∞ RIM responds to employees open letter

Written by

RIM has responded to an open letter from one of its high level executives published earlier today on BGR.

[ad#Google Adsense 300x250 in story]In its response, RIM said it found it “difficult to believe” that a “‘high level employee’ in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives.”

More defensive and disbelieving than anything else. No wonder people publish letters on the Internet.

Here is RIM’s response in full:

An “Open Letter” to RIM’s senior management was published anonymously on the web today and it was attributed to an unnamed person described as a “high level employee”. It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary and it is particularly difficult to believe that a “high level employee” in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.

RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months. There is a fundamental business reality however that following an extended period of hyper growth (during which RIM nearly quadrupled in size over the past 5 years alone), it has become necessary for the company to streamline its operations in order to allow it to grow its business profitably while pursuing newer strategic opportunities. Again, RIM’s management team takes these challenges seriously and is actively addressing the situation. The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.



  • Steven Fisher

    I actually agree with RIM; I do find it doubtful the letter’s source is genuine.

    But that doesn’t mean it isn’t good advice.

  • http://twitter.com/scottaw scott

    They’re never going to admit any problems externally, so there’s nothing surprising there. And quite frankly, I find it hard to believe any high ranking employee would write to Blackberry through the media either. I work in a large corporation. I know how that would be viewed, and how hard it would be for them to take the supposed source seriously.

    I don’t see what it would accomplish, frankly.

    • Steven Fisher

      What gets me is that assuming this guy really is a high level employee, why would he go to BGR first? He wouldn’t. He’d have tried to give this kind of feedback through internal channels. There aren’t that many high level employees, so that means RIM knows who sent this to BGR. The guy’s job would be dead.

      I just don’t believe that.

      • Anonymous

        At most places I would agree but you never know who restrictive a company culture is from the outside. Maybe he/she just assumed that any dissension of this type would be met with reprisals. 

      • http://profiles.google.com/captain.zones Ronald Bell

        Maybe. But if the management is completely deaf to any criticism, and you’re absolutely sure you’re on a sinking ship, then this might just be the forum that a real employee might think of.

      • http://profiles.google.com/captain.zones Ronald Bell

        and as a second reply, why do you assume he went to BGR first? Judging by his letter, these sentiments have been ongoing for ages, spreading, deepening, and have been continued to be ignored. I read this is the employee going to BGR as a last act of desperation.

        • Steven Fisher

          And it could be that enough people share the feeling that they don’t know who to sack. That’s a sad thought.

          • http://profiles.google.com/captain.zones Ronald Bell

            I suspect you’re right. It’s certainly what the original letter says. If he or she is correct, then they’re unlikely to track this person down because there’s going to be too many people who agree — all of whom might have just been inadvertently silenced by this letter, btw. That’s what I think is sad. I could imagine people being afraid to agree right now, for fear of getting the “So YOU’RE the author!” treatment. But I think someone at RIM needs to be saying these things right now, or else they’re going to be saying them in a few years in a regretful memoir that starts out “It’s too late to say all of this now, of course, but…”

  • Anonymous

    Damage control. RIM’s management doesn’t want to be shown how much of the company’s problems is due to management itself. More layoffs will follow, there’ll be more public bluster about vigorous change, and more promises about products that will be released before they’re ready.

  • BoredInOttawa

    I have many friends at RIM, and trust me,  that letter has so much of the “ring of truth”  to be utterly truthful. 

    Sad really.