Please, Tim Cook Wake Up Now

A few years ago my daughter's new Mac arrived home with an original iTouch. After an hour of loading apps and using the touch screen I knew that RIM was in trouble.

The fact that I haven't loaded iOS 6 on my iPhone yet (it's just a Maps app! after all) doesn't have quite the same sickening feeling of that night way back when, but it's close.

Like most people I just want my phone, computer, tablet to work. I'm not a technology person - I'm a user. The kind of person that was foreign to RIM several years ago. And, thanks to both RIM and Microsoft, I hate updates.

Updates screw things up, change settings, mess with reading lists, lose contacts, etc.

So. I've hesitated. And I've hesitated more subconsciously than consciously - it's some kind of RIMDOWS hangover. It's both interesting and troubling. Based on my experiences until now I never expected to think of Apple in the same light as those other, over-the-hill providers.

Unfortunately, my daughter didn't hesitate. She loaded the new Mountain Lion update on her Macbook Pro a couple of night ago. AND IT'S NEVER RESTARTED.

Clever me. I sent her to Google and the Apple website for fixes and insight. There are lots. She's not the only person this has happened to. Nothing helped.

But, HERE'S THE REAL SCREW UP. She took her Macbook Pro to the Apple Store the next day for some real help. Like many people (most? the world?) she needs her laptop for work.

And they told her to go away. How dare she just show up like that?! She didn't have an appointment.

In fact, they let her know pretty clearly that she was fairly nutzo for even thinking that she could just walk in and have someone take a look at her computer like that.Wow. Another. Dumb. Customer!

So she left. Helpless and angry. The clerk - is that what they call them at Apple Stores? - shrugged.

Which is the scary intersection with the other over-the-hill computer companies from the past. BEING BETTER AND SMARTER THAN THE CUSTOMER NEVER WORKS! It didn't work for RIM and won't work long for Apple.

The we-can-do-no-wrong attitude is what leads to risky, untested updates, failed apps, lousy service and weak apologies. Unchecked, it spells doom.

So. Tim Cook. Please wake up now. Whether you see it yet or not, Apple is in trouble.

RIM Boy Goes Public

In an interview published in Saturday's Globe and Mail, RIM's high profile Director Roger Martin took on setting corporate governance back a thousand years and clarifying for the world why RIM is in trouble.  As one commenter posted:

his point of view is no different or any more informed than the yeehaw one finds chewing the cardboard cup at a tim's. if this is a director no wonder the company has been in decline.

With apologies to yeehaw's everywhere.

Martin does make some seemingly shallow comments for someone who is a) dean of a business school b) a recognized governance thought-leader and c) a New England Patriots fan. A couple of examples:

“So we’re supposed to hand it over to children, or morons from the outside who will destroy the company?"

“If we were to say to Jim and Mike, ‘Well, we’re the board and you should go away now,’ they would have laughed at us.” 

People were saying we can’t make powerful phones like Apple. Yes, we can, but we couldn’t believe consumers would put up with that kind of battery inefficiency and that kind of network inefficiency.

The tricky aspect, he says, was the former bosses deciding what they wanted to do. They decided to stay on as directors

Mr. Lazaridis, he says, “is a genius – so having him off the board would be a good idea?” 

The two former CEOs are about more than RIM. Mr. Balsillie founded a global policy institute and pursued hockey teams; Mr. Lazaridis built a physics research hothouse. Had they become distracted when the company needed their full attention?

“I just don’t buy that,” says Mr. Martin, arguing that the outside interests energized the two. “We’re all human beings – they’re not automatons.”

The majority of commenters - surprisingly, even I couldn't resist - weren't impressed.

Sad reflection of the future of Canadian business if this hand puppet actually reflects the quality of business education at UofT.

 This guy sounds like he is just part of RIM's critical mass of arrogance which got them in this mess in the first place.

Martin is in cloud cookoo land if he thinks two CEOs who are busy doing Perimeter Institute, hockey teams, global affairs and other things can succeed.

What doesnt quite ring true here. A touted Harvard business major, keen on sports as a model of business situations; associated for many years with the principals of RIM, doesnt carry the clout to have the captains alter course when he signals iceberg ahead

This guy is quite a load.

One gets the sense from this article that Martin is feeling the heat. He should be. RIM comes off as a high profile screw up and he and his fellow governors come off as sight-seers on the Costa-Concordia (take that Titanic!).

