Entrepreneurship: Skills and Strategies of Mike Lazaridis

This article discusses the entrepreneurial skills and strategies of Mike Lazaridis, a renowned Canadian entrepreneur. It explores his background, entrepreneurial skills, opportunity recognition, competitive advantages, and recommendations for developing entrepreneurial skills. The article highlights Lazaridis' contributions to the Canadian society and his involvement in the computing sector through the Quantum Valley Investment Fund.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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Name of the Student:
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Executive Summary
Entrepreneurship is identified as a global phenomenon which has been occurring in developed as
well as developing countries. It has been noted that local economic as well as cultural factors are
likely to influence new ventures. Furthermore, it has been noted that entrepreneurship both in
relation to new venture creation as well as promoting an entrepreneurial orientation within
current organizations has been related to the prosperity of regions or nations. Moreover,
entrepreneurship proficiently establish new ventures along with elevating the amount of
economic performance and further generating value and employment. The paper has offered
significant insights to the way one of the renowned entrepreneurs in Canada has gained
substantial recognition through his innovative entrepreneurial skills and strategies.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Background of Mike Lazaridis....................................................................................................3
Mike Lazaridis Entrepreneurship Skills......................................................................................4
Entrepreneurial Skills of Mike Lazaridis.....................................................................................5
Opportunity recognition and idea development..........................................................................6
Competitive Advantages generated by Mike Lazaridis...............................................................7
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Entrepreneurial development recently has become highly significant in view of being a
key to economic development. The objectives of industrial development, regional expansion and
employment generation rely significantly on entrepreneurial development (Dees 2017).
Entrepreneurs are thus recognized as the seeds of industrial development as well as productive
outcomes of industrial development and thus facilitate the increase in per capita income.
According to Drucker (2014), entrepreneurship is the process of actions of an entrepreneur who
typically seeks innovation and creativity and further exploits ideas into productive opportunities
by accepting risks as well as uncertainty with the enterprise. The following paper will focus on
the entrepreneurial skills of a leading Canadian entrepreneur Mike Lazaridis, who has gained
substantial recognition through his innovative entrepreneurial skills and strategies.
Discussion
Background of Mike Lazaridis
Mike (Mihal) Lazaridis has shown immense creativity and imagination to his
entrepreneurial skills and strategies. Belonging to a Greek family, Mike at the age of 12 won an
award for his academic interest in science in the Windsor Public Library. Reports of Ensign and
Farlow (2016) have revealed that the co-founder of Blackberry makers Research in Motion
supervises a company which is still emerging and is maintaining its pace with innovations from
its competitors like Apple’s iPhone and other smart phone makers. Mason and Brown (2014)
have noted that since founding RIM, Lazaridis has strategically registered several patents and

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further attained considerable recognition for his creativity and innovations in wireless technology
as well as software for his philanthropy.
Mike Lazaridis Entrepreneurship Skills
Several nations distinguish the economic impact of entrepreneurs and endorse
entrepreneurial performance. Social network theorists have argued that the structure of an
individual’s social relationships establishes quantity of information, information excellence and
the way increasingly individuals can obtain the information essential to explore entrepreneurial
opportunities. Comprehensive studies of Marx and Hsu (2015) shed light on Weber’s
sociological entrepreneurial theory which states that resource availability and cultural
environment both are likely to influence the dominant quality of entrepreneurship. According to
Ensign and Farlow (2016), lack of resources will typically facilitate the development of
entrepreneurship due to necessity or low quality entrepreneurship. Furthermore, reports of
Yitshaki and Kropp (2016) have stated that shortage of national economic resources results to
shortage of constructive employment. Social economic motivations in comparison entail that
considerable part of rewards to social entrepreneurship are in positive social outputs typically
relate to an increase in generalized social capital. Studies of Barringer (2015) have noted that
social entrepreneurs highly rely on public funding emphasizing that social entrepreneurs must
possess competencies of classical political entrepreneurs. These draw significance to an extent
that they will gain the ability to negotiate most effective provision for their project and will be
able to accomplish the demands and needs of the society.
Drawing relevance to these factors Muthukumar, Ramakrishnan and Krishnamacharyulu
(2017) have shed light on the substantial contribution Mike Lazaridis has provided to the

