Research In Motion co-CEOs Step Down

Last night, Research In Motion announced their co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have stepped down from their positions. I found the news via @CNBC tweet. RIM has had a very rough 2011 and since the emergence of the iPhone, they have yet to reclaim their previous glory. This is not to say that the iPhone blew the BlackBerry out of the water – instead, RIM didn’t move at the faster pace of the market to produce better software and phones to compete. At the end of 2011, investors, news commentators/outlets, and the public were calling for major change in the company. Most felt that the change should come from the top. Thus, it is no surprise that Lazaridis and Balsillie have “decided” to step down.

According “RIM Has a New CEO, But Does It Have a New Game Plan?” by Jon Fortt of CNBC.com and “BlackBerry maker’s CEOs hand reins to insider” by Alastair Sharp of Reuters.com, Thorsten Heins is the new CEO. Sharp reports Heins is “a former Siemens AG executive who has risen steadily through RIM’s upper management ranks since joining the Canadian company in late 2007”.

The plan for RIM is not clear. Fortt (CNBC.com) reports that Heins doesn’t plan to change much. Fortt quotes Heins saying:

“I would tell investors that this change already has happened on the product side, and might not be what the public was demanding. But you cannot just fall for public opinion because sometimes the Street is right, sometimes the Street is wrong. We have to do what is right for the company”.

Sharp (Reuters.com) reports “Heins said he would push for more rigorous product development and place a greater emphasis on executing on the company’s marketing and development plans.” Also, Sharp reports Heins is searching for a new Chief Marketing Officer “to improve advertising and other communication with consumers.”

A new marketing strategy is a vital step for RIM to embrace a new image along with a new CEO. If Heins really did make the statement reported by Fortt, he just made his first PR mistake. This new CEO announcement is suppose to breath life into RIM, not make the audience think things will stay the same. Things should only stay the same if it’s working and whatever strategy RIM was on for the past year failed. The Reuters article gives me some hope that RIM is moving towards some change for the better.