MBA 571 Summer 2019: Blackberry Operations Management Analysis Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Blackberry's operations management, focusing on the company's failure to adapt to market changes and maintain innovation. The executive summary highlights Blackberry's inability to identify its position in the economy and adapt to disruptive innovation, leading to a decline in market share. The report explores Blackberry's outdated business model, core competencies, and critical skills, emphasizing the lack of innovation in its marketing strategies. It also identifies inefficiencies in execution, such as communication gaps and delayed product launches. The analysis includes a comparison of Blackberry's market share with competitors like Android and IOS, illustrating the importance of continuous innovation. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for Blackberry to refocus on hardware and adapt to changing consumer demands. The report uses supporting evidence such as market share data to support the claims made throughout the analysis.

Running head: Operations management
Operations management
Name of student
Course name
Course ID

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Operations management
Executive summary
The company Blackberry has failed to identify the position within the economy as
they were unable to bring in the quality level of innovation within their operation and
business process. The company has, however, failed to identify the gaps in the marketing of
their products and it has been seen that most of the other companies in the android market are
overcoming the market of Apple and IOS. Through the innovation of disruptive innovation,
the company aimed to increase its money return and market share. The company failed to
identify the change that would have definitely improved their position. They have not
successfully invested innovative strategies in the form of making a better quality of
smartphones. In fact, the Apple Company has faced the loss in the development of the
business due to lack of innovation in the form of high class of change. Most of the companies
belonging in the smartphone industry have the USP of both hardware and software. Even the
weight of the phones nowadays can be a big problem for the customers and Blackberry was
continuously having faulty keyboards and other perspectives. Through the brand image and
brand loyalty, most of the brands face better economies of scale and market the products in a
better and uplifting way. Part of the strategy, the blackberry company, said that they would
launch the BBM messenger in both android and IOS platforms, but someone had leaked
unreleased versions with 1.1 million active members. In order to restrict customer trust, the
Blackberry Company had to stop the launch of the BBM messenger. The competencies that
are going to be developed within the smartphone market due to the existence of the Android
market. The acquisition of Blackberry by Fairfax Financial Holding for $4.7 billion has made
the situation worse. This has made the company lose about $950-$995 million.

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1.0 Introduction
From the point of view of modern business, Canada has felt the consequences of the
lack of innovation in the development of the resources. Most of the companies that have been
originated in Canada is not following the trend of change much. Most of the business
advisors are claiming the fact that in order to increase the position of their business, in the
long run, innovation is highly essential but this tendency of change is missing in case of
Canada. Moreover, through the utilisation of resources, both private and public companies
can bring in high quality of innovation that will definitely help in the growth of business. The
study has taken the example of Blackberry as the organisation to highlight the importance of
change in the existence models of business in the market. Due to a lack of innovation, the
Blackberry Company vanished from smartphone manufacturing.
2.0 Explain an organization’s business model
The business model of Blackberry is outdated. Throughout the span of their business
tenure, they did not think of bringing innovation in their marketing. Even they have not done
anything to improve the existing models and equipment. Apart from this, the reduction of
workforce in Blackberry occurred to be almost at 40%. The acquisition of Blackberry by
Fairfax Financial Holding for $4.7 billion has made the situation worse. This has forced the
company to lose about $950-$995 million (Beaulieu et al. 2014). During the period of 2012-
2013, the IOS and OS version smartphones were new things that the market was expecting to
be brought. Prior to this, the Blackberry Company was well known in the smartphone market
for bringing in first QWERTY keypad phone (BlackBerry Mobile, 2019). The latest
smartphone Z30 was about to run on BB10 OS version 10.2. Z30 and as per the makers it was
expected that this phone would definitely fill the gap of falling sales of BB10 phones. It has
only shipped 2.7 million phones out of 6.8 million units that the company has manufactured.

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Slowly the demand was falling, and rising inventory of phones forced the company to face
the loss of around $960 million.
The company needed something special out of the box in order to maintain their brand
reputations in the OS version of smartphones as they brought in the concept of QWERTY
keyboard. Initially, the company had lots of defects in the production and marketing of their
smartphones (Schwaag Serger & Wise, 2016). They even did not paid much attention in
developing new platforms that could have tackled the heat wave of iPhone and android based
smartphones. Merely, in one year, Android smartphones took over the reign within the
smartphone industry, even in Canada.
2Q 2013 2Q 2012
units in 1000
% of the
total
units in
1000
% of
the
total
Android 177898.2 79 98664 64.2
ios 31899.7 14.2 28935 18.8
Microsoft 7407.6 3.3 4039.1 2.6
Blackberr
y 6180 2.7 7991.2 5.2
Table 1: market share comparison of Blackberry
(Source: Snowdon, 2015)
The above chart is clearly showing the fact that in order to increase their productivity
and market share, it is essential to bring in a continuous level of innovation. In 2012, in the
second quarter, Blackberry was the company with the highest number of smartphones being

