Blackberry Case Study: Organisational Restructuring and Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Blackberry's organizational restructuring efforts. It examines the company's initial dual-CEO structure, the subsequent restructuring plan in 2013, and the factors contributing to its decline in market share. The report delves into the organizational structure, highlighting issues such as centralized power, lack of innovation, and failure to adapt to market changes. It evaluates the restructuring plan, focusing on the need for decentralization, market analysis, and a customer-centric approach. The report also discusses key challenges like communication gaps and workforce capabilities, offering recommendations for overcoming these issues. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of effective management, market analysis, and strategic alignment for successful organizational restructuring. The report uses references to support its claims, and the assignment brief is also provided.

ORGANISATIONAL RESTRUCTURING
A CASE OF BLACKBERRY
Student Details
1-2-2020

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Blackberry Organisational Structure..........................................................................................2
Evaluating Restructuring Plan....................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The restructuring of an organisation is done to reorganise the available resources within the
organisation so that the resources can be allocated as per the requirements and the
organisation can be led towards achieving the set goals and objectives. The restructuring
process involves an effective analysis of the available resources and setting up of goals and
objectives accordingly so that the available resource can be put to its maximum utilisation
and would be able to contribute towards organisational goals and objectives. The
restructuring at Blackberry is required to improve the organisational performance and to
overcome the issues within the organisation’s management which lead towards the
organisational downfall.
The organisational restructuring involves certain issues that are required to be effectively
analysed before implementing the plan so that any negative outcome can be avoided and the
goals or objective can be achieved effectively. The report is focused on analysing the
Blackberry’s organisational structure and the need for restructuring within the organisation,
and analysing the possible issues that the organisation would face while implementing the
restructuring plan within the organisation and the ways to overcome them.
Blackberry Organisational Structure
The organisational structure of Blackberry followed a dual CEO concept due to which the
organisation was not able to effectively perform within the industry and was not able to
provide with effective results. As a result, Blackberry suffered a massive outrage which leads
to a decline in its market share and loss of customer trust within the industry. To overcome
the effect of the downfall of the market share, Blackberry management focused on

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restructuring the organisational structure in 2013 to improve the business performance and to
able to compete within the industry (CNBC, 2013).
The restructuring of the organisational structure includes the change in structure from
following dual CEO structure to a single CEO for the organisation and introducing new
departments that would focus on the development within the industry. But the restructuring
practices at Blackberry was not able to provide the Blackberry with the desired results. As the
global market share for Blackberry accounts for 0.048 per cent which is the lowest within the
industry (Swearingen, 2017). Therefore, to improve the effectiveness of the management and
the leadership roles within the organisation it is required that the organisation should
restructure its organisation based on the market requirements and recruit the workforce that
would be able to promote the company and would lead the organisation towards achieving
business success.
The restructuring of the organisation is required, as the management team at Blackberry is
not able to analyse the market and are focusing on product development but still not able to
develop a product that would be a competitive factor for the organisation within the industry.
Blackberry is focusing on introducing a product into the market that would meet the customer
needs and expectation, but the management at Blackberry fails to estimate the future needs
and requirements and the time, Blackberry introduces a product within the market, the
competitors within the industry introduces some technological changes within the industry
due to which the company is not able to stabilize its product within the industry (Castaldo,
2012).
The organisation requires innovation within the products and the organisation process, but the
organisation structure is not well-positioned to promote innovation within the organisation.
There is a requirement of culture change within the organisation, as the employees within the
organisation are required to be held accountable for their tasks, also the culture within the

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organisation should comprise the employee engagement within the managerial activities of
the organisation. The activities within the organisation should also be focused on innovation
within the organisation.
Figure 1 Organisational Structure of Blackberry (Source: (Blackberry, 2019))
CEO
BOARD OF
ADVISORS
R&D MARKETING OPERATIONS FINANCE HR