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Canadian society. Reports of Marx and Hsu (2015) have noted that Mike Lazaridis as a
technological entrepreneur and philanthropist has undertaken around $25 million financial
investment to Wilfrid Laurier University in order to create efficient management institute which
will improve business programs and further aid the expansion of an internationally competitive
technology sector in Canada. As per Mason and Brown (2014), Lazaridis’ contribution will led
the new institution to be housed in $104 million, state of the art Global Innovation Exchange
which is approaching to the completion on University Avenue in Waterloo and has been
financially aided in part of previous $ 73.6 million investment from the province. Meanwhile,
Barringer (2015) has noted that social entrepreneurs are required to serve political as well as
economic roles while efficiently upholding notions of public welfare as well as utility. Ensign
and Farlow(2016) have suggested that the determination of value creation for social
entrepreneurship as per social entrepreneurship theory is considered as social impact and that
entrepreneurs are identified one important ‘unique breed of ladder’. It is important to note that
Mike Lazaridis despite of his retirement from RIM has proficiently continued to utilize his
unique entrepreneurial skills and proficiently influence society for betterment. Reports of Marx
and Hsu (2015) have revealed that Lazaridis has been efficiently continuing his involvement in
the computing sector through the Quantum Valley Investment Fund in which he donated around
$ 105 million. Such a substantial contribution has aided quantum computing ventures.
Entrepreneurial Skills of Mike Lazaridis
Entrepreneurship has substantial potential to aid developing nation’s economies to pursue
economic growth and prosperity. According to Yitshaki and Kropp (2016), those pioneering and
creative entrepreneurs are of utmost need and have the propensity to make the substantial
contribution to the growth of the developing nations. Furthermore, identifying the potential of

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entrepreneurship to increase national as well as regional economic development, a significant
focus has been on the role of entrepreneurship in developing economies. Reports of Davidsson
(2015) have revealed that while Blackberry has been losing substantial market share to rivals
namely Apple and Google. George et al. (2016) have noted that while Lazaridis has left his role
as RIM’s position as CEO during the loss of the company’s $ 520 million for its fiscal quarter.
However, Lazaridis exhibit greater degree of inclination towards in technology expansion.
Lazaridis further established two research institutions namely the Perimeter Institute for
Theoretical Physics which is recognized as an independent theoretical physics research institute
and the Institute for Quantum Computing that has gained considerable prominence for its high
inclination towards primary aspects of quantum mechanics in addition to their functions in
information processing which has been established within the University of Waterloo (Zahra
2015).
Opportunity recognition and idea development
Fundamental question reflects the reasons which typically lead some individuals to have
higher competencies to distinguish prospects of introducing innovative new venture. George et
al. (2016) have suggested that individuals tend to identify opportunities to launch new ventures
or develop creative ideas due to their superior access to information because of the differentiated
search behaviour or social networks. On the other hand, Marx and Hsu (2015) have offered
empirical evidence for the value of diverse social networks to idea generation within the context
of entrepreneurship. For example, Mason and Brown (2014) have noted that potential
entrepreneurs with associations which cover multiple domains of social life have explored that
new organization with greater frequency. Furthermore in the view of Lafley and Martin (2017),
several female graduates from renowned MBA program and found higher rates of transitioning

