Jim Balsillie Booted Off Research In Motion Board

by Robb Dunewood on February 6, 2009 · 7 comments

Jim BalsillieResearch in Motion just reached a settlement agreement with the Ontario Securities Commission that requires several RIM executives to pay back over 90 million in fines, investigation costs,  and reimbursements to RIM.  Additionally, Jim Balsillie must step down from RIM’s board for at least 12 months and cannot server on any other board during the same period.

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  • http://www.wwe.com/superstars/wwealumni/therock/ The Rock

    Could these distractions be harming RIM? Hate to say it but What do you think, has Balsillie been problematic just in his speaking to the press lately, from his views (which are constantly proven wrong) on service reliability, to his views on customers having to live with buggy software? Neither help RIM’s future.

    It’s not a bad thing for those who have experience with RIM and it BB product and those who are BB enthusiasts to admit RIM’s current flagship BB’s are not up to RIM’s past standards. It’s not a bad thing for those who have experience with RIM and it BB to step up and force RIM to natively support more than just a windoz based desktop sync app. IMO when RIM’s current customers and enthusiasts are returning the current flagship BB’s and moving back to past models which are more reliable RIM’s got problems to solve, to say nothing about the competition which has pasted RIM by. The question is how does RIM focus? Removing distractions might be the first step forward.

  • Wishful Verizon BB Customer

    I agree Rock. Personally he is problematic for the company and its image and what RIM stands for as a innovative and revolutionary company. Though some new BB’s are coming out are quite impressive (8900) it still needs to take another huge leap forward and do a better job of keeping up and capitalizing on trends. I personally feel that the Storm for Verizon was a failure. The reason is that it did not achieve its goal for touch screen mobile professional phone, thus allowing Apple to dominate this market and the IPhone is slowly making its way towards business professionals as what I have seen. Internet and e-mail is essential, especially if you are in marketing, sales, IT, consultant, and finance work. The iPhone has been dominating this market. The downside for them is that the battery life is terrible, and of course AT&T is exactly up to par with Verizon’s customer service and service quality. However, like the rest of us Verizon customers, we are left yearning. The Curve that dropped on us last year was a blessing, despite it being a couple years late. Then came the Storm and boy were we excited, but it failed on several aspects while improved on others. I personally feel that the RIM should take parts from Apple’s touch capabilities while at the same time taking parts from the HTC Touch Pro which is fantastic windows mobile phone. And I am slowly starting to move towards because RIM is falling behind! Look today’s business professional needs info on the spot and have the ability to capitalize on function and diversity in receiving, sending, and editing information, both e-mail and web based! And at the same time, the business professional would like to have the opportunity to have a little fun with his phone like camera, mp3! Why not have it all in one phone?

    RIM needs to get rid of Balsillie because he’s not doing it! He seems to be a step behind from everyone else in his company! His researchers and engineers are the real CEO’s because they are coming out with fantastic ideas! But RIM needs to revolutionize or at least one up Apple with smartphone functionality and capability and compatibility! While at the same time creating diversity for its users! The flip Pearl I think is a brilliant idea and will definitely be a hit. The Storm can only lead to improvement, but RIM needs to either reinvent the wheel or create an ultimate solution that can be used across different channels and platforms!

    RIM, get a new CEO who understands market/economy climate changes as well as how to upgrade continuously and create revolutionary ideas! Take back your throne and leave Apple to the generic pop market and please just combine fun and business with supreme functionality!

  • http://www.wwe.com/superstars/wwealumni/therock/ The Rock

    Still feel that blaming RIM for not keeping up with Apple while completely legit, we need to remember Apple came into the smartphone market and knocked out all the manufactures who have had much more experience in the smartphone market. Heck the iPhone is what 2+ years old now and still none of the other manufactures have come close to catching up. At this point catching up is not good enough. Shame on RIM for rushing the Storm to market and worse for letting the service providers dictate what functions and applications were acceptable to be included. In a way that type of crap really shows RIM no respect, RIM knows how to make smartphones and thats what they should do without interference. Know it’s been said before but IMO RIM to move forward must separate itself somewhat from the service providers, build some brick and mortar stores, sell on-line, direct sales and service with it’s customers will go along way in both customer loyalty, and also more importantly direct consumer feedback which RIM should use to make even better BB’s. I don’t mind buying a BB from a service provider, however what I do mind is service providers altering the look (UI) and functions of my BB’s. Also prefer RIM providing software updates directly. RIM could learn alot from Apple and the iPhone.

