokia, Now RIM: The Mighty Are Falling

#8
I am not fully versed in the notion of innovative disruption, but it seems pretty obvious that a Clay Christensen-esque Innovator's Dilemma disruption is what's going on here: somebody had a decent product, is first to market, but doesn't have a clear enough vision to see how to stay on top and stay innovative and gets blindsided by unexpected (read Apple + Android) competitors. I wonder how closely the non-cliff notes version of RIM's fall matches the innovator's dilemma model.

Re: First Nokia, Now RIM: The Mighty Are Falling

#9

I don't think I've ever seen a company cut employees en masse like this truly help a company come from behind to regain their former status. It sends so many wrong messages. If those 10% of your company aren't worthwhile, why were they hired and employed in the first place? If management can afford to cut staff by 10%, the C and VP level management should be fired. Start by cutting at the top, not at the bottom. Cutt…

I can't disagree with the first two paragraphs, but for the last, what about shutting down entire divisions? If a company invested in a failed product that requires a number of specialized employees, does it imply they were spending money like drunken sailors when they have to let them go?

Re: First Nokia, Now RIM: The Mighty Are Falling

#10

I don't think I've ever seen a company cut employees en masse like this truly help a company come from behind to regain their former status. It sends so many wrong messages. If those 10% of your company aren't worthwhile, why were they hired and employed in the first place? If management can afford to cut staff by 10%, the C and VP level management should be fired. Start by cutting at the top, not at the bottom. Cutt…

"I don't think I've ever seen a company cut employees en masse like this truly help a company come from behind to regain their former status."

Apple?

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