Is It Too Late To Save BlackBerry?

In January 2010, I wrote a blog post asking if BlackBerry was a dead product walking. In the post I put forth the theory that BlackBerry’s envy of Apple’s customers was one of the primary reasons for the decreasing performance of the company.

In the last year the story of BlackBerry's failure is well known. The failure led to management shakeup where the co-CEOs and founders left the company and a new CEO was put in charge. Yesterday, he announced that BlackBerry, for all practical purposes, is giving up the consumer market and is focusing on their more traditional markets of businesses and enterprises.

While this was certainly the primary recommendation I made almost 15 months ago, my question now is, “Is it too late?”

Apple, Android and others have all continued to advance their technology, build deep emotional connections with their customers and to exploit the Blackberry’s missteps. I certainly hope RIM’s decision, and the implementation/execution of the strategy works for BlackBerry.

I think it's good for the world that there is a strong BlackBerry out there to provide competition for the Apples of the world.

The lesson for fast growth executives is to remember to stay true to your core, don't lose your plot and always stay focused on who you are trying to serve and how you can be the best.