It was a classic modern business story: two Canadian entrepreneurs build an iconic brand that would forever change the way we communicate. From its humble beginnings in an office above a bagel store in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry outsmarted the global giants with an addictive smartphone that generated billions of dollars. Its devices were so ubiquitous that even President Barack Obama favoured them above all others. But just as it was emerging as the dominant global player, BlackBerry took a dramatic turn.
Losing the Signal is the riveting, never-before-told story of one of the most spectacular technological upsets of the 21st century. Unlike Enron, which was undone by its executives' illegal activities, or Lehman Brothers, which collapsed as part of a larger global banking crisis, BlackBerry's rise and fall is a modern-day tale of the unrelenting speed of success and failure. It is a thrilling account of how two mismatched CEOs outsmarted more-powerful competitors with a combination of innovation and sharp-elbowed tactics; and how, once on top of the world, they lost their way. The company responded too slowly to competitors' innovations, and when it finally made its move, it stumbled with delayed, poorly designed and unpopular smartphones. A little more than a decade after Research In Motion introduced the BlackBerry, it is now struggling to survive. Its share of the US phone market fell from 50 per cent in 2009 to about one percent in 2013, showing just how aggressive, fast and unforgiving today's global business market can be.
At the heart of
Losing the Signal sit two mismatched co-CEOs—Mike Lazaridis, a bookish innovator, and Jim Balsillie, an aggressive entrepreneur—who grew their company from humble beginnings above a bagel store in Waterloo, Ont-ario. Harnessing innovation and sharp-elbowed tactics, BlackBerry’s bosses outsmarted powerful international competitors and built a global business in a little more than a decade with an addictive phone that changed the way we communicated. Just as BlackBerry was emerging as the dominant global player, it stumbled with delayed, poorly designed and unpopular handheld devices that took it out of the race. Only fifteen years after the BlackBerry was launched, the company was struggling for its very survival.
“Losing the Signal tells of the marriage and divorce of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, how two opposites built RIM into a world-beater and how they lost it. This is first-class reporting that reads like a juicy novel, with one amazing story after another. A terrific book.”
