Course Title - Strategic Management

CASE 17
RESEARCH IN MOTION: MANAGING EXPLOSIVE GROWTH

Submitted to Mohammad Mizenur Rahaman Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Sylhet.

Submitted by

GROUP 4
Rajeshwar Bhattacharjee Fathema Rashid Saba Dip Mazumder Md. Joynul Jakerin Md. Noor-E-Alam Mazumder 2009721010 2009721013 2009721026 2009721029 2009721030

MBA 2nd Semester, Department of Business Administration Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Sylhet.

CASE 17
RESEARCH IN MOTION: MANAGING EXPLOSIVE GROWTH
In early January 2008, David Yach, chief technology officer for software at Research In Motion (RIM), had just come back from Christmas break. Returning to his desk in Waterloo, Ontario, relaxed and refreshed, he noted that his executive assistant had placed the preliminary holiday sales figures for BlackBerry on top of his in-box with a note that read Meeting with Mike tomorrow. Knowing 2007 had been an extraordinarily good year, with the number of BlackBerry units sold doubling, Dave was curious: Why did Mike Lazaridis, RIMs visionary founder and co-chief executive officer, want a meeting? A sticky note on page three flagged the issue. Mike wanted to discuss Daves research and development (R&D) plans even though R&D spending was up $124 million from the prior year, it had dropped significantly as a percentage of sales. In an industry driven by engineering innovations and evaluated on technological advances, this was an issue. R&D was the core of the BlackBerrys success but success, Dave knew, could be a double-edged sword. Although RIMs engineers were continually delivering award-winning products, explosive growth and increased competition were creating pressures on his team to develop new solutions to keep up with changes in the global smartphone marketplace. With 2007 revenue up 98 per cent from the previous year, his team of approximately 1,400 software engineers should also have doubled but both talent and space were getting increasingly scarce. The current model of organic growth was not keeping pace and his engineers were feeling the strain. As the day progressed, Dave considered how he should manage this expansion on top of meeting existing commitments, thinking How do you change the engine, while youre speeding along at 200 kilometers per hour? As his BlackBerry notified him of dozens of other urgent messages, he wondered how to present his growth and implementation plan to Mike the next morning.

RESEARCH IN MOTION LTD. (RIM)

RIM was a world leader in the mobile communications market. Founded in 1984 by 23-year-old University of Waterloo student Mike Lazaridis, RIM designed, manufactured and marketed the very popular line of BlackBerry products that had recently reached 14 million subscribers worldwide and had just over $6 billion in revenue (see Exhibits 1 and 2). In early 2008, RIM was one of Canadas largest companies with a market capitalization of $69.4 billion.
Exhibit 1

Blackberry Subscriber Account Base (in millions)

Rim Annual Revenue (in millions of U.S. dollars)

Note: RIM Fiscal year ends in March (Fiscal 2008 is the year ending March 31, 2008) Source: RIM Fiscal 2007 Annual Report and Fiscal 2008 Press Release (April 2, 2008)

Exhibit 2

Consolidated Statement of Operations, Research In Motion, Ltd., 2004-2008 (in U.S. dollars, except per share data)

The BlackBerry wireless platform and line of handhelds could integrate e-mail, phone, Instant Messaging (IM), Short Message Service (SMS), internet, music, camera, video, radio, organizer, Global Positioning System (GPS) and a variety of other applications in one wireless solution that was dubbed always on, always connected. These features, especially the immediate pushed message delivery, in addition to the BlackBerrys small size, long battery life, and ease of use, made the product extremely popular with busy executives who valued the safe and secure delivery of corporate mail and seamless extension of other enterprise and internet services. In particular, organizations that relied on sensitive information, such as the U.S. government and large financial institutions, were early and loyal adopters of BlackBerry and RIMs largest customers. RIMs enterprise e-mail servers, which were attached to the customers e-mail and IM servers behind company firewalls, encrypted and redirected e-mail and other data before forwarding the information to end consumers through wireless service providers (see Exhibit 3). Having been the first to market with a push e-mail architecture and a

