Analysis of Blackberry's Innovation and Technology Challenges

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Blackberry's current market position, challenges, and strategic approaches. It utilizes several analytical frameworks, including Porter's Five Forces, stakeholder analysis, Porter's Value Chain, PESTEL, SWOT, the three phases of innovation model, and McKinsey 7S model, to assess the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The analysis delves into the competitive landscape, examining the intensity of rivalry, the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, and the threats of potential entrants and substitutes. Furthermore, the report explores Blackberry's internal operations, marketing strategies, and technological advancements, highlighting areas where the company has lagged behind competitors. The report also examines the company's stakeholders, both strategic and normative, and assesses the impact of political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors on Blackberry's performance. Finally, the report provides insights into Blackberry's technology cycle and innovation processes, including the era of ferment, incremental changes, and the three phases of innovation. The report concludes with an overview of the McKinsey 7S model, analyzing the hard and soft elements crucial to Blackberry's success.

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Table of Contents
Discussion..................................................................................................................................5
Porter Five Force Model........................................................................................................5
Degree of Existing Rivalry.................................................................................................5
Threats of potential Entrants..............................................................................................5
Bargaining Power of Suppliers..........................................................................................6
Bargaining Power of Buyers..............................................................................................6
Threats of Substitutes.........................................................................................................7
Stakeholders Analysis............................................................................................................7
Strategic Stakeholder Analysis..........................................................................................7
Normative Stakeholder Analysis........................................................................................7
Porter Value Chain Model.....................................................................................................8
Primary Activities..............................................................................................................8
Supportive Activities..........................................................................................................9
PESTEL Analysis...................................................................................................................9
Political Factors..................................................................................................................9
Economic Factors.............................................................................................................10
Social factors....................................................................................................................10
Technological Issues........................................................................................................10
Environmental factors......................................................................................................10
Legal factors.....................................................................................................................11
SWOT Analysis...................................................................................................................11

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Strength............................................................................................................................12
Weakness..........................................................................................................................12
Opportunities....................................................................................................................12
Threats..............................................................................................................................13
Technology Cycle................................................................................................................13
Era of ferment..................................................................................................................13
Era of Incremental changes..............................................................................................13
Three phases of Innovation Model.......................................................................................14
Fluid phase.......................................................................................................................14
Transitional phase............................................................................................................14
Specific Phases.................................................................................................................14
McKinsey 7s Model.............................................................................................................14
Hard Element...................................................................................................................14
Soft Element.....................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................16

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Introduction
Blackberry, considered to be one of the leading brands in mobile technology, has come across
a severe downfall in several genres. Innovation and technological advancement has been the
lagging point for Blackberry, as there is no up-gradation in terms of software. Another case
of concern is definitely the high prices that is charged to the customer. This paper studies the
analysis of the current conditions of Blackberry by referring to Porter five force model,
stakeholder analysis, porter value chain model, PESTLE, SWOT, three phases innovation
model, McKinsey 7s model

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Discussion
Porter Five Force Model
Porter five-force analysis is a strategic framework, which is used to make a market
analysis of the attractiveness of organisation structure.
Degree of Existing Rivalry
It indicates the intensity of competition among the existing companies in the market.
Apple and Samsung are two major tech company in the mobile industry. These two
companies are near of the same size. They have similar products and have the same
marketing strategy. Therefore, the competition among the existing rivalry is very high. Not
only Samsung and Apple, but there are also many competitors are present in the recent
market such as as- Xiaomi, LG, One+ and many more. Samsung and Apple these two
company is controlling 50% of the market in the mobile industry (Bala, Sharma and Kaur
2015). Thus, Blackberry has faced a massive pressure of rivalry from Apple, Samsung and
other competitors.
Threats of potential Entrants
In the case of Blackberry, the threats of potential entrants are moderate because the barrier
to enter this industry is very high. Already Samsung, Apple, LG, Xiaomi capture the whole
industry and all are the top leading brand in this sector. Developing an innovative platform
and technology is a very costly process, both money and time-wise.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
In the case of Blackberry, the Bargaining power of suppliers are also very high
because nowadays, the demand for the smartphone is very high. In recent, many smartphone
companies are available in the market. Therefore, there are a lot of companies for suppliers to
sell their raw materials to. Blackberry is not their only priority.

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Bargaining Power of Buyers
The bargaining power of customers in case of Blackberry is high. Technology and
features of the smartphone are important to the customer. The Buyers of Blackberry are not
price sensitive. Blackberry’s product diversification is low within the mobile industry
(Cecere, Corrocher and Bhattaglia 2015).Therefore, buyers can find another smartphone
company to purchase their products. This makes stronger the bargaining power of the buyers
within the telecommunication industry. The abundance of choices for smartphone devices is
also one of the significant reason for high bargaining power.
Others
Threats of Substitutes
At present, many substitute products are available in the market. The customers can easily
switch to alternatives products. Therefore, substitutes are threats to Blackberry. Technologies
and innovation in the smartphone industry develop fast. Thus, it is the very easiest process for
buyers to find alternatives of the smartphone in a very short period.
Black
berry
xiaomi
Apple
Samsung
LG
Cluster of Buyers

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Stakeholders Analysis
Strategic Stakeholder Analysis
A stakeholder is any people or group, which can affected by a business organisation.
Stakeholders of Blackberry could include –Executive staff, marketing, sales, consultants, the
heads of all affected business unit. In this section, blackberry firstly identifies their all
stakeholders and analyzing their basic needs.
Normative Stakeholder Analysis
A normative stakeholder is those who are not directly engaged in economic transactions with
the organisation. Communities, Media, Business support groups, public, Government all are
the normative stakeholders of Blackberry. The interests of stakeholders have intrinsic value.
Normative stakeholder analysis can be used to study ethical issues.

