RIM is now a textbook case of Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy (http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html) in action. Group one, the goal seekers, have been or are being forced out or converted to members of group two, the organization supporters. Those anonymous letters coming from the current and former employees? Just desperate attempts from group one employees to be heard over the crushing silence of the group two management structure.

Don't expect RIM's fortunes to turn around any time soon. Only a catastrophic business failure is going to shake up the management structure. With RIM's financials and market position, it could be years before that event comes to pass. Even then, there's no guarantee that RIM would really make a recovery. Most likely RIM will be absorbed by a larger competitor (and the current RIM top brass removed) before anything like real business failure can occur.

It's so painful to watch this. RIM has really made some great products and services.

I know a RIM exec personally (and leave it at that) and he mocked my iPhone for several years, calling it "fragile" and a "toy for children".

It's been only in the past month or so that he muttered something about the competition getting tough lately.

It just seems RIM leadership is extremely arrogant and proud. They see the train coming right at them, but are too afraid to make the radical blue ocean product that's required to save them.

One thing that struck me as interesting is in the second letter, section 6:

There is so much secrecy in the company, no one knows anything about new things until we see it on the news. That means we’re not able to tell our friends and family anything about new things, and that reflects badly on RIM.

Is the reason it works for Apple so well and not for RIM because people anticipate Apple products more (i.e. the products are better), or because Apple are better at showbusiness, or both of the above, or something else?

I for one, despite being a huge Blackberry fan, never even realised there was any secrecy ahead of launches, I've never anticipated new product announcements or put much thought into what they would be.

Side thought: I've watched a lot of companies become horrible places to work because of process strangulation. The problem is a small, vocal group saying how much better life would be with one more piece of information...

The way I combat that is by documenting what is working right and determining what I don't want to change. Your process requirements then become "Learn/Enable/Etc this" and "Leave that unaffected".

It becomes surprisingly good at checking rampant process growth because you have an anchor.

This internal drama is blowing my mind.

Here's what's wrong, RIM: you're not presenting your products right. Your business audience doesn't care that the PlayBook has true multitasking, nor do they care that there's Flash on-board. They want a device to manage their emails and make running their business easier.

And the BlackBerry is really sad to see in my eyes. You buy this nice software company and their HTML5 browser, and then put it in a crappy phone that has half the specs of the competition? You have so much potential, I can see it and feel it... but you're not utilising your resources properly. Study the iPhone and Android and see why they're popular.

BGR's original leaked letter mentioned that RIM was advertising its products wrong. I agree completely. Whenever I see a RIM ad, I just shake my head. They really aren't advertising the right things. They're putting good things like BBM aside.

I don't have a RIM device, but almost all of my co-workers do. I like my iPhone, and I'm not trying to sound like an idiotic fanboy, but RIM: I used to respect you a lot. You ran your business very well, and your devices could have been considered revolutionary. Get your shit together.

The fact employees and even senior management have to resort to posting their thoughts about the company anonymously to another website rather than being able to talk freely within the company speaks volumes about the serious problems they have.

In my opinion, a company can only function well if there's open and honest communication.

The funny (and sad) thing is, RIM is currently limited in its options. If it responds again to these new letters, they'll just have more letters flying out. It was a huge mistake to respond to the first letter, no matter what they could have said.

Interestingly, I would hope the RIM employees who've written this letter (and the guy who wrote the first letter) would've started shorting stock. If RIM responds again, I'm sure as hell doing it.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=rim

I bet there are a lot of people out there that see parallels between RIM and the companies they work for. Sadly, I don't think RIM is in any way unique and is more the norm than the exception.

Sounds like business as usual at a BigCo (founded in 1984).

RIM makes excellent business phones. My BB is tougher than most and the keyboard is excellent. Exchange integration works. As a private iPhone user I want apps. As a corporate BB user I just want something that is tough and works.

They should not try to be a better Apple than Apple.

Focus on their market.

Does Angry Birds run on the Playbook? I bought a Gtablet (display sucks, but otherwise a powerful device). First thing anyone does when they try it out is to look for Angry Birds.

I'm getting the feeling the Playbook's selling point is "We don't need a youtube app, you can just browse YouTube inline!"

The comments to this can almost be titled "Strategies for Effective Leadership". Whether I agree with all of them or not the discussion is quite thought-provoking and makes me wonder what lessons can be learned to apply at my current company.

A more democratic company structure would probably help with these issues. It seems that a dictatorial structure allows the top execs to ignore all the underlings, to ignore the little people who actually do much of the work.

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Revolution in Motion. (or as another comment has it Research in Mutiny).

RIM forgot it's target market. Their ads are showing too many teens/family - gotta focus on their business market, and be the best at that.