The Blackberry Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

THE BLACKBERRYAbstractA company brand is an important factor of an organization as it is the most valuable asset. It builds relations with the organizations and the customers. All brands have a life cycle. They go through inception, launch, growth, maturity, decline, revitalization and retirement. Rejuvenation of a failing brand is important if under the right conditions. One makes the judgment on whether to allow a declining brand to end its life cycle quietly or whether to revitalize them. The paper below describes the success of BlackBerry, the challenges it faced and the strategies that it has implemented to make it compete with its counterparts.IntroductionThe BlackBerry Limited, previously known as Research in Motion Limited is a company that develops software, hardware and smartphones used all across the world. Its headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Mike Lazaridis founded it. The company is the developer of the BlackBerry brand. For years, the BlackBerry dominated the smartphone market with each BlackBerry model being received well by the public. However, as time passed, new competitors begun to flourish in the market. They include Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Window’s Phone. Despite this, it still continued to enjoy sales as the new entries faced lag reception of their products. After a while, investors and business analysts begun worrying about the Brand’s ability to compete with devices running on iOS and Android operating systems. The Company made efforts to launch more powerful tools to counter the pressure from rivals. However, launching of the new models led to a further decline in market share and sales. Business analysts claimed that the launch date was ‘too soon’ and that new products reduced sales of previous models. Incurred losses prompted the management to lay off workers and delay the launch of other products. Revenues continued to decrease in each quarter. In 2013, the company wrote a letter to be acquired by a consortium led by Fairfax Financial though this was turned down for 4.7 billion dollars[1]Background InformationThe BlackBerry brand is a production line of smartphones manufactured and marketed by BlackBerry limited. The name originates from the resemblance of keyboard’s buttons to the drupelets that compose the blackberry fruit. The company’s first device was the 850 introduced in 1999. It was used for paging and it ran on the DataTAC network. As years passed, the company began manufacturing smartphones that supported text messaging, internet browsing and other wireless information services. The earlier models like the 8700 series depended on a monochrome display and navigation was through a scroll wheel mounted on the side of the device. Later versions such as the 8500 series however operated on color display and navigation were replaced by a trackball and later on an optical trackpad that allowed for all-way scrolling. These smartphones used a QWERTY keyboard though later models such as the Z10 and Q10 series incorporated inbuilt touchscreen keyboards combining features such as push-to-talk. Their products immediately began attracting market share enjoying market dominance for a relatively long time. However, entry of the iPhone and Android phones in the market brought stiff competition leading to speculation that it would be unable to survive. The number of subscribers globally begun to reduce substantially and so has its market share. Wansink states that rejuvenation is the process where a brand that is on the verge of retirement is brought back to life to regain markets (Wansink and Gilmore, 99). In a bid to stay relevant, BlackBerry adopted several changes in the organization.The BlackBerry Limited reached its peak popularity around 2012 with over 80 million subscribers worldwide. Solidified stiff competition from iOS, Android, as well as the Windows phone, has however created the need to stay relevant. The company has implemented radical changes in the structure including leadership in a bid to counter pressure from rivals and regain credibility. First, the company has made changes in the managerial structure replacing the dual chairman system. In 2013, John Chen was brought in as the new CEO. His track record of fixing problems had a positive influence in the organization. He started restoring the company by terminating activities that cost the company more money and laid off staff in order to ensure the company has a number it can handle. His competence and past experiences in turnarounds have created a platform for innovation and implementation of new strategies that try to diversify and improve operations. He believes in acknowledging the company’s core strength: the enterprise's space. By listening to feedback from customers and suggestions from staff, he’s able to know just what the market needs. He has also motivated the morale of the workers to a great extent by demonstrating the reduction in the large loss magnitude per share. He has also challenged the system’s hierarchy and authority of who should make decisions judging from past similar situations.Second, under the leadership of John, the company has come up with several innovations. Progressive research has been undertaken to come up with devices that are cost effective and unique. The company recently acquired a company that has the technology to manage two phone numbers on one SIM card with the target being business enterprises. The advantage of this is that it can separate business environment from the personal environment. Another notable inclusion is the BBM app that allows clients to have secure communication easily. The company has also been seen to focus on initiatives such as Project Ion that aims to connect more devices. The company has also launched Passport, a high-end smartphone targeted at the mobile professionals. The smartphone seems to be fairing okay considering the immense pressure from the annual release of new models by rivals.Third, the company has also pivoted to enterprise services by signing a three-year deal with mobile payments firm Enstream. Its goal is to secure and transfer credit card information between smartphone owners and banks. Banks and other mobile wallet providers are thus able to process near-field communication payments. It has also purchased a minority stake in healthcare firms with the goal of providing the healthcare services platform that will facilitate connectivity between devices in different facilities. The company noted a business opportunity across medical institutions as they incorporate bulk amounts of data in operation and management. John believes that by shifting focus from the handset making business to providing mobile platforms and services, stability of the company will be attained.Implementation of these changes have had effects within the company and outside too. Financial results have shown that Chen has presented a more stable company that incurred a lower amount of loss as compared to other quarters. They also indicate an increment in cents per share. Chen stated that in order to shoot back to its original glory, BlackBerry had decided to involve businesses and the government rather than consumers. By partnering with like-minded companies, BlackBerry has been able to reduce consumer-facing expenses by raising each other’s visibility and profit. Chen’s takeover has also seen a large number of people lose their jobs in order to cut down unnecessary costs. Several branches were cut-off to allow the business to stabilize itself and grow. The resources that would have been used in these branches are utilized in other fruitful operations.Business analysts have speculated the strategic return of Blackberry as a competitive entity in the smartphone, software and hardware production. As seen in the reduction of losses at the end of every fiscal year. John has managed to create a positive problem-solving culture while maintaining innovation levels. By creating ...