The co-CEOs are no more and the RIM ship has been taken over by a different member of the existing executive team, Thorsten Heins. So with the promotion of Mr. Heins to President and Chief Executive Officer, can we expect a reversal of fortunes from RIM?
Just so you know exactly what has happened, this is where he came from within the organization:
“He joined RIM from Siemens Communications Group in December 2007 as Senior Vice President for Hardware Engineering and became Chief Operating Officer for Product and Sales in August 2011″
Clearly Thorsten Heins has been around since the iPhone started eating the BlackBerrys lunch and statements from him in the official press release indicate nothing much has really changed at Research In Motion!
“Mike and Jim took a bold step 18 months ago when RIM purchased QNX to shepherd the transformation of the BlackBerry platform for the next decade,” Mr. Heins said. “We are more confident than ever that was the right path. It is Mike and Jim’s continued unwillingness to sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain which has made RIM the great company that it is today. I share that philosophy and am very excited about the company’s future.”
Mr. Heins said that RIM has a strong foundation on which to build. “We have a strong balance sheet with approximately $1.5 billion in cash at the end of the last quarter and negligible debt. We reported revenue of $5.2 billion in our last quarter, up 24% from the prior quarter, and a 35% year-to-year increase in the BlackBerry subscriber base, which is now over 75 million.”
Mr. Heins said, “BlackBerry 7 has been well received. We are very excited about PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry 10. The reception of our products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was encouraging.”
He continued, “RIM earned its reputation by focusing relentlessly on the customer and delivering unique mobile communications solutions. We intend to build on this heritage to expand BlackBerry’s leadership position.”
Mr. Heins said that RIM has grown quickly. “As with any company that has grown as fast as we have, there have been inevitable growing pains,” he said. “We have learned from those challenges and, I believe, we have and will become a stronger company as a result.
“Going forward, we will continue to focus both on short-term and long-term growth, strategic planning, a customer- and market-based product approach, and flawless execution. We are in the process of recruiting a new Chief Marketing Officer to work closely with our product and sales teams to deliver the most compelling products and services.”
You can read the full press release here… RIM Official Press Release | Jan 22nd, 2012
For a little more insight, here’s a video:
All I can say is that after listening to the above I am amazed that this guy is now the new CEO. Hold that thought – NOT Amazed at all actually!
The appointment of Thorsten Heins assures that we can expect to see more of the bumbling of the past from RIM. It is clear from his comments he plans to stay on the same course as his predecessors and that, I believe, is exactly what will insure further decline or even a break up of the organization eventually.
Some of his comments defy the reality of the last 12 to 18 months performance as compared to Apple or Android mobile devices.
“If we continue doing well what we are doing, I see no problems of us being in the top 3 players worldwide in the next years in wireless.”
Have I missed something here? He must be in a dream world!
“At the core of RIM is the innovation – we always think ahead, we always think forward.”
And there’s more:
“We’ve learned to execute, yes we have to get better at execution. We’ve learned a lot since I joined RIM in 2007.”
It seems as if all of RIMs’ leadership is reading from the same playbook! It’s a good thing, no doubt, but it begs the question – do they realize how far they are behind?
Somehow, I really don’t thing so.