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Porter Value Chain Model
Primary Activities
Primary Activities Explanation
Inbound Logistics The Company’s most of the core work done in Ottawa ( Canada’s capital)
Operations  Research and development are done in Waterloo
 Technology and products are operated by USA and UK
Outbound logistics  Blackberry offices are located in Europe, North America and Asia
 Subsidiaries are located in England and Delaware
Marketing and sales  Marketing and sales office are located in France, Italy, Australia, Hong Kong ,
Japan, China and Germany
 Celebrity endorsement
 Partnership with a wireless company such as- Verizon and Rogers
 Improving online product distribution and developing a relationship with large
national reseller.
Service  The customer service centre is located in Singapore
 Offering 24x7 hours support for customers around the word
 Focused on quality assurance, regularity compliance and consumer satisfaction.
Supportive Activities
Supportive Activities Explanation
Firm infrastructure  Blackberry’s organisational culture was very adaptability, flexibility and
ability to work collectively which creates a dynamic and good working
environment
 The company mainly focused on product quality
HR  Blackberry mainly recruits local people
Technology Development  R & D cell was the heart of Blackberry
 Merged with the software developer to offering popular game
 Push technology
Procurement Blackberry connected with Blackberry mobile data system, blackberry solution
service, Blackberry alliance program

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL analysis for Blackberry Limited is a strategic framework to analyse the
macro environment of this organisation. These factors can have an effective impact on
Blackberry Company and also impact on other smartphone companies in the expanded
communication services.
Political Factors
The political issues play a significant role in determining the company’s long-term
profitability in various country. This company is operating its diversified telecommunication
services in more than 12 countries. Different country poses different political norms.
Blackberry expose itself to various types of political risks. The Company faced lots of
political pressure. The company Blackberry is mainly Canada based, but their most of the
factories are located in Hungary and Mexico. These are one of the significant reason for lack
of consistency in a quality product. The country like- India, South Korea and Dubai where
the political environment is highly unstable and affected by frequent changes. This type of
unbalanced governing structure affects blackberry.
Economic Factors
Innovation and technological advancement has been the lagging point for Blackberry, as
there is no up-gradation in terms of software. The profit of Blackberry is declining day to day
because of its competitors. Many telecommunication brands are available in the market, and
they offer the same technologies and features at the lower prices. Price is the significant
factors for those customers who are facing financial strain. Economic condition is not the
same in all countries. The company will gain profit in the market when economic anxiety is
lessened (Jaswal et al. 2016).

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Social factors
The company Blackberry does use many various social media that include- Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram and Flickr. However, their own blogs help their consumer to sort out
many difficulties and issues. Blackberry Company needs to be fully aware of environmental
protection and health standard. In the case of Blackberry, the existence on the social platform
is decidedly stronger than other rival competitors in the industry.
Technological Issues
Technology is one of the significant issues. In the case of blackberry, their technology
is not upgraded. Innovation and technological advancement has been the lagging point for
Blackberry, as there is no up-gradation in terms of software (Schroeder 2013).
Environmental factors
Various organisations hold a different standard of environmental protection. The ethical
customers are increasing in the present day. Blackberry produces its products under the
consideration of social and environmental factors. Blackberry produces a massive amount of
waste; it may include a legal fine for environmental pollution (Faustine 2015). This is one of
the main reason for financial strain of the Blackberry.
Legal factors
The Company does face many legal penalties. These approvals do include – Not sharing
consumers information to any third party or other telecommunication services for privacy
issues. Still, Blackberry is top leading brand in the telecommunication industry because of its
great strategies.

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
SWOT Analysis
Strength
 In the present time, information and data hacking is very prominent. Blackberry
introduced its smartphone with a high-secured encrypted network (Caushaj et al.
2013). For that, reason this company being the best choice for many govt.
 Qwerty keypad is one of the main attracting features by which the company locks its
potential customer
 Blackberry provides asset box with GPS. Thus, the box can measure humidity
pressure, temperature and location.
STRENGTHS
Highly secure Smartphone
High focus on narrow consumer segments
Qwerty keypad
Asset Tracking Box
WEAKNESS
Poor existence in the tablet market
Highly depend on corporate and
Government contracts
Product diversification
Poor Branding
Limited Apps
OPPORTUNITIES
High demand of tablets and smartphone in
the market
Increasing demand of cloud base services.
Increase presence in developing nations
THREATS
Rapid technology changes
Saturated market in smartphone industry
Many competitors are available in the
market
Lack of technological improvement
SWOT ANALYSIS OF
BLACKBERRY

Running head: INNOVTION AND TECHNOLOGY
Weakness
 The company was a top market leader before Apple and Samsung entrance in to the
market, but now, Blackberry was unable to build its popularity due to lack of
marketing efforts.
 Blackberry offers a limited amount of application on its application stores, that turns
makes the company unattractive (Jurevicius, 2019).
 Nowadays, the demand for tablets is very high. The poor existence in tablet market
decreases the company’s profitability
Opportunities
 Now the demand for the tablets is very high. It is one of the excellent opportunity for
the company to capture a large market share
 Nowadays most of the customers prefer cloud base service such as- Google drive,
Apple’s i-cloud and many more. If blackberry provides this service to its consumer,
then demand of the Blackberry gradually increases. It is one of the excellent
opportunity for Blackberry for growing their market demand.
Threats
 The technology is rapidly changing in this industry. If blackberry is unable to keep
upgrade then the company is likely to suffer much.
 Many smartphone companies are available in the market. Therefore, the level of
competition is very high. It is also a significant threat to this company.