City Guide
Answers
Login
Home
/
Community
/
Forums
/ Post a Reply
Post a Reply
Thread: BlackBerry-maker Jim Balsillie’s legacy
Title:
(100 characters at most)
Content: ( 3,000 characters at most, please )
You can add emoticons below to your post by clicking them.
[quote=GROWTHRING,462001]Under his leadership RIM became the top smartphone company in North America, worth $68 billion in 2007. In 2009 Balsillie had a personal net worth of 2.7 billion, though it tumbled in 2011 as RIM share prices plunged, leaving him a mere multi-millionaire. Through the many ups and recent downs, the man described as brilliant, hard-nosed and competitive — someone who hates to lose, as RIM director Jim Estill once said — was also the modest, friendly family guy who coached his son’s basketball team, and hit the ice himself as a right wing with a local team. The latter half of this persona is what Kevin Micha1uk, founder of Crackberry.com found when he cornered Balsillie at a party during the 2007 Wireless Enterprise Symposium. For someone who had attained the status of a “celebrity CEO,” he was “just a normal guy,” said Michaluk. During their 43 minute conversation Balsillie gave him tips on competing in triathlons (get a good wetsuit) and advised him to get a swim coach to eliminate even the smallest errors in technique. The dedication he applied to sports he applied to business, he told Michaluk. But the overlap of the two in his quest to own an NHL team is also thought by some to have been part of the downfall of RIM, a distraction during the crucial moments when RIM needed to compete with Apple and Google’s Android. The downward trajectory led to him stepping down as co-CEO along with Lazaridis, and now his board resignation Yet if he succeeded, the rewards would have been immense, allowing Balsillie to position himself as a Canadian hero, the man who repatriated an NHL team. [/quote]
characters left
Name:
Get a new code