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sold. The percentage of market share was around 5.2%, and the whole scenario got reversed
in the second quarter of 2013. In the year 2013, the market share of Blackberry was down by
2.7% (Steele et al.2014). Through the incorporation of better amount of policies and
technologies, the whole company should have taken the strategy of merging their stakes with
some big giants of smartphone markets so that they could have learned much new technique
of marketing the products. This was important in the sense that through this, the employees of
the company would have learned new skills and technology.
It is essential for all the business house to predict the downfall. It has been seen that
Blackberry had the potential, but they could not use that potentiality to the fullest. In spite of
that, they kept on bringing in new products in the market without knowing the future demand
of the customers. On the other hand, through the incorporation of activities like forecasting of
demand would have definitely helped in the implementation of better marketing of the
products. Taking the innovative process using disruptive and sustaining technologies,
Blackberry will be able to identify the development of resources so that new products can be
built over. Moreover, with the incorporation of disruptive technologies, the blackberry should
have brought in new strategies that will definitely go through the innovation in the process
and product thinking.
3.0 Identify core and critical competencies
Core and critical skills of the company lies in launching of Android and IOS platform
smartphones in the market. Through the incorporation of better business strategies, it is
crucial for the company to bring in more amount of innovation in the technologies and the
marketing of the products. In order to indulge the development of marketing, the blackberry
should had taken the help of new technologies once they are lying on the break-even point.
One of the essential aspects that have seen in case of Blackberry is that lack of
communication level within the managers, and this is the main reason why the company is

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mainly felt to realise the number of rising inventories (Varpio et al. 2014). Even the
Blackberry phones were not supporting many applications that could have boosted the social
media connection of the people. Though the makers of blackberry claimed that BBM is easy
to use and later one the delay in launching made the mess. Part of the strategy, the blackberry
company, said that they would start the BBM messenger in both android and IOS platforms,
but someone had leaked unreleased versions with 1.1 million active members. In order to
restrict customer trust, the Blackberry Company had to stop the launch of the BBM
messenger. The competencies that are going to be developed within the smartphone market
due to the existence of Android market. Now in order to indulge the development of
competition, it is highly recommended that Blackberry Company should have satisfied the
development of better policies in the form of making operating platform stable.
Microsoft started to launch their Windows phone, and the phone had a high competition for
the phones that have been built up by Blackberry. This is one of the critical reason behind the
vanish of Blackberry from the market of smartphones. The windows phone had high
competition, and it was essential in the sense that through the incorporation of merging with
windows, the blackberry could have survived the heat wave. However, the launch of
Whatsapp is becoming more and more popular within the group of customers. Though they
claimed that they would charge a nominal fee after one year and in spite of that, they claimed
the number one spot in social media marketing. In order to identify the future direction of the
company, it is crucial for the company to indulge in forecasting the future and the consumer
demand for the products.
Throughout the tenure within the smartphone industry, the company failed to initialise
the innovation. Lack of opportunities for research and development is mainly going to deal
with the crisis more in the future. Even the entrepreneurs living in Canada were not so highly
skilled in adopting new technologies and bringing new kind of innovations that will bring in a

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high class of products in the form of design and marketing of the products. Through
innovation, it is highly beneficial to bring in a more improved version of the smartphone
market. They should have used the opportunity of bringing their products with a better level
of OS platform. Not only BBM but the keypad of most of their phones were having issues,
and customers had complained against them. They even did not try to look into the customer
complaints seriously, and it was highly predicted by technical analysts that Blackberry would
face problems in marketing. Moreover, disruptive innovation basically arises from defective
products. Blackberry should not bring any faulty products in the market that would have
increased the problems in the whole economics activities (Christensen, 1997).
4.0 Inefficiencies in execution
Apart from bringing in a high class of technologies, the Blackberry Company did not look
into bringing in a better process of implementation. Most employees working in the company
were not aware of the products that can increase customer demand in the world of
smartphones, and it was necessary for the incorporation of resources. Mostly, the company
faced turmoil as they were losing the customer ground in terms of the products and
marketing. The delay in the launch of the products has proved that there has been a lack of
communications among the marketing department and the technical team (Roy, 2016). Many
times it has been seen that the company has announced something and the professional team
failed to deliver the products. Most recently, the company is still getting more revenue in the
form of selling its software and outsourcing their licenses. Now in order to make a strong
comeback, they have to focus now on the most important thing is that they have to refocus on
the hardware which was the main reason behind the downfall of the company (Rosenbloom et
al. 2016). Most of the companies that have been growing their business in the world of
Smartphone is that they have focussed on building a hardware-based on moulded products.

