Research in Motion HBS Case

Another example of a company that has been successful in creating disruptive technology is Apple. At around the same time that Nintendo was creating its place in the market, Sony came around with a series of portable music devices such as the “Walkman” and the portable CD player. Soon after, Apple introduced the Ipod which is more compact than either of Sony’s products. The Ipod also allowed for more

There are many strategies that organizations can incorporate in today’s business environment. An organization can decide to take on a low-cost provider strategy, a focused low-cost strategy, broad differentiation strategy, focused differentiation strategy, and/or a best-cost provider strategy. While all of them have their own unique features and can offer a competitive advantage over its rivals, Competitive Shoes, Inc. decided to incorporate the best-cost strategy into its organization in order to compete against it rivals. By incorporating the best-cost strategy into its organization, Competitive Shoes Inc. felt that they could stay

Making hundreds of millions of dollars, RIM is blowing other competitors out of the water with huge demands for their products. Skipping almost a decade to 2007, when RIM’s subscriber base jumps to 8 million and revenues double to over $3 billion. That same year, RIM becomes Canada’s most valuable company, surpassing Royal Bank of Canada’s market worth on the TSX. BlackBerry’s innovation is what started the company and continues to improve it. Canadian inventions like the first telephone, Java programming language and the famous Canadarm required great innovation, like BlackBerry, to make them prominent and to stand out from the rest of the world. In conclusion, BlackBerry’s bold features and breakthroughs in telecommunications have shaped our mobile experiences we have

Invention is the result of a long study, research, and experimentation (Innovation, n.d.); Innovation is “the discovery and the execution of pioneering ideas that create value” (Greco, 2011), in other words, new application of known concepts. A practical example of invention is the alkaline battery that provided a light-weight, small, and portable power source; innovation applied this concept to anything possible from communication devises, mecanich and construction tools, and even toys. Technical workstream leaders understand that innovators are today’s competitors reducing times, and maximazing profits with new techniques; but inventors have the potential to reshape the landscape of today’s markets leaving dominant companies out of bussiness. Who remembers door-to-door salesmen or “dear John”

BlackBerry, previously known as Research in Motion (RIM), is a global company in the telecommunications industry. Founded in 1984, the company saw huge success in the early age of the smart phones. The company offers various cell-phone related devices as well as enterprise services, including security. Although BlackBerry’s cell phone success has dwindled in current years, its new CEO, John Chen, has made steps to improve profits and change the company’s focus to enterprise software suites and security.

The two generic business strategies are differentiation and cost-leadership strategies, and they are fundamentally different from one another, both with their own drawbacks and risks (Rothaermel, 2013). These strategies are referred to as “generic” because they may be used by any type of organization (Rothaermel, 2013). The drawbacks and risks of a differentiation generic strategy is its viability “is severely undermined when the focus of competition shifts to price rather than value-creating

In 1997, RIM went public with a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and raised $115 million from investors (Hempel, 2009). The following year, it made RIM made history again when it introduced the first Blackberry: The RIM 386. The first of its kind, it was a PDA organizer and had the ability to synchronize with corporate emails. This was beginning of their rule in the corporate world. Their products became synonymous with business electronics (“Research In Motion,” 2003). The following year after that, the company introduced its first BlackBerry brand e-mail device, a bulky rectangle with a narrow screen that ran off one AA battery (Hempel, 2009).

Product Innovation – Innovation of new products had failed many times and MTI has lost reputation with Wall Street. This process had been placed on the backburner and when the CEO came on board there were only six products in the pipeline. Therefore, to be successful in the future, MTI needs to invest more in R&D and focus on delivering new products.

This is the first case study report for the course ED5317: Strategies for Managing Innovation that is based on the Harvard Business School case titled ‘Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple’. The report consists of the following question:

Incorporated in 1984, Research in Motion, Canada’s most successful and influential tech firm, used to be a market leader in mobile phone industry. However, the company seems to be overtaken by a series of deep-rooted dysfunction. RIM during the past years had grown unwieldy and unorganized. Conflicting opinions and a lack of clear direction worsened an already difficult situation. All of the evidence is showing that the management of RIM has failed: a number of high-level people left; the market shares keep falling; product delayed; investors became angry; and an internal chaos remained at this BlackBerry maker.

Several key points are presented in the article for how companies can be successful. The first, is that companies must be innovative and be willing “to change their core products or business models” (Bertolini et al., 2015, p. 90) to keep up with the change in the marketplace. This may require that they rebrand their product, or change their business

Research in Motion, (RIM), is “a global leader in wireless innovation, (which) revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry solution in 1999” [ (Research In Motion, 2011) ]. While RIM has no publically available mission statement [ (missionstudy, 2009) ], we can deduct the following:

Q1. How has 3M’s innovation process evolved since the company was founded? Why, if at all, does 3M, known as the “hothouse” of innovation, need to regain historic closeness to the customer?

Tidd and Bessant (2009) argued that “Unless an organization is able to move into further innovation, it risks being left behind as others take the lead in changing their offerings, their operational processes or the underlying models that drive their business”.

The third example involves innovation. Apple, once a firm engaged in personal computers and music players, now is the largest mobile phone producer in the world. After the introduction of the first model of iphone to the world in 2007, Apple’s innovation has been paving the way for evermore success. The splendid multi-touch screen, strong processor and numerous applications, all are innovations which have met customer needs and been successful. What is more, established producers like Black Berry and Nokia who once were among the largest mobile phone suppliers have all seen a decline in sales due to the popularity of the revolutionary iphone. Inventions help businesses further to maintain their leading position in the market.