value proposition built on security, RIM had more than 100,000 enterprise customers and an estimated 42 per cent market share of converged devices, and significantly higher market share of data-only devices, in North America. RIM generated revenue through the complete BlackBerry wireless solution which included wireless devices, software and services. Revenues, however, were heavily skewed to handheld sales (73 per cent), followed by service (18 per cent), software (6 per cent) and other revenues (3 per cent). In handhelds, RIM had recently introduced the award-winning BlackBerry Pearl and BlackBerry Curve, which were a significant design departure from previous models and for the first time targeted both consumer and business professionals (see Exhibit 4). RIM had accumulated a wide range of product design and innovation awards, including recognition from Computerworld as one of the Top 10 Products of the Past 40 Years3. Analysts and technophiles eagerly awaited the next-generation BlackBerry series expected for release in 2008. Although originally built for busy professionals, BlackBerry had made considerable headway in the consumer market and had become something of a social phenomenon. Celebrity sightings put the BlackBerry in the hands of Madonna and Paris Hilton among others. The term crackberry, used to describe the addictive or obsessive use of the BlackBerry, was added to Websters New Millennium dictionary. Just six months after launching Facebook for BlackBerry, downloads of the popular social networking software application had topped one million, indicating that younger consumers were gravitating towards the popular handhelds4. RIM also actively sought partnerships with software developers to bring popular games such as Guitar Hero III to the BlackBerry mobile platform, suggesting a more aggressive move to the consumer, or at least prosumer, smartphone space. Wireless carriers, such as Rogers in Canada and Verizon in the United States, were RIMs primary direct customers. These carriers bundled BlackBerry handhelds and software with airtime and sold the complete solution to end users. In 2007, RIM had over 270 carrier partnerships in more than 110 countries around the world. Through the BlackBerry Connect licensing program other leading device manufacturers such as Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson could also equip their handsets with BlackBerry functionality, including push technology to automatically deliver e-mail and other data. Expanding the global reach of BlackBerry solutions was therefore a fundamental part of RIMs strategy. In 2007, 57.9 per cent of RIMs revenues were derived from the United States, 7.3 per cent from Canada and the remaining 34.8 per cent from other countries. To date, RIM had offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, however, it had only three wholly owned subsidiaries two in Delaware and one in England.

THE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS MARKET AND SMARTPHONES

Mobile wireless communication involved the transmission of signals using radio frequencies between wireless networks and mobile access devices. Although RIM was one of the first to market with two-way messaging, recent technological developments had encouraged numerous handheld and handset vendors to go beyond traditional telephony and release new converged devices including smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), phone/PDA hybrids, converged voice and data devices and other end-to-end integrated wireless solutions. A shift in the telecommunication industry was moving demand beyond just cellphones to smartphones completes communications tools that married all the functions of mobile phones with fully integrated e-mail, browser and organizer applications. In 2007, key competitors to RIMs BlackBerry line-up included the Palm Treo 700 and 750, the Sony Ericsson P900 Series, the Nokia E62, the Motorola Q and the Apple iPhone.

Exhibit 3

Blackberry Enterprise Solution Architecture

1. BlackBerry Enterprise Server: Robust software that acts as the centralized link between wireless devices, wireless networks and enterprise applications. The server integrates with enterprise messaging and collaboration systems to provide mobile users with access to email, enterprise instant messaging and personal information management tools. All data between applications and BlackBerry smartphones flows centrally through the server. 2. BlackBerry Mobile Data System (BlackBerry MDS): An optimized framework for creating, deploying and managing applications for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. It provides essential components that enable applications beyond email to be deployed to mobile users, including developer tools, administrative services and BlackBerry Device Software. It also uses the same proven BlackBerry push delivery model and advanced security features used for BlackBerry email. 3. BlackBerry Smartphones: Integrated wireless voice and data devices that are optimized to work with the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. They provide push-based access to email and data from enterprise applications and systems in addition to web, MMS, SMS and organizer applications. 4. BlackBerry Connect Devices: Devices available from leading manufacturers that feature BlackBerry push delivery technology and connect to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. 5. BlackBerry Alliance Program: A large community of independent software vendors, system integrators and solution providers that offer applications, services and solutions for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. It is designed to help organizations make the most of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution when mobilizing their enterprises. 6. BlackBerry Solution Services: A group of services that include: BlackBerry Technical Support Services, BlackBerry Training, RIM Professional Services and the Corporate Development Program. These tools and programs are designed to help organizations deploy, manage and extend their wireless solution.