One wonders what fellow Board members, employers and other clients think, if anything - but one poster did go so far yesterday as saying

I will be getting an MBA and I can now safely say that UofT will not even be on my long list. Too much hubris from the dean.

Governance: Fixing the Game

Roger Martin, famous RIM independent Director and Dean of the Rotman Business School at U of T  has written a respected book on corporate governance. It's called 'Fixing the Game'.

I haven't read it (I plan to) but recently, Forbes contributor Steve Denning ran this interesting article about Martin's book titled: The Dumbest Idea in the World: Maximizing Shareholder Value (from a quote attributed to Jack Welch).

Here's how it starts:

“Imagine an NFL coach,” writes Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, in his important new book, 'Fixing the Game', “holding a press conference on Wednesday to announce that he predicts a win by 9 points on Sunday, and that bettors should recognize that the current spread of 6 points is too low. Or picture the team’s quarterback standing up in the postgame press conference and apologizing for having only won by 3 points when the final betting spread was 9 points in his team’s favor. While it’s laughable to imagine coaches or quarterbacks doing so, CEOs are expected to do both of these things.”

According to the article, Martin argues that there are two markets - the 'real market' where real dollars show up on the bottom line - and the 'expectations market' ie, the stock market where dollars are traded and made based on how near or far a company is to meeting it's investor expectations.

Martin's point is that there is far more incentive for CEO's to manage the expectations market than there is for them to succeed in the real market. So managing companies becomes all about managing expectations, not about building businesses.

I agree.

Even in my modest tenure of running a too-small public company for five years, I quickly came to understand that running a business well - and running a public business well - were two completely different beasts. I frequently said to people around me that we made decisions running a public company that we would NEVER have made if it were private.

Martin goes on. He argues, according to Forbes, that "we must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value”. "If you take care of customers, shareholders will be drawn along for a very nice ride.", quotes Forbes.

I don't disagree with Martin - how can you?

It seems to me (here it comes) that there might be no greater evidence that his argument is correct than the value that RIM created up to mid-2008 when customers embraced their smartphone/mobile e-mail invention and subsequently destroyed by ignoring customers evolving expectations thanks to the launch of the iPhone.

Research In Motion Market Cap Chart by YCharts

Research In Motion Market Cap Chart by YCharts

Given Martin's point of view, one has to assume that he is working feverishly in the background at RIM - clearly not to manage expectations, but to ensure that management truly understands what customers want - and is skillfully building an operating system and new hardware to capitalize on it.

I keep thinking that Martin (and others associated with RIM) need(s) to be careful.

His book may be great, but if RIM doesn't turn around it will forever be the asterisk on his reputation*.

*had great ideas, even wrote a good book - but failed to execute

Governance: The Directors on RIM's Board

The failure of RIM isn't just a failure of management, strategy and execution. It's also a massive failure of governance.

While it's likely there's a phone call or two going on behind the scenes, RIM's Director's have clearly failed to influence the failed trajectory of this once-great company. Even by RIM's own definition of the role of the Board, it's easy to argue that RIM's Directors have been MIA.

So who are these people? Are they just a bunch of Mike and Jim's buddies - maybe a hockey player, a cyclist and a mad-scientist or two? Maybe they are a couple of local machine shop operators from Waterloo's past who stumbled onto the RIM rocket ship and don't know what do now that the gyros have gone loopy?

Well actually not.

Barbara Stymiest is the ex-CEO of the TSX. According to the RIM information circular, Stymiest serves as a member of the Group Executive of the Royal Bank which is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the bank! She's a member of the George Weston Board.

Roger Martin is a Dean and Professor of Strategy (!) at the Rotman School of Business! He also sits on the Board of Thomson Reuters.

According to RIM's info circular, Claudia Kotcha is "an independent consultant to Fortune 500 companies on innovation, strategy and design".

Innovation, strategy and design! That's like the triumvirate of doom for RIM.


So. Is there any governance experience on the RIM Board?

Well, there's John Richardson. This isn't exactly his first rodeo. From the RIM info circular:

"He was appointed Chairman of the Ontario Pension Board in July 2004 and retired from that position at
the end of his three year term in June 2007. Mr. Richardson was Deputy Chairman of London Insurance Groups Inc., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Wellington Insurance, and Chairman of
London Guarantee Insurance Company. He was a past board member with The Insurance Bureau
of Canada and the Facility Association. In addition to the public board memberships indicated
below, Mr. Richardson is currently the Chairman of Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co."

