I was at this event. It was hosted at the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto and featured the two authors of Losing The Signal: The Spectacular Rise and fall of Blackberry, interview Jim Balsillie. Jim was excellent; gracious, humble, insightful, kind. These were my big takeaways (very loosely quoted):
On hiring:
Q. How did you attract talent to the small city of Waterloo?
Jim: We found kids that were excited to come to the BIG city of Waterloo. Small town Valedictions. I love hiring them. Give them two years to mature and they'll knock your socks off.
On the iPhone début:
Jim: Perhaps overlooked was the significance of having the exclusive deal with ATT. Steve Jobs used to describe the carriers as the "four orifices" - everything had to go through them. This partnership was far more significant than people realized.
On Blackberry:
Q. What phone do you have in your pocket?
Jim: I have a Blackberry, I read my newspaper every morning on a Blackberry Playbook. I love them both, and you'll have to pry them out of my cold dead hands if you want me to change!
A few things I wasn't aware of (from Jim):
- In it's heyday, RIM (Blackberry) was the fastest growing company 5 years in a row.
- There was a patent battle that nearly killed RIM (Blackberry) in it's early days, before they major growth (I would like to read more on this).
Great session.