Source: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/ataglance/solutions/architecture.jsp

Exhibit 4

The Evolution of the Blackberry Product Line (Select Models)

Source: http://www.rim.com/newsroom/media/gallery/index.shtml and Fortune, BlackBerry: Evolution of an icon, Jon Fortt, Sept 21, 2007, accessed April 7, 2008: http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/blackberry-evolution-of-an-icon-photos-610/

The number of wireless subscriber connections worldwide had reached three billion by the end of 2007. China led with over 524 million subscribers, followed by the United States at 254 million and India with 237 million (see Exhibit 5). Year over year growth in the United States, however, was only 9.5 per cent, with an already high market penetration rate (87 per cent). In contrast, Chinas growth was 18.3 per cent with only 39 per cent penetration. In sheer numbers, India was experiencing the fastest growth rate with a 60 per cent increase and room to grow with 21 per cent market penetration. To put that into context, in late 2007 there were almost 300,000 new wireless network subscribers in India every day. Since the launch of Apples iPhone in June 2007, competition in the smartphone segment of the mobile telecommunications industry had intensified. The iPhone set a new standard for usability. In 2007, smartphones represented only 10 per cent of the global mobile phone market in units. However, this segment was projected to reach over 30 per cent market share within five years. In the U.S. the number of smartphone users had doubled in 2007 to about 14.6 million

Exhibit 5

Mobile Telephone Users Worldwide (in millions)

Source: Created from data accessed from the Global Market Information Database, April 4, 2008, http://www.portal.euromonitor.com.proxy1.lib.uwo.ca:2048/portal/server.pt?control=SetCommunity&CommunityID=207 &PageID=720&cached=false&space=CommunityPage

while global shipments of smartphones rose by 53 per cent worldwide hitting 118 million in 2007.12 Some analysts saw the opportunity for smartphones as immense, predicting that during 2008 and 2009, 500 million smart devices would be sold globally and cumulative global shipments would pass the one billion mark by 2012. Worldwide demand for wireless handhelds had been fueled by several global trends, including the commercial availability of high-speed wireless networks, the emergence of mobile access to corporate intranets, and the broad acceptance of e-mail and text messaging as reliable, secure and indispensable means of communication. Coupled with the growth of instant messaging as both a business and personal communications tool, the demand for wireless handhelds and smartphones was robust.

COMPETING PLATFORMS
Symbian, a proprietary Operating System (OS) designed for mobile devices and jointly owned by Nokia, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens AG and Samsung, held an estimated 65 per cent worldwide share of the converged devices, shipping 77.3 million smartphones in 2007 (up 50 per cent from 2006).14 This was significantly ahead of Microsofts Windows Mobile OS (12 per cent) and RIMs BlackBerry OS (11 per cent). However, in North America, RIM led with 42 per cent of shipments, ahead of Apple (27 percent), Microsoft (21 per cent) and Palm (less than nine per cent and shrinking). However, RIM could not afford to rest on its laurels. In the North American market place, Apple had recently announced that it would be actively pursuing the business segment. Conceding that push-email and calendar integration were key to securing enterprise users, Apple licensed ActiveSync Direct Push, a Microsoft technology. Apple hoped to entice corporate users to adopt the iPhone as their converged device of choice.16 Similarly, Microsoft, which had

struggled to gain widespread acceptance for its Windows Mobile OS, had recently revamped its marketing efforts and announced an end-to-end solution for enterprise customers as well as desktop-grade web browsing for Windows Mobile enabled phones.17 Even Google had entered the fray with Android, an open and free mobile platform which included an OS, middleware and key applications. Rivalry, it seemed, was intensifying. In early 2008, an analyst commented about the increasing competition in the converged device (smartphone and wireless handheld) segment:
Apples innovation in its mobile phone user interface has prompted a lot of design activity among competitors. We saw the beginnings of that in 2007, but we will see a lot more in 2008 as other smart phone vendors try to catch up and then get back in front. Experience shows that a vendor with only one smart phone design, no matter how good that design is, will soon struggle. A broad, continually refreshed portfolio is needed to retain and grow share in this dynamic market. This race is a marathon, but you pretty much have to sprint every lap.

Another analyst observed:

The good news for RIM? There still arent many trusted alternatives for business-class mobile email. This company could be one of the worlds biggest handset manufacturers one day. Its hard for me to believe there wont be e-mail on every phone in the world. RIM is going to be a major force in this market.