Others on the RIM Board have similar great experience.

John Wetmore is the former President and CEO of IBM Canada. He currently sits on the Board of Loblaw.

Antonio Viana-Baptista is an ex-McKinsey consulting guru and sits on four other Boards in the telecom space.

And then there are the two co-CEO's.

It's obviously difficult to believe that a Board with this much experience is simply sitting around and watching things pile down on top of them. However, shareholders must be wondering what the Board is up to, especially now that it's clear there may be no bottom for the share price.

One also wonders about the impact on personal reputations given what's already happened or what might happen to RIM's business. What does it say for a Dean of the Rotman Business School? Or a Director of Loblaw? Or someone tied so closely to the Royal Bank? Many people didn't realize that Stymeist and Martin are even on the RIM Board. Just from a self-preservation perspective you might think they would find a way to either step up - or away - from what's happening.

 For shareholders it can't be too soon for someone to do something.

RIM: I Can't Stay Quiet Any Longer

Last week I did a personality assessment that showed I don't always blab what I think. Great news! I wasn't sure.

I've been pretty quiet on the RIM front for the past few months. Discovering I was known for my dim point of view on this Canadian tech 'icon' seemed to slow me down a bit.

Well, today I can't take it any more. 

Anyone who doubted whether this company is done or not shouldn't have a lot more to think about. Three days of world-wide service interruptions that have killed email and bbm (and other web services?) should be more than enough. Blogs and newspaper reports (never mind the Facebook updates) out of RIM's last remaining key markets like India and the Far East reflect a tide that is turning brutally against RIM.

It's one thing to have an antiquated and underwhelming interface, operating system and app selection - it's another thing to shut your users out of a service they view as being essential.

Over the last few months as RIM has been dying, it's been fascinatingly sad to watch Canadians in particular stand up - against all odds including Apple, Android, even Microsoft (Microsoft?!) - for their beloved Canadian technology dream.

Too bad. Because RIM hasn't deserved any of that loyalty.

Listen. Seriously.

RIM got lucky.

They truly innovated a brilliant technology - and a lucrative revenue model. But that's it.

At the end of the day RIM was/is nothing more than another tech start-up.Their leadership is/was egotistical and distracted. Their infrastructure and organization was hastily built and poorly lead. They valued technology over customer experience - and ultimately customer preference. They were late to the marketing game and what marketing they had was amateurish and feature, not benefit oriented.

Now they've unveiled the ultimate weakness. Reliability.

Incessant knocking of RIM's inferior handsets was always met with smug reassurance that RIM's network architecture was somehow more secure - and reliable.

Now that's bullshit.

I'll say this again. I never wished RIM's demise. What I always wished is that they would somehow smarten up - stop being so arrogant - read the signals - and get with it.

That's never happened. And now it's too late.

It's sad.

Really. Sad.

What We Get Known For

Yesterday I met someone for lunch that I hadn't seen for a while. The first words out of their mouth, not even sitting down were: "I see you're not much of a RIM fan.". Geez, a couple of honest blogs! I didn't even know people read them!

Actually I did, and lately I've thought a little about what I am known for and what I would like to get known for.

Here's what I think I'm known for so far.

First, yes RIM. People blame me for their demise. I'm pretty sure that's not true. I was just trying to help.

Second, my views on cancer fund raising (stop giving). My video rant this weekend is the first time I've mentioned it here but anyone who's hit me up for a donation over the past two years knows my feelings.

Third?? Not sure. Maybe my personal views on consulting? I've been a consultant for a long time. I don't hide the fact I think that most consulting dollars are wasted.

What I'd like to become known for?

How about this? Get over your taxes. Roads and medical care and garbage pick-up aren't free. If we don't pay for them, we won't have them. I'd like to think that putting everything in the hands of private business is the answer - only buy what you want and trust businesses to provide it efficiently - but lots of services don't and won't work that way.  The American model (no taxes ever) DOESN'T work. Just watch - and check out Minnesota (Minnesota?!!) which has been shut down already for the past 2 weeks. I'm not sure Toronto is that far behind?