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Figure 2 Restructuring Required
The restructuring within the organisation will help the organisation in capturing the market
share and to compete within the industry. The organisation has the existing organisational
structure that is led by the C.E.O and board of advisors of the organisation and the powers
within the organisation were centralised and held by the top-level management. The
restructuring of the organisational structure will result in the delegation of powers within the
organisation which will result in improved efficiency of employees within the organisation.
As delegating the powers within the organisation will result in increased accountability for
the employees, which will indirectly improve the performance of the employees (Lloyd,
2019).
The organisational structure will be more focused on innovation and market analysis as
compared to product-focused. The management will conduct market analysis to analyse the
current as well as future market trends and focus on the innovative changes within the
products so that they can compete within the industry. The organisation restructure will result
in implementing an effective organisational structure in which each employee within the
CEO
BOARD OF
ADVISORS
R&D
INNOVATION
MANAGEMENT
MARKETING
MARKET
ANALYST
HR
WORKFORCE
MANAGER
FINANCE
FINANCE
MANAGER
OPERATIONS
TEAMS WORKING
ON SPECIFIC
PROJECTS

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organisation will have a dedicated role and a job profile and will be held accountable for
performing his or her task on-time. Formation of various teams or groups within the
organisation is also required to improve the organisation effectiveness. As within a team, the
employees effectively interact with each other and provide innovative results that would help
the organisation in achieving its set objective and goals effectively (Kozlowski & Ilgen,
2006).
The main issue that caused the failure of Blackberry within the industry was the lack of
effectiveness of the management, to analyse the need for change within the organisation and
to implement it effectively (Sherter, 2013). The organisation restructuring will result in
improved organisation’s effectiveness to analyse the market change requirement and the
changing customer needs and wants.
Evaluating Restructuring Plan
The organisation restructure plan involves a set of activities that are required to be carried out
to ensure that the organisation has undergone all the required transformation and the activities
that will be conducted as per the set plan will lead the organisation towards achievement of
the goals and objectives (Flecker & Meil, 2010). The restructuring plan for the Blackberry
includes changing the organisation structure from a centralised structure to a decentralised
structure. Along with innovation and meeting customer expectations as the primary focus of
the organisation.
The main objective for organisation restructuring of Blackberry is to regain the lost market
share and to effectively contribute toward producing the products that would be able to
compete with the existing products within the industry. To implement the plan effectively
within the organisation, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the workforce within the
organisation is required. As an effective and dedicated workforce will be able to contribute to

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the development of the organisation. Organisational restructuring is an effective measure to
reorganise the available resources within the organisation, to improve the organisational
effectiveness and to contribute towards organisational goals (Modarres, 2010).
The process of organisational restructuring involves certain key issues which are required to
be addressed, to ensure that goals and objectives are being met effectively after the
restructuring of the organisation. The key issues faced in organisational restructuring include
the communication issues, as while restructuring an organisation it is required that the new
organisational plan and the job roles of employees are effectively communicated within the
organisation, to avoid any confusion and chaos within the organisation (Kamarudin, et al.,
2014). As the employees within the organisation play a major role in implementing any
structural change within the organisation. Therefore, it is required that they have the proper
knowledge of the changes that are being implemented within the organisation (Corkindale,
2011).
The restructuring plan also results in the poor estimation of organisational capabilities or the
available workforce. the organisational capability and the performance of the organisation are
related to each other, as with better and improved capabilities the organisation will develop
and will provide with improved results (Tuan & Yoshi, 2010). As while developing the
restructuring plan the management focus on positive aspects of the organisation and focus on
developing strategies to ensure future business growth, which leads to the issue of poor
estimation of capabilities of the organisation or the resources available, due to which the
organisation is not able to effectively achieve the goals and objectives.
The organisational structure of Blackberry involves the workforce that was not efficient
enough to predict the management changes and to contribute towards organisational
efficiency. The restructuring involves reallocating the job roles of the existing workforce
according to their capabilities so that the issues within the organisation can be resolved. The

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restructuring of the existing employees is an issue that the management face during the
process as they are required to be effectively analysed and the responsibilities are to be
allocated accordingly (Fugate, et al., 2010).
The issues if not addressed properly within the organisation results in negative results and the
failure of the restructuring objectives. Restructuring in Blackberry requires that the new
organisational structure be more focused on customer and market needs and innovation
within the organisation. Due to the above issues within the restructuring process within the
organisation, Blackberry would not be able to develop the market share and be able to meet
the set goals and objectives. To overcome such issue, it is required that the management of
the organisation focus on analysing the organisational internal capabilities and weakness
before implementing the plan within the organisation.
The management at Blackberry is required to analyse the effectiveness of the available
workforce within the organisation and should also focus on acquiring new talents that would
contribute towards organisational development. The issue of communication gap can be
addressed by ensuring that the employees are actively engaged in the process and the leaders
and the managers and different levels have a clear understanding of job roles and the business
requirements so that they can effectively communicate it to the subordinates working in the
organisation. Along with ensuring the workforce capabilities and effective communication of
information within the organisation, it is required that the management should also focus on
establishing the objectives and goals according to the organisation’s capacity to achieve
them.
Blackberry has the current financial capability of $970 million, and a strong brand name
which must be effectively utilised to lead the business towards improved performance
(Blackberry, 2019). Therefore, the strategies formed or the goals set must be according to the