Given the rapid advances in the mobile communications industry, no technological platform had become the industry standard. In light of the dynamic market situation, RIM needed to ensure that its investment in R&D kept up with the pace of change in the industry. R&D AT RIM R&D and engineering were the heart and soul of RIM. In March 2007, RIM employed just over 2,100 people with different R&D areas of expertise: radio frequency engineering, hardware and software design, audio and display improvement, antenna design, circuit board design, power management, industrial design, and manufacturing engineering, among others. R&D efforts focused on improving the functionality, security and performance of the BlackBerry solution, as well as developing new devices for current and emerging network technologies and market segments. The ratio of software to hardware developers was approximately 2:1 and about 40 per cent of the software engineers were involved in core design work while another 40 per cent were engaged in testing and documentation (the remaining 20 percent were in management, and support functions like documentation and project management). R&D had increased significantly both in terms of the total number of employees as well as the geographic scope of its operations. Since 2000, the R&D group had grown more than tenfold, from 200 to 2,100 people and expanded to two more locations in Canada (Ottawa and Mississauga), several in the United States (Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle and Palo Alto) and one in England. Waterloo was still the principal location home to a vibrant and collaborative culture of young and talented engineers. RIMs cryptographic and software source codes played a key role in the success of the company, delivering the safe and secure voice and data transmission on which the BlackBerry reputation was built. Chris Wormald, vice-president of strategic alliances, who was responsible for acquisitions, licensing and partnerships described the challenge as follows:
At the end of the day, our source code is really among our few enduring technical assets. We have gone through extraordinary measures to protect it. Extraordinary is probably still too shallow of a word. We dont give anyone any access under any circumstances. RIM was founded on a principle of we can do it better ourselves it is a philosophy that is embedded in our DNA. This vertical integration of technology makes geographic expansion and outsourcing of software development very difficult.

Exhibit 6

Competitive R&D Spend, Select Competitors (in Millions (US$)

Note: Nokia 2007 includes Nokia Siemens. Source: Company Annual Reports.

Intellectual property rights were thus diligently guarded through a combination of patent, copyright and contractual agreements. It was also strategically managed through a geography strategy that divided core platform development from product and technology development, with most of the core work (on the chip sets, software source code, product design) still occurring in Waterloo. However, the exponential growth in sales, competition and industry changes was placing tremendous pressures on the R&D teams at the Canadian headquarters. Similar to other players in the telecommunications industry (see Exhibit 6), it was RIMs policy to maintain its R&D spending as a consistent percentage of total sales. Investment analysts often looked to this number to gauge the sustainability of revenue growth. R&D expenses were seen as a proxy for new product or service development and therefore used as a key indicator of future revenue potential. Human capital represented the bulk of R&D dollars and the organizational development team in charge of hiring at RIM was working overtime to try and keep up with the growing demand for the qualified engineers needed to deliver on both customer and investor expectations.

Exhibit 7

Employee Growth at RIM

Source: RIM Annual Reports.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR R&D AT RIM

The 2,100 R&D employees made up about 35 per cent of RIMs 6,254 employees.Total headcount had also been growing in double digits over the last five years (see Exhibit 7). However, if investment analysts were correct and sales grew by almost 70 per cent again in 2008, the large numbers involved could hinder RIMs ability to rely on its historic growth strategy: sourcing from the local talent pool, through employee referrals and new graduate recruitment, and making selective acquisitions of small technology companies. It needed to find upwards of 1,400 new software developers just to maintain the status quo in R&D. And not only did they have to find large numbers of talented individuals, they also had to figure out where they would be located and how to integrate them into RIMs culture. The culture at RIM headquarters was seen as one of its differentiators and was a key factor in RIMs low employee turnover rate. In fact, the company had recently been recognized as one of Canadas 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures. In describing the way things worked in the software development group at RIM, Dayna Perry, director of organizational development for R&D, commented:
What we have here is flexibility, adaptability and the ability to work collaboratively and collegially. We havent had a lot of process or the kind of bureaucracy that you may see in other larger organizations.It is what has allowed us to be very responsive to market opportunities. It is sort of the magic or the secret sauce of how things just work and we get things done.

A software developer leading a team working on BlackBerrys many multi-lingual devices agreed, saying:
RIM, in comparison to some of its competitors, is a nice and dynamic environment RIM is a place engineers like to work. Some of our competitors treat their engineers as something unimportant. They dont participate in decisions. They are interchangeable. There is a very very strong bureaucracy its crazy. RIM is very different.

