Research in Motion

Problem Definition

In January 1998 Research In Motion LTD was at the top of their game manufacturing pagers, wireless PC cards and OEM radio products. Though they were excelling in the current market a major problem they were faced with was deciding what the future growth direction would be for the company, seeing that the technology industry continuously changes. An opportunity the company was considering to exploit was selling two-way email to end users, which will help them expand their current hardware business and branch out to the service business. They can also stay with their current business model and sell hardware.

Industry Analysis

As of 1998 the standards of the technology sector are not as demanding as present day, the wireless communication industry was segmented by the technology not the psychographic or demographic of the consumer. The industry was segmented into four subcategories: "one-way", "two-way", "circuit switched", and "packet switched" communications. It was stated that in 1997 there were approximately 40 million one-way packet-switched users in the united states alone (Ryans, 1999 pg ). It was also noted that approximately another 40 million consumers were cellular users. During this time there was a rapid increase in the reliance to retrieve and use information across organization wirelessly, due to the rapid development of new technology.

Situation Analysis

A key to RIM's success is due to their competitive advantage in regards to continuous innovation through their development of their hardware and communication service. They started off outsourcing their products until they built their own manufacturing plant that helped improved the control and quality assurance of their products. Their first pager was extremely successful due to a lot of early adopters catching on to their trend with positive feedback. The focus of their company is directed at people who use technology on a daily basis for work or play. Their weaknesses include being a small company from Canada, selling to companies that compete with each other and having only 3 people who control the company. Despite starting off as a small company, they have big clients who use their products in computers, cellphones and other electronic devices. They earned credibility after the introduction of their Inter@ctive pager, which was a huge success. A major weakness in my opinion is their management team where power is divided upon 3 people. There can be a lot of skewed judgment but the weakness is counter-intuitive. Skewed judgment can be taken as a faster way of making decisions and implementing their ideas. However, this company supplies bigger companies that rely on their solid decisions. The number of people stated in the case to adopt the two-way pager starts at 330,000 will jump to 77 million