Holy crap, have you seen this open letter from a RIM employee?

[abaez]

RIM's response basically supports exactly what the original letter was talking about heh.

 

[Deeko]

I don't really get why people are attacking their response so much. Its pretty much in line with what you can expect them to say - they're working to improve, and they've got the money to do so. Its not like they haven't already said they're moving QNX, its not like they're just sitting on their laurels. This letter is basically what everyone has been saying, and what RIM is already responding to, so what do you expect?

Also, moose, why wouldn't they be trying to find out who sent it? Companies don't like when their own employees bash them in public - in fact, it may be in your employment contract not to do so. Particularly if the author is as "senior" as BGR claims them to be.

 

[runawayprisoner]

so what do you expect?

"We have received buzz about an open letter circling around the internet. While the origin of the letter is quite questionable, the content of it raises some valid points and as RIM is always looking for ways to improve itself, we are actively taking into consideration each point raised by the letter.

RIM is fortunately in a financial situation that's favorable for this sort of thing to happen and we won't disappoint our supporters."

...is what I was expecting for a response. Obviously it didn't read like that.

 

[Deeko]

They did say that they take the challenges RIM faces seriously and that they're going through a transition period, etc. It seems like people read the first paragraph, where they (rightfully) questioned the source, and ignored the second.

 

[Mopetar]

Dear RIM:

Let's make ipad and iphone clones, kthxbai


Disgruntled employee.

That completely misses the point.

The alleged employee is saying that RIM really needs to work on building devices that consumers will want to buy, not devices that will make the carriers happy. He/She also suggests that RIM should simplify their product lineup, focusing on a few devices and polishing the experience rather than making a multitude of devices, none of which are especially good.

The letter referred to Apple for two reasons. First, they tend to have a very limited number of products, even more so in the phone market. Second, when Jobs came back to the company they had dozens of different models of computers and there was no clear indication how they were related to one and other. Apple killed off many of these products and replaced them with a more simplified and stratified lineup. This is widely attributed as bringing the company back from the edge of death.

 

[Pliablemoose]

They did say that they take the challenges RIM faces seriously and that they're going through a transition period, etc. It seems like people read the first paragraph, where they (rightfully) questioned the source, and ignored the second.

Agreed, and really, they shouldn't have responded at all

 

[silverpig]

Another issue that is seriously hurting RIM is their location. I know people who have interned there who said the company was fine but they wouldn't ever take a job in Waterloo. It's too far from Toronto to be able to enjoy the city life, and Waterloo itself has nothing to offer the young professional.

Move the office to Toronto, or Vancouver. They have to realize that the company IS the people, not the device or the buildings. They have to attract and retain top talent and location and lifestyle are very important in that effort. Give someone a job with responsibility, independence, freedom, good pay, project-based work, AND put it in a desirable city and you'll have your pick of the top talent in the world. A year later you'll have the best products in the world. A year after that you'll be tops of the mobile industry again.

 

[purbeast0]

Another issue that is seriously hurting RIM is their location. I know people who have interned there who said the company was fine but they wouldn't ever take a job in Waterloo. It's too far from Toronto to be able to enjoy the city life, and Waterloo itself has nothing to offer the young professional.

Move the office to Toronto, or Vancouver. They have to realize that the company IS the people, not the device or the buildings. They have to attract and retain top talent and location and lifestyle are very important in that effort. Give someone a job with responsibility, independence, freedom, good pay, project-based work, AND put it in a desirable city and you'll have your pick of the top talent in the world. A year later you'll have the best products in the world. A year after that you'll be tops of the mobile industry again.

wish i could find an awesome software company in Hawaii, preferrably Maui.

 

[Imp]

Another issue that is seriously hurting RIM is their location. I know people who have interned there who said the company was fine but they wouldn't ever take a job in Waterloo. It's too far from Toronto to be able to enjoy the city life, and Waterloo itself has nothing to offer the young professional.

Move the office to Toronto, or Vancouver. They have to realize that the company IS the people, not the device or the buildings. They have to attract and retain top talent and location and lifestyle are very important in that effort. Give someone a job with responsibility, independence, freedom, good pay, project-based work, AND put it in a desirable city and you'll have your pick of the top talent in the world. A year later you'll have the best products in the world. A year after that you'll be tops of the mobile industry again.