Maintaining its unique culture was a priority for RIM. Remaining centered in Waterloo nurtured this ability. But it was becoming clear that growing mostly in Waterloo was going to become increasingly difficult. Not only did RIM already employ most of the best developers in the area, it already attracted the best and brightest of the nearby University of Waterloos engineering and computer science graduates. About 300 students came on board every semester through the companys coveted co-op program and many were asked to remain with RIM after graduation. In fact, the talent at the University of Waterloo was so widely recognized that even Bill Gates made frequent visits to the university to court the best students and Google had recently opened facilities there, acknowledging that Waterloo is an incredible pool of talent and that it was ready to start hiring the best and the brightest as quickly as possible. Attracting outside talent to Waterloo was difficult given the competitive nature of the global software development industry. Most of the big players in the smartphone space were also ramping up. For example, Sony Ericsson had posted 230 design and engineering jobs in Sweden, China and the United States. Nokia was looking for 375 R&D employees in Finland, the United States, India and Germany, among other development sites. In Californias Silicon Valley, Apple and Google had scooped up many of the top mobile browser developers in a technology cluster famous for its exaggerated employee benefits and unbeatable climate. Motorola could be the exception to the rule, having announced layoffs of engineers. Although Waterloo, Ontario had recently been named ICFs Intelligent Community of the Year, the city of 115,000 people might not be perceived by some candidates to be as attractive as other high tech centers which were more cosmopolitan, for example: Silicon Valley, or previous winners of the ICF, Taipei (2006), Mitaka (2005) or Glasgow (2004). Compounding the problem was a shortage of physical space at RIMs Waterloo campus that was a running joke around headquarters. Even company founder Mike Lazaridis had to laugh about it responding to a reporters question about his most embarrassing moment, Lazaridis replied: Scraping my Aston Martin in RIMs driveway. I was leaving a space and a car came from nowhere. The scratches have been fixed, but not the too-busy parking lot. Its a hazard of a growing company. On top of it all, RIM was looking to hire a very particular mix of engineers. Although new graduates were essential, to be ahead of the game a good proportion of the incoming employees were going to have to be senior hires. RIM needed people who could fit with the culture and hit the ground running. Dayna noted: We just dont have the luxury of time to grow all our own talent. We do that in parallel and do a lot of internal promotion, but that is an investment you make in the future, it is not going to help you solve your problem today. And it wasnt just a question of the number of engineers. In software, breakthrough innovations often came from small teams led by a visionary. Many at RIM believed that software is as much about art as it is about engineering. And in the dynamic wireless communications market, exceptional software developers were scarce.

MANAGING EXPLOSIVE GROWTH

The approach to growth used by RIM in the past would not deliver the scale and scope of R&D resources required to maintain its technical superiority. RIM had several options.

Do What We Do Now, Only More of It

RIM had been very successful in its local recruiting strategy as well as nation-wide campus recruitment drives. It relied heavily on the personal and professional networks of existing employees as an ear-on-the ground approach to finding new talent. One option was to expand co-op programs to other universities as well as increase the frequency and intensity of its

new graduate recruitment efforts. Microsofts intern program, for example, included subsidized housing and transportation (car rental or bike purchase plan), paid travel to Redmond, health club memberships and even subsidized housecleaning! Likewise, RIM could follow Microsofts lead and form a global scouting group dedicated to finding the best talent worldwide and bringing them into RIM. Canada ranked as one of the best countries in the world to live in terms of life expectancy, literacy, education and other standards of living. These and other benefits could attract young developers particularly from emerging markets. As well, the stronger dollar made Canada more attractive. Similar to other players in the industry (e.g. Apple, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Nokia), RIM posted many of its job openings online and potential employees searched and applied for the positions best suited for their skills and interests. However, with over 800 worldwide job postings, finding the right job was often a daunting task. RIM also had no formal way to manage qualified candidates that may have simply applied to the wrong team and hence good leads were potentially lost. Some competitors allowed candidates to build an open application (similar to Monster or Workopolis) that could then be viewed by anyone in the organization looking for talent. Revamping the careers website and being more creative in the way in which they structured recruiting was being considered. Some competitors had also formalized hiring and the onboarding processes of computer scientists by hiring in waves. Rather than posting individual job openings, Symbian, for example, solicited rsums once a year, which were then reviewed, and successful candidates invited to the London, U.K.-based head office to attend one of nine Assessment Days. If the attendees passed a series of tests and interviews, they were then inducted into the company during a formal bootcamp training session that lasted five weeks. Symbian had also set up extensive collaborations with 44 universities in 17 countries including China, Russia and India as well as Ethiopia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Thailand and the United States. Dubbed The Symbian Academy, this network allowed partners and licensees to post jobs for Symbian Academy students and for professors to collaborate on the research and development of innovative applications such as pollution monitors on GPS-enabled Symbian smartphones. Although RIM enjoyed an excellent relationship with the University of Waterloo, it did not currently have a recruiting strategy of this scope.