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The current status of the company is that it is relying heavily on the selling of
software across other companies. Blackberry introduced the software called Jarvis that
actually helps in finding security flaws within the vehicles. They have focussed on the
development of security system within the automobile industry and is hopeful that the
implementation of the security system within the automobile industry is definitely going be
the main USP of the Company (Medhora et al. 2017). The company needed to identify their
own sets of resources so that the employees could have been given training based on the
purpose. It is an essential aspect for the Blackberry Company about the marketing of products
from the Google-based smartphone manufacturing company (MacLean et al.2019). From the
point of view of Blackberry, it has been seen that the main factor is the lack of innovation
within the inventories forecasting of the company.
On the other hand, one time, the Blackberry phones were highly preferred by most of the
celebrities, and in order to hold back the customer valuation, it is essential for the company to
identify their potential base of the customers. Through the incorporation of better investment,
it is highly recommended that Blackberry failed to maximise their potential support of the
customers (Jordaan et al. 2017). This is an essential sign as increasing the design of the
products as per the customer level satisfaction. It is an important phenomenon, and it has
been seen highly subdued for Blackberry to sustain in the economy.
5.0 Organization’s use of technology supports the execution
The advent of modern technology was not being used by Blackberry. Techniques in the form
of online marketing and social media marketing were not done by the company. The
company failed to utilise the power of social media as the WhatsApp when was about to
launch, gathered the level of importance of the ordinary people through the social media
platform. Through the increment of developed and well-skilled employees, the company
would have paid better solutions to the problem of lack of consumer demand (MacLean et al.

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2019). If they would have taken a survey from the customers regarding the preference of
design, then they would have understood the importance of android based platform. Through
the incorporation of better improvement of economic activities, the company while making
marketing of the products the Blackberry failed to identify the requirements of the company
as well as for the customers (Glor, 2014). Most of the companies bring innovations in the
production, allocation of resources and even marketing of products.
Most of the companies belonging in the smartphone industry have the USP of both hardware
and software. Even the weight of the phones nowadays can be a big problem for the
customers and Blackberry was continuously having faulty keyboards and other perspectives.
Through the brand image and brand loyalty, most of the brands face better economies of scale
and market the products in a better and uplifted way (Edwards-Schachter & Wallace, 2017).
Through the incorporation of better building up of customer base, the loyalty will increase
gradually. Through the involvement of resources, it has been highly intoxicated that through
the development of better quality of products, the company is mainly going to highlight the
event of factors that will help in the business.
Moreover, it has been severely induced that in order to indulge the business
development will bring in a better quality of resources. On the other hand, resource
channelization is an important concept that will mainly help the Blackberry Company to
build up a strong wall of customer satisfaction (Chowhan et al. 2017). In order to indulge the
development of the software of the smartphones, the Blackberry will definitely satisfy the
improvement in the distribution of resources that too in an efficient way that would bring a
high base of customers. Products based on disruptive technologies are typically cheaper,
simpler, smaller, and, frequently, more convenient to use.

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Figure 1: investment in R&D in Canada
(Source: Nationalpost.com, 2019)
The above diagram is showing Canada is having almost half of the investments compared to
the United States and OECD countries. Now in order to determine the development of R&D,
it is required to have better identification of resources and requirement for the tremendous
amount of R&D. Now in order to indulge the development of accessibility, it is essential to
have a high class of economic resources. Through the development of the upper end of raw
materials, it is essential for the company to forecast the level of financial capitals that will
definitely bring in high quality of smartphones (Chowdhury & Odame, 2014). Most of the
companies doing business in the smartphone industry, outsource the technologies regarding
the software and in doing that they bring an intercross of skills and up-gradation of
knowledge.

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6.0 Conclusion
The whole study has come to the conclusion that in order to increase the marketing share in
the business of smartphones, Blackberry lost the significant parts of the ground, due to lack
of innovation in the design and technologies of the product that was used in the
manufacturing of products. The smartphones that were being manufactured were so much
faulty that the customers were not so satisfied. Now, most of the companies like Apple and
Samsung are solely taking up the smartphone market-topping over, Blackberry. This is one of
the alarming situations, for the companies that are dealing with the smartphone industry
should bring in high quality of technologies and should bring continuous innovations.
Through the development of a better level of communication along with the managers and
technical department will definitely help in the improvement of marketing. Blueberry
Company actually lacked that level of open communication.

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Reference list
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Canada has failed at innovation for 100 years. Can the Trudeau government change that?.
(2019). Retrieved 10 August 2019, from
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can-the-trudeau-government-change-that
Chowdhury, A., & Odame, H. H. (2014). Social media for enhancing innovation in agri-food
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Christensen, C. M. (2013). The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause
significant firms to fail. Harvard Business Review Press.
Edwards-Schachter, M., & Wallace, M. L. (2017). ‘Shaken, but not stirred’: Sixty years of
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