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to self-employment among associations with diverse social networks. Yitshaki and Kropp (2016)
have noted that opportunities are recognized only when individuals formulate new mechanisms
in response to available information. According to George et al. (2016), a vital cognitive process
explored by scientist related to the pattern recognition has drawn evidences to be intrinsically
related to opportunity recognition in the realm of entrepreneurship. Drawing relevance to the
psychological investigation by highlighting the fact that pattern recognition entails that
recognizing constructive patterns in complex events developments and includes identifying links
between trends, changes as well as events which tend to appear to be independent and
recognizing that these connections from an identifiable pattern ( Muthukumar, Ramakrishnan
and Krishnamacharyulu 2017).
Competitive Advantages generated by Mike Lazaridis
The practicing of attaining an ‘edge’ over competitors by providing consumers greater
value and significance either through lower costing products and services or efficiently offering
superior quality services which explain higher prices which is known as competitive advantages.
Reports of Yitshaki and Kropp (2016) have revealed that regardless of the substantial success of
Apple IPhone, RIM has successfully retained a significant position in the domain of ultra-fast-
growing smartphones business. Davidsson (2015) has noted that over the past few years, RIM
has reportedly sold over 65 million phones to its existing 28.6 million subscribers by elevating its
stock market capitalization from around $ 95 million to $ 45 million in the process. Reports of
George et al. (2016) have revealed that through Mike Lazaridis’ entrepreneurial skills, RIM has
constituted a substantial share of over 55% of the $ 12.5 billion US smart phone market.

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Recommendation
According to authors, the approaches through which entrepreneurship must be developed
relies significantly on the drive the development of social networks along with alternative
innovative funding domains for potential entrepreneurs through targeted incentives. Furthermore,
in order to develop entrepreneurial skills it is highly imperative to implement structural as well
as legal reforms in order to promote entrepreneurship by reducing expenses, administration, and
business disruption in addition to legal gaps (Ensign and Farlow 2016). Moreover, in addition to
growing rate of advanced technologies, big data, to develop superior entrepreneurial skills it is
important to establish an open access platform in order to collaborate in the areas of
entrepreneurship development.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that an individual’s ability to
generate original ideas for innovative businesses has been identified as a vital function of one’s
behavioural pattern which tend to prompt cognitive processes which extend ideas for novel
business ventures. As a result, innovative entrepreneurs are identified to relatively possess
proclivity and are likely to pose asking questions, examining, experimenting as well as
networking with diverse people. Thus, recognising the potential of entrepreneurship in order to
augment national as well as regional economic expansion which has led a number of researchers
emphasize on the role of entrepreneurship in developing financial system.

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References
Barringer, B.R., 2015. Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures. Pearson
Education India.
Davidsson, P., 2015. Entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurship nexus: A re-
conceptualization. Journal of Business Venturing, 30(5), pp.674-695.
Dees, J.G., 2017. 1 The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. In Case Studies in Social
Entrepreneurship and Sustainability(pp. 34-42). Routledge.
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Ensign, P.C. and Farlow, S., 2016. Serial entrepreneurs in the Waterloo ecosystem. Journal of
Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 5(1), p.20.
George, N.M., Parida, V., Lahti, T. and Wincent, J., 2016. A systematic literature review of
entrepreneurial opportunity recognition: insights on influencing factors. International
Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 12(2), pp.309-350.
Lafley, A.G. and Martin, R.L., 2017. Customer loyalty is overrated. Harvard Business
Review, 95(1), pp.45-54.
Marx, M. and Hsu, D.H., 2015. Strategic switchbacks: Dynamic commercialization strategies for
technology entrepreneurs. Research Policy, 44(10), pp.1815-1826.
Mason, C. and Brown, R., 2014. Entrepreneurial ecosystems and growth oriented
entrepreneurship. Final Report to OECD, Paris, 30(1), pp.77-102.

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Muthukumar, R., Ramakrishnan, L. and Krishnamacharyulu, C.S.G., 2017. Turnaround of
BlackBerry. Journal of Management Cases, p.4.
Yitshaki, R. and Kropp, F., 2016. Motivations and opportunity recognition of social
entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business Management, 54(2), pp.546-565.
Zahra, S.A., 2015. Corporate entrepreneurship as knowledge creation and conversion: The role
of entrepreneurial hubs. Small Business Economics, 44(4), pp.727-735.