Grow and Expand Existing Geographies

RIM had established R&D operations beyond Waterloo, in Ottawa, Mississauga, Dallas and Chicago over the last five years. It was also expanding the number of product and technology development facilities in locations such as Fort Lauderdale by recruiting through general job fairs. This strategy, however, had to be balanced with a number of trade-offs. First, RIM wanted to ensure that its geographic expansion was not haphazard, but rather strategically executed. Second, the cost of talent in various locations had to be considered. Software engineers in Palo Alto, for example, commanded much higher wages than in Waterloo and the competition there was even more intense, with high turnover costs incurred when employees were wooed away by the many other high tech companies in the area. There was also some internal resistance to expanding R&D to locations outside of Waterloo. Although there was a growing realization that RIM could no longer continue to grow locally, one senior executive commented:
There are people here, even leaders and senior people, who have said: What? Products being built elsewhere? No! We cant do that! Then we wont have any control! So some of it is a cultural shift and a mind shift for the people that have been here and it is hard for them to let go and to be part of a really big company. And RIM is getting to be a big company now. And for some people, from an organizational culture perspective, it just doesnt resonate well with them.

This sentiment was not uncommon among software-centric organizations. Despite some geographic expansion, Microsoft, for example, had recently recommitted to its Redmond, Washington campus, spending over $1 billion on new and upgraded facilities there with room to house an additional 12,000 employees. Google was also strongly committed to maintaining its Mountain View, California headquarters, with only a few satellite offices. Its unique company culture, built on attracting and keeping the best talent in a young and fun environment was part of Googles incredible success story, and helped it achieve the status of the number one company to work for according to Fortune Magazine. Other large software companies such as Oracle and Apple also kept their software developers in one location to foster innovation. In some ways, RIM was already more geographically distributed than many larger software organizations. Although establishing a geographic expansion plan posed difficulties, RIM had nevertheless laid out several criteria for selecting new locations for product and technology development sites. First, the area had to already have a pool of talent that housed a mature skill set; the city or region had be home to an existing base of software or hardware companies, thus ensuring that a critical mass of highly skilled employees was available. RIMs strategic expansion into Ottawa, for example, was influenced by the availability of talented software engineers in the area in the wake of Nortels massive layoffs. Lastly, the city or region had to have universities with strong technical programs. This allowed RIM to expand on its successful co-op programs and graduate recruitment initiatives. Once a satellite development site was set up, however, there was still the issue of how to transfer RIMs young and dynamic corporate culture to these locations.

Increase Acquisitions
RIM had success in bringing people on board through acquisition. Several years earlier, RIM had acquired Slangsoft, a high tech start-up in Israel that was developing code which allowed for the ability to display and input Chinese characters key to tailoring BlackBerry for Asian and other foreign markets. As part of the acquisition, RIM worked with Immigration Canada to relocate 11 of the engineers to Waterloo, 10 of whom were still with RIM more than six years later. Growth by acquisition was a common practice in the high tech and telecommunications sectors. Google had made its initial move to Waterloo in 2006, for example, through the acquisition of a small wireless software company, subsequently discontinuing the companys web browser product, making it a purchase of talent and intellectual property. Other companies had also made strategic acquisitions of technology. In 2002, Apple, for example, purchased EMagic, a small German company whose software was then used in the development of the popular Mac program Garage Band. In larger and more public acquisitions, Nokia and Motorola had both recently acquired software companies in the hopes of gaining faster access to the growing smartphone market. In 2006, Nokia purchased Intellisync Corporation, a wireless messaging and mobile-software developer for $430 million, creating Nokias business mobility solutions group. Also in 2006, Motorola purchased Good Technology for a rumored $500 million and released Good 5.0, allowing for secure access to corporate intranets so enterprise users could download, edit and send documents remotely. Given the depressed economic climate in the United States in early 2008, many smaller firms and technology start-ups were struggling financially as were some larger competitors. There were persistent rumors that Palm, for example, was in severe financial trouble. Further, growth by acquisition could also allow for the tactical expansion in other strategic markets. The European mobile telecommunications market, in particular, was highly nationalistic, with end users favoring home grown companies over foreign solutions.