Beyond that I guess I'd like to be known for at least having, and exploring a point of view. My sense is most people don't have one - or if they do - they're either afraid, too lazy, or not sure how to share it. That's ok. There's less stress that way and perhaps the benefits of being known for something aren't that obvious?

I'm pretty sure that won't stop me!

What's Your Snow?

I was talking to Andrew yesterday about the demise of RIM. I was telling him how it makes me angry because it was so obvious that it was coming. But everyone covered it up.

Andrew was telling one of his dad's great sayings - "that when the snow melts, all the shit rises to the surface".

It's a great line. In RIM's case there was lots of snow. Like covering up declining North American market share with 'overall smart phone growth', or 'growth in other parts of the world', or 'but they will never lose the enterprise space'.

Frigging DUH!!??

How smart do you have to be to understand that if you're getting killed in your home market - and your enterprise customers are 'testing' iPhones, hanging success on 'undeveloped' markets and business customers  is downright stupid??


Yet that snow covered that shit for the last 2 years.

Surprise!!!

So what's your snow? Where's the white, fluffy stuff straight out of a Warren Miller ski movie in your business? Where's your Waterloo(!)?

At the end of our conversation I told Andrew his COO role has a new accountability - snow removal. He is officially in charge of spotting - and melting - all of the white, fluffy, killer snow that's covering the crap in our business.

The future depends on it.

Twitter Doesn't Suck...and Facebook Isn't the Web

Just back from another xmas season get together. This stuff just has to be said (otherwise I'm taking it out on my family):

First, Twitter doesn't suck, despite what every 23 year old I talked to this xmas says.

I know you think it's all about people tweeting their latest bowel movements. That's because YOU'VE NEVER ACTUALLY TRIED IT.

You're looking for a job. Right?

Did you know that almost all of the major job boards, recruiters and employment agencies are on Twitter. As are major corporations. Towns. Government agencies. And your University. In fact, while you've been busy dissing it, Twitter been busy becoming a serious tool for the rest of the world.

So you never tweet? It doesn't matter. If you learn how to use Twitter search (search.twitter.com) or Tweetdeck at least you'll be up to speed on the latest snow conditions at Whistler.

Second, Facebook is NOT the web.

Yeah, you seemed like an early adopter when you and your 17 year old friends all flocked to it. But then you stopped adopting. And learning.

Which really scares me (oldsters set in their ways is scary enough, but do you really want to be like your parents?).

Your personal brand now consists of a bunch of pics of you and your friends - drinking, partying and....what the hell are you doing?!! Looks like fun. Looks really shallow. Brands are important. You might want to work a little harder on yours. I guarantee when you go for that banking job they're going on-line to check you out.

And when they do, that really quiet girl with the blog and the amazing YouTube videos from Australia is going to get the job.

Third. RIM better get it's act together.

It's one thing to see the techie geek dudes off trying everything new. That's not the iPhone now.

This Christmas I saw serious, staid, boring, dull square heads....showing off their latest iPhone apps, giving advice on dumping existing 3 year smart phone plans and generally running from their Blackberries faster than you can say BBM. If this isn't scaring the crap out of RIM I'd be amazed.

Didn't someone there see the app wave coming?

Finally. Get Google Reader. This may be the best advice. I've ever given.

See when you click on Google and it says 'more'? Go there. Click Reader. Get an account. Sign up.

You know why? Because the world is changing - and it's all on line (yeah, that magazine folded too). And the only way to stay in touch is to get a little organized.

Google Reader will let you 'subscribe' to websites and blogs. Every time your favourite site or blog is updated, the update goes automatically to your reader. Then, when you finally wake up in the morning the first you do is go to your reader and ta daaa! - there is your latest information.

And you can be smarter than all the other kids at work (until they get their readers too).

got a chance today...

...to hang out with a US lawyer who campaigned in Virginia for Obama then did poll duty the night of the election. I guess hopefully we all get a chance once in our lifetime to play a role in something both historic and overwhelmingly satisfying. To say she was proud and happy would be a fairly significant understatement. She said what struck her about the Obama organizers was their tactical precision. She said that in the days leading up to the election they didn't canvass houses - they canvassed perfectly targeted individuals - leaning McOldGuy but not committed. She also described the feeling of going into non-white neighbourhoods and getting overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses from people when they found out she was campaigning for Obama. Turn-out in her precinct? Over 80%!!! Here's a link to her blog.

