BlackBerry is fighting tooth and nail to find its way back into competition and the adoption of a new name following the launch of its new BB10 OS based phones is proof of this attempt. However, the phone manufacturer’s troubles are serving as a different kind of lesson for industry CEOs. The company’s ineptitude in losing control over the entire North American smartphone market in a span of just three years and falling from 40% to 2% market share is being closely followed by CEOs worldwide in an attempt to learn from BlackBerry’s follies.
What happened to BlackBerry could happen to any other business as most companies are heavily built on technological innovations which are rather volatile in nature. This increases the risks faced by them, reducing the shelf life of their business models. CEOs are therefore burdened with the responsibility of having to manage their businesses in a way that it is executed effectively in the present alongside implementing changes in the company that will push them ahead in the upcoming competitive markets of the future. Paying careful attention and balancing both tasks can be a tough ask, but it is important for CEOs to challenge themselves on a regular basis and embrace change. Business models that are static and led by an inflexible leader can often implode dramatically, as it happened in the case of BlackBerry.
Manufacturing companies may face issues with trying to go beyond product innovations. In BlackBerry’s case, their Super Bowl commercial started off on the right track, advertising the new features of Blackberry 10 OS in a cool, fashionable avatar. However, this may prove to be insufficient as the company is in need of redesigning itself and needs to prepare for a world beyond just great hardware. In addition to that, those leading BlackBerry may need to reconsider their value systems, re-plan profit models and consider the actual value of building an ecosystem like Android and Apple does, instead of just providing features and great hardware. It’s no secret that the reason Windows Phone is not gaining much traction is because it has to build an ecosystem from scratch; it already has all the features present in Android and iOS. Blackberry too needs to introspect in this regard.
Blackberry needs to act quickly to send a statement of purpose to investors and customers; simply releasing a slick OS won’t stem the tide. It needs to manage issues and face realities in an unknown future and having a strong sense of purpose will prove to be of great help for BlackBerry in their attempt to build a new future, gain momentum and prevent itself from becoming just a static.