I know someone who commutes from Waterloo to Toronto daily. It's about a 1 to 1.5 hour drive to "Toronto" on a good-ish day, then another 30-60 minutes to actually get downtown.

For the career-man who's ready to settle down, Waterloo is perfect. House prices are actually reasonable at $300-$400k for a single-family, suburban house. Compare that to $400k for a bungalow on the butt end of Toronto, and $550k for a row house downtown with no parking. Considering how many idiots commute from the extreme suburbs (Oshawa, Whitby, Barrie, Oakville, etc. not Scarborough, Etobicoke) of Toronto daily and clog up the highways, many people shouldn't mind going against the grain and commuting to Waterloo.

And RIM's right beside the University of Waterloo, one of the best computer science/electrical engineering schools in the country. Sure most of the foreign students wouldn't mind a stable job.

 

[mammador]

http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/30/open-...xec-tells-all-as-company-crumbles-around-him/

Ouch.... that's seriously disturbing. I think the two CEO's probably run the company with the same corporate mindset as if it was a government division, and that can't end up too well. I am Canadian (even moreso, a public servant as well), and I want Canadian companies to thrive, but this does not bode well... You simply can't have the same culture at an IT firm.

lol.. I think the letter is fabricated. A RIM employee? Is it a top manager, or a cleaner? An Admin Asst? "Employee" can mean anything.

Talk of a RIM crisis is overstated. Blackberry phones aren't as good as Android or Apple, but all that's needed is a revision of their products, and a stronger OS. I agree that Flash is not an issue, since most persons using computers are not that ICT savvy to no or care about not having it. Despite computers being everywhere in our society, few people actually know about ICT topics. Ask most people what a data centre is, and few could answer.

 

[mammador]

Another issue that is seriously hurting RIM is their location. I know people who have interned there who said the company was fine but they wouldn't ever take a job in Waterloo. It's too far from Toronto to be able to enjoy the city life, and Waterloo itself has nothing to offer the young professional.

Move the office to Toronto, or Vancouver. They have to realize that the company IS the people, not the device or the buildings. They have to attract and retain top talent and location and lifestyle are very important in that effort. Give someone a job with responsibility, independence, freedom, good pay, project-based work, AND put it in a desirable city and you'll have your pick of the top talent in the world. A year later you'll have the best products in the world. A year after that you'll be tops of the mobile industry again.

Location is important, but most global firms only have a small global head office (relative to all other administrative locations). I don't see why RIM cannot have the global office in Waterloo, but have main business units in Toronto, Montreal or any other big Canadian city.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

but all that's needed is a revision of their products, and a stronger OS

That's the problem. They've had 4 years since the launch of the iPhone, yet they haven't got a comparable device. And they have two different OSes being developed for right now. Plus they had to scale back plans for a 10" Playbook to focus on QNX for a single core Blackberry phone.

 

[tonygeor]

In all honesty they need to kick out a lot of top management and get someone in their willing to make risks and cut red tape

 

[foghorn67]

My thoughts:
Letter is dead on.

But...
How many corporations are going to respond other than having a canned pat-itself on the back letter in reply?
None.
It doesn't matter if they are on the right track or still in a death spiral.
What did they expect?

The only rational and realisitic response would be for the top echelon of execs to think about it. They will never admit wrong doing. Ever.
Just wish they are fixing it. Actions speak louder than words.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Two more letters have apparently surfaced.... http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20076105-260/more-rim-employees-speak-out/

*edit* And here are the two letters: http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/01/more-letters-to-rim-employees-rally-alongside-anonymous-exec/

 

[runawayprisoner]

My guess is BGR will continue to post these "letters" for the foreseeable future and RIM will have a field day with their response and witch hunt projects.

It's good though. That means the original author, if he exists at all, becomes less of a problem, and RIM will have to look into more layoff if anything.

Weird thing is... this sort of thing, from reading the recent two letters, seems to happen at every other company that's still run on printers and letter-sized papers...

 

[JS80]

RIM should try to figure out who wrote it and promote him to CEO and fire the clowns currently co-CEOing. What's more likely to happen is he gets found out, gets fired, and Apple or Google hires him.

 

[finbarqs]

Well... maybe upper management is trying to sell it's users/loyalists potential!