  • Thought

    First off, this is a slap on the wrist to Balsillie. Unfortunately, this is business as usual at many companies, and I don’t think Balsillie will lose too much sleep over this one.

    RIM has had its successes and problems, but I doubt if this action against RIM had much to do with it.

    As for the inevitable comparisons w/ Apple that seem to dominate every discussion these days, (and there’s nothing wrong with that): I think the problem all companies have going up against the iPhone is the fact that Apple has such a head start in developing software.

    Let’s face it: the iPhone is simply a computing platform, and the software is the star, or superstar, as the case may be w/ Apple. But this comes after over 30 years of experience Apple has developing software, and it’s very difficult for any company like RIM to make up that difference.

    All other smartphone companies pretty much have dedicated their existence to thinking about hardware and a limited software set; Apple has decades of experience thinking about software OS in a much broader sense…for the PC…and of course the Apple paradigm is to shatter expectations and expand the limits.

    Trying to take on Apple in software development would be like a casual jogger all of a sudden trying to train to outrun an Olympic marathoner. It’s nigh impossible, and if it’s going to be done, it has to come at the expense of years of training and catching up.

    I think what RIM and the other competitors are doing is simply trying to play to their strengths and then only tangentially try to take on Apple as best they can.

    For instance, even 2 years after the intro of the iPhone, RIM is still essentially the same: basically a mobile email platform (and a great one at that)…with other features cobbled on, with mixed success, such as a media player…and incremental improvements in hardware.

    I think RIM would be essentially at the same place had Apple never entered the smartphone market, with the exception of the Storm. But really, what else can they do? And of course, that’s been good enough to make a ton of money in the meantime.

  • Teddy

    Perhaps you’re right, Thought. When it comes to software, Apple takes the cake. But their software is always expanding to new heights in customizability and personalization. I mean the app store for iPhone is brilliant because it is so convenient. What RIM has to do is expand on its business goals while strengthening software. The Bold is actually a fantastic BB because the software is amazingly fast. What would be fantastic is more intuitive and updated pre-installed applications like task, calendar, web, and media player. The point is to have smooth transition and allow it to have complete compatibility with today’s demand of third party software like ms office. The e-mail does not need to be worked on too much, but expand the features a little more. Expand on what makes a blackberry a blackberry. A way to control your schedule, e-mail, tasks, and contact. They should be expanding on this! Because that’s what creates the difference! Amazing functionaility and processing speed! If BB’s were enhanced with this as well as able to be optimized to handle ms office, video streaming, and still be able to blog and read the new york times, i would choose that over the iphone anyday! Iphone’ sgreat if I want to bs around the web and do fun games and stuff, but BB will continue to grow it’s following by it’s unsurpassed business productivity. They should be focusing on expanding that instead of rushing to catch up to a trend!

    Also Rock, I wish it were the case to get phones through direct like nokia but unfortunately, big money is made in these jv partnerships. it’s a promise that they get money to cover production cost. It’s like the Chris Rock joke…”soon the cell phone company will by the ringtone company forcing you to buy a ringtone package!” His point was that a simple phone ring will become obsolete.

    I say expand on businss productivy and web browsing, have it go through diverse channels like the Storm’s ability to be a world phone, thus increasing your market. t-mobile is great for business on a budget, while most companies with bigger budgets use at&t and verizon wireless. but such as life as you can’t get everything. but it also raises the question of where does the cell phone go at this point? the revolution is over, it’s now evolution? I can still remember the days of World Comm and startrack motorola phone back in the day and it’s amazing how far cell phones have come in the past decade. now every 6th grader has an iphone. i personally find it insane that parents fall into this trap and I worry about the day my kid comes and asks if he could ask for a cell phone, before he attends junior high!

    Maybe business as usual, but RIM needs to refocus. personally i want a sleeker abstract type of smart phone with enhanced business productivity and speed with the ability to be compatible with any pc and recieve ms files while still retainin its e-mail strenghths and only moving to more user friendly interfaces and platforms. I also suggest MULTIPLE SERVER LOCATIONS!!! Though I don’t have trouble, RIM needs to end these data outages. It’s killing them softly. This is my last reply….lol I love RIMARKABLE!

  • http://www.wwe.com/superstars/wwealumni/therock/ The Rock

    “I also suggest MULTIPLE SERVER LOCATIONS!!! Though I don’t have trouble, RIM needs to end these data outages. It’s killing them softly.”

    X2 What Teddy said there!

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