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capability of the organisation to achieve them or to effectively analyse the source from where
the required resources will be gathered effectively.
Conclusion
The Blackberry organisation structure was highly centralised and focused on achieving
profits rather than focusing on their competitors or market needs and requirements. As a
result, they were not able to predict the changing market requirement and lead to downfall
within the industry. The restructuring of the organisation is required to improve the
organisation performance and to focus on developing products and service that would be able
to compete with the other products available within the market. The restructuring plan of
Blackberry includes decentralising the positions at Blackberry, and to shift the focus from
profit maximization to the product differentiation and meeting the customer’s needs and
requirements. Through effective market analysis and finding the areas that require innovation
within the industry will help Blackberry in improving its performance within the industry.
The restructuring process involves certain issues that lead towards negative results, therefore
necessary steps are required to be taken to overcome such issues and ensure the achievement
of set goals and objectives. The key issues include the communication gap within the
organisation, analysing the capabilities of the workforce and the organisational capabilities or
the availability of the resources in comparison with set objectives. Such issues can be
overcome by ensuring the effectiveness of the management within the organisation. As
effective management will be able to guide the leaders and managers how to deal with
employees and will be able to analyse the organisational capabilities and workforce
efficiency.

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References
Blackberry, 2019. BlackBerry Executive Team. [Online]
Available at: https://www.blackberry.com/us/en/company/leadership
[Accessed 31 December 2019].
Blackberry, 2019. BlackBerry Quick Facts. [Online]
Available at: https://www.blackberry.com/us/en/company/overview
[Accessed 31 December 2019].
Castaldo, J., 2012. How management has failed at RIM. [Online]
Available at: https://www.canadianbusiness.com/technology-news/how-management-has-
failed-at-rim/
[Accessed 31 December 2019].
CNBC, 2013. BlackBerry: The way forward. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2013/12/30/blackberry-ceo-heres-our-new-
strategycommentary.html
[Accessed 31 December 2019].
Corkindale, G., 2011. The Importance of Organizational Design and Structure. [Online]
Available at: https://hbr.org/2011/02/the-importance-of-organization
[Accessed 31 December 2019].
Flecker, J. & Meil, P., 2010. Organisational restructuring and emerging service value chains:
implications for work and employment. Work, employment and society, 24(4), pp. 680-698.
Fugate, M., Prussia, G. E. & Kinicki, A. J., 2010. Managing Employee Withdrawal During
Organizational Change: The Role of Threat Appraisal. Journal of Management, 38(3), pp.
890-914.

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Kamarudin, M. F., Starr, K., Abdullah, A. N. & Husain, K., 2014. Communicating Change in
Organizational Restructuring: A Grounded Theory Case Study☆. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 155(1), pp. 496-501.
Kozlowski, S. W. & Ilgen, D. R., 2006. Enhancing the Effectiveness of Work Groups and
Teams. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 7(3), pp. 77-124.
Lloyd, S., 2019. Managers Must Delegate Effectively to Develop Employees. [Online]
Available at: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-
employee-development/pages/delegateeffectively.aspx
[Accessed 31 December 2019].
Modarres, M., 2010. Reorganization: Contingent Effects of Changes in the Ceo and
Structural Complexity. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 9(1), pp. 95-110.
Sherter, A., 2013. For BlackBerry leaders, success paved way for failure. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/for-blackberry-leaders-success-paved-way-for-
failure/
[Accessed 31 December 2019].
Swearingen, J., 2017. BlackBerry Now Controls 0.0 Percent of the Smartphone Market.
[Online]
Available at: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/02/blackberrys-global-market-share-is-
now-0-0.html
[Accessed 31 December 2019].
Tuan, N. P. & Yoshi, T., 2010. Organisational Capabilities, Competitive Advantage and
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15(1), pp. 1-21.