Establishing a presence there through acquisition could buy RIM goodwill and serve as a portal to this lucrative market. The economic downturn in the United States and recent competitor plant closures in Europe presented RIM with the potential for opportunistic acquisitions, either of technology or of software engineering talent.

Go Global
In early 2008, most of the R&D was still done in Waterloo, with some core work also being done in Ottawa and product and technology sites throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom. RIM was exploring a broader global expansion. It already had customer service operations in Singapore and sales & marketing representative offices in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, China, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. Yet it had stopped short of establishing core research and development sites outside of Canada. Nonetheless, despite a strong desire to keep R&D close to home, RIM estimated that of all the new hires in 2008, likely half would have to be outside of Canada. In addition to the United States, it was looking to Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Eastern Europe. The same selection criteria of a mature skill set and strong technological universities applied to choosing R&D sites outside North America. Some of RIMs key competitors had a long history of global expansion of their R&D activities. Symbian, for example, opened an R&D center in Beijing in August 2007, already having three others in the United Kingdom and India. Motorola, had been present in China since 1993 when it established its first R&D center there as part of its Global Software Group (GSG). It had since set up R&D activities in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu and Hangzhou, investing an estimated US$800 million and employing more than 3,000 R&D staff in China. In 2007, Motorola added R&D sites in Vietnam and South Korea and announced it would open an additional R&D complex in Wangjing, China, with another 3,000 employees. China in particular was beginning to gain worldwide recognition as a center for innovation. The number of patent applications was doubling every two years and the R&D to GDP ratio had also doubled in the last decade. In addition to Motorola, Nokia had set up a number of research bases in China. In 2005, Nokia had five R&D units there, employing more than 600 people; an estimated 40 per cent of its global Mobile Phones Business Group handsets were designed and developed in the Beijing Product Creation Center. The company had also recently announced a long-term joint research program with Tsinghua University in Beijing that would see 20 Nokia researchers working alongside 30 professors and associates and up to 50 students. Globally, Nokia Research Centers (NRC) described its R&D strategy as follows:
NRC has a two-fold approach to achieving its mandate of leading Nokia into the future. The work for core technology breakthroughs supporting Nokias existing businesses takes place in the Core Technology Centers, the CTCs. More visionary, exploratory systems research that goes well beyond any current business model is conducted at the many System Research Centers, the SRCs.

Nokias core technology centers were in Finland, with the SRCs in China, Germany, the United Kingdom, United States, Finland and Japan. The company employed 112,262 people of which 30,5, or 27 per cent, were in R&D. The Motorola Global Software Group (GSG) was more decentralized. In addition to China it had R&D centers in Australia, Singapore, Mexico, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Poland, Russia, Italy, Canada and India, among others and employed approximately 27,000 R&D employees worldwide. The Motorola GSG in India had nearly 3,500 engineers and was responsible for designing 40 per cent of the software used in Motorola phones worldwide, including the MOTORAZR and MOTO Q. However, Motorola was not noted for having world-