.....to have a beer with a thoughtful, successful market watcher and stock picker. He has a theory on the market downturn that feels logical. According to him, the market bottom will occur only after the North American auto industry takes its hit - a hit which is clearly coming. Merger? Bailout? Bankruptcy? Get that done, get the headlines out of the way, absorb some of the fall-out - then we'll be at the bottom. Hmmmm....I think he's onto something.

...to make full use of local search on my Blackberry. Stuck in stopped-dead traffic. Pouring rain. Looking for a hotel....and finding one, plus phone number, plus dialing and connecting in about 90 seconds. Damn, the world has changed...and maybe even for the better.

Here's a post already!

Ok, so this is bad. I've had multiple complaints about my blogging frequency and lack of new material. Sorry, I've been busy.

Some thoughts. First, some time ago I decided to try out Twitter. There was a pretty good article in Fortune on it and back in the early summer, at the Search Engine Strategies conference here in Toronto, one of the sessions was dedicated to Twitter as a marketing tool.

My experiment with it has been limited. Like 6 posts. I follow 2 other twitterers and 2 follow me. Pretty pathetic. Despite that, I've had complaints!

Recently I quoted a post on Daily Kos about Sarah Palin. The post essentially suggests (you can read it) that focusing on anything other than her boobs would be a waste of time. Given all the noise about her at the time, it seemed like one of the most accurate observations on her I had seen. Ok it was a little crude. But, you have to admit, it's not like she has any other outstanding attributes.

However, apparently I offended at least one reader. Sorry. Maybe I should have said "focus on the fact that she's a boob"! (it's ok, I understand being offended :))

A while ago, someone said to me "who invented Republicans, anyways?". I don't have the answer. I just know that the past 8 years have been a disaster (who could foresee that electing people who don't believe in government AS the government would turn out bad?!) and how anyone in their right mind could put an idiot like her one step away from the Presidency is...dumb...unpatriotic....and good for funky glasses sales.

Ok, I'm on a roll. I have a comment on dog owner/walkers. You know those people with two (never one) of those crappy ass little yappy dogs...on those long leashes so they can go up and crap on your lawn? Did it ever dawn on any of you people that first of all, some of us aren't so enamoured with your crappy ass little dogs. We still wonder why you take better care of them than you do of your kids. Secondly, now that it's fall and gets dark early, walking your crappy ass little dogs all dressed in black is great f...ng way to get killed. Don't worry, your dogs will get out of the way...I know, I've tried. But you, walking with your back to me with your dogs strung all over the neighbourhood and me not seeing you til the last moment...you're done. At least get a white hat. And if I run you over, I'm letting your dogs off the leash so they can go play in traffic.

Now, on a more serious side. I've been telling everyone I know about the book 'Rise of the Creative Class" by Richard Florida. Very, very stimulating book. I'm hardly early to it, it was written a few years ago. Florida's studies show a compelling connection between the economic health of a city and the appeal of that city to creative people. His links between the gayness and ethnic diversity of a city and it's economic success are fascinating. Think San Francisco, Stanford and Silicon Valley. Now think Waterloo, Ontario.

University of Waterloo is one of the world's best math and sciences universities. It's one of the first places Microsoft goes for fresh talent. Walk it's halls and you will be overwhelmed, certainly by it's ethnic diversity, perhaps not so much it's gayness (although, I'm sure it's there).

Now go outside the University. Notice all the white people. Talk to those in the know about the success of the tech community in Waterloo outside of RIM. What the honest ones will tell you is 'don't believe the hype'. Waterloo is no Silicon Valley.

A friend of mine recently attended a well organized and very serious 'prosperity' event in Waterloo where the 'titans of Waterloo industry' (seriously, she said they called themselves that), pondered the options for attracting and retaining the best and the brightest to/in Waterloo. Two simple questions for my friend: first, of the large group that attended, how many weren't white? her answer: one; second, how many were gay?...her answer...gay?!

Maybe, I'm wrong and Florida should just stick to being the Sunshine State. But in my mind, until Waterloo crosses the diversity and openess chasm (and until RIM blows up and spins off a few hundred loaded and brilliant entrepreneurs), it will never achieve the magnet status it so craves.

But hey, I live in Toronto, what do I know?