When CEOs Should Not Rep Companies: RIM CEO Cracks in Interview

Some people like the challenge of a tough question. Some don’t. Whichever group you fall into, the truth is in business and in your career, you have to get used to tough questions. In fact, job interviews tend to ask challenging questions to gauge an interviewee’s ability to handle pressure. Apparently, CEO of Research In Motion isn’t a fan of challenging questions and cracks easily under pressure. “RIM CEO Calls a Halt to Interview” By Stuart Weinberg of Wall Street Journal reports co-CEO of RIM, Mike Lazaridis, walked out of an interview.

The subject that got him hot: RIM’s battle with India and some countries in the Middle East over RIM’s tight security. According to the article B.B.C. tech correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones asked about the issue and Lazaridis interpreted the question as attacking RIM’s security. The interview was ended “When Cellan-Jones asked if [Lazaridis] could assure BlackBerry users in the Middle East and India that there wouldn’t be any service disruptions.”

The question wasn’t challenging or tough. In fact, the question is typical whenever companies find themselves in a situation that could result in service disruption. And while the question could have been a great platform to inform customers of great service, Lazaridis stops the interview as if BlackBerry service will halt for customers and embarrasses the company. With RIM’s new tablet about to launch and BlackBerry still being a player in the smartphone market, Lazaridis acted as if his company was on the brink of disaster. His behavior doesn’t encourage confidence and assurance in RIM from the audience, investors, and customers. I think Lazaridis is just bad at PR and has yet to master the art of the interview. He needs stay behind the scenes (until he learns to interview well) and continue to let co-CEO Jim Balsille stay in the front.