class smartphone software. The GSG structure was speculated to have contributed to Motorolas inability to deliver a successful follow-up product to the RAZR as well as to have precipitated the companys recent financial downturn. Nonetheless, partnering with major research institutes to source top talent appeared to be a fairly common strategy. Motorola India collaborated with six of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), as well as the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) and the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT). Other technology firms were also partnering with emerging market governmental and educational institutions to secure a foothold in future markets. Cisco Systems, for example, a leading manufacturer of network equipment, had recently announced a US$16 billion expansion plan into China, including investments in manufacturing, venture capital and education. Working with Chinas Ministry of Education, Cisco had established 200 Networking Academies in 70 cities in China and had trained more than 90,000 students. These types of collaborations and international research consortiums, however, raised not only logistical but also legal issues. Source code loss, software piracy and product imitations were more common in developing countries where IP protection laws (or enforcement) lagged the United States or Canada, leading to both explicit and tacit knowledge leakage. For example, despite its strong commitment to China, Nokia was recently forced to file suit against two Beijing firms for manufacturing and selling mobile phones that were a direct copy of its proprietary and legally protected industrial designs. Other large high tech companies such as Cisco and Microsoft had also suffered source code breaches. In late 2006, China Unicom, the state-run telecommunications company, had launched its own wireless e-mail service which it boldly named the Redberry, announcing that their Redberry brand not only continued the already familiar BlackBerry image and name, it also fully reflected the symbolic meaning of China Unicoms new red corporate logo.53 For much of East Asia, reverse engineering and copying foreign products were important sources of learning, helping to transition these markets from imitators of technology to innovators and competitive threats. Wormald described the difficulties with emerging market dynamics as follows:
I was just talking to a Fortune 500 CEO the other day who is closing up shop in India. This company had a 45 per cent employee turnover rate. They just walk down the street and go work for his competitor and he was tired of his source code just walking out the door.

For RIM, going global was therefore problematic on a number of fronts, most notably because the BlackBerry source code had to be protected. In addition, expanding to emerging markets was also complicated by restrictions regarding cryptographic software. Most governments, including those of Canada and the United States, along with Russia and China, regulated the import and export of encryption products due to national security issues. Encryption was seen as a dual-use technology which could have both commercial and military value and was thus carefully monitored. The U.S. government would not purchase any product that had not passed the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) certification tests. This would preclude any product that had encrypted data in China because if you encrypt data in China, you have to provide the Chinese government with the ability to access the keys. India had also recently notified RIM that it planned to eavesdrop on BlackBerry users, claiming that terrorists may be hiding behind the encrypted messages to avoid detection. Even if these hurdles could be overcome, going global also brought with it additional challenges of organizational design, communication, and integration between head office and other geographically dispersed locations. Some competitors had chosen to expand globally by product line, while others had outsourced less sensitive functions such as testing and documentation. Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary, for example, were emerging as strong contenders for quality assurance testing. The lower cost of labor in

developing and transitional economies, however, was showing signs of inflationary pressures in some locales and any planned savings might be somewhat offset by the increased monitoring, coordination and integration costs. Furthermore, RIM was not set up to manage a multi-country research consortium and the mindset in Waterloo was still very much such that core engineers needed to be seen to be perceived as valuable. On the other hand, the potential could not be ignored. In China, where the penetration rate was only 38 per cent, the Symbian OS system used in Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG smartphones enjoyed a 68.7 per cent share, and iPhone sales had reached 400,000 unlocked units. In India, where the penetration rate stood at 21 per cent, Virgin Mobile had recently struck a brand franchise agreement with Tata Teleservices, announcing plans to gain at least 50 million young subscribers to its mobile services, generating estimated revenues of US$350 billion. The sheer number of potential new users was overwhelming.

CONCLUSION
Looking at the holiday sales numbers and the projected growth for 2008, Yach took a minute to think about the path he was on. He knew that first quarter revenue projections alone were estimated at $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion and that RIM was expecting to add another 2.2 million BlackBerry subscribers by the end of May 2008. At that rate, analysts projected that 2008 would bring at least another 70 per cent growth in sales. Furthermore, Mike Lazaridis had recently said in an interview:
If you really want to build something sustainable and innovative you have to invest in R&D. If you build the right culture and invest in the right facilities and you encourage and motivate and inspire both young and seasoned people and put them all in the right environment then it really performs for you. Its what I call sustainable innovation. And its very different from the idea that you come up with something and then maximize value by reducing its costs. But building a sustainable innovation cycle requires an enormous investment in R&D. You have to understand all the technologies involved.

Yach knew that his software developers were key to RIMs continued success; he was committed to delivering on the expectations for continued and sustainable growth in 2008 and beyond. Although he wanted to keep growing organically, sourcing talent locally and bringing his engineers into the cultural fold of RIM in Waterloo, he suspected this era was ending. In light of the unprecedented and exponential growth of the last year, coupled with the increasing competition and untapped global opportunities, he needed a plan. Leaving the office after a hectic and frenetic first day back, Yach thought to himself How can I plan for this growth when it is just one of 10 burning issues on my agenda? We cant take a time-out to decide how to execute the growth. Grabbing the sales numbers to prepare for tomorrows meeting, Yach knew he had the evening to consider the way ahead. The vacation was definitely over.