Research in Motion HBS Case
Research in Motion: The Mobile OS Platform War; and Netflix
The company you work for has just woken up, smelled the coffee, and realized the potential impact of disruptive innovation on its strategy and its ultimate survival. In particular, your company wishes to avoid Research in Motion (RIM)’s fate in the smartphone devices and mobile operating software systems markets. As part of your company’s reassessment of its current situation, you have been tasked with providing an overview and summary analysis of RIM’s organizational strategy during those critical years when RIM went from dominant market leader to little more than an inconsequential player in the smartphone devices and mobile operating software systems markets. Your analysis should focus on the concepts from Chapter 5—e.g., competitive advantage, strategy-making process, SWOT analysis, corporate, industry and firm-level strategies, Porter’s five industry forces, etc.
Your analysis also should include,
An evaluation of RIM’s management (or lack thereof) of technological innovation, including whether, and how, Clayton Christensen’s concept of “disruptive innovation” impacted RIM (Ch. 6);
A comparison to other companies who either unsuccessfully managed a potentially disruptive innovation (e.g., Blockbuster), or successfully managed a potentially disruptive innovation (e.g., Netflix).
Mr. Thorsten Heins,
As part of Research In Motion’s corporate team, I have been reviewing our company history to provide an overview and analysis of our current situation and explain why we have ending up on the low end of the marketplace. Looking a bit deeper into our past as a company, it is without a doubt we began strong. Right off the bat we obtained a competitive advantage by offering a valuable resource to consumers to improve efficiency and effectiveness regarding their mobile communication needs. Our first innovation of the RIM 900 Inter@ctive Pager succeed in the market to a pleasing extent and showed us ways to
The company you work for has just woken up, smelled the coffee, and realized the potential impact of disruptive innovation on its strategy and its ultimate survival. In particular, your company wishes to avoid Research in Motion (RIM)’s fate in the smartphone devices and mobile operating software systems markets. As part of your company’s reassessment of its current situation, you have been tasked with providing an overview and summary analysis of RIM’s organizational strategy during those critical years when RIM went from dominant market leader to little more than an inconsequential player in the smartphone devices and mobile operating software systems markets. Your analysis should focus on the concepts from Chapter 5—e.g., competitive advantage, strategy-making process, SWOT analysis, corporate, industry and firm-level strategies, Porter’s five industry forces, etc.
Your analysis also should include,
An evaluation of RIM’s management (or lack thereof) of technological innovation, including whether, and how, Clayton Christensen’s concept of “disruptive innovation” impacted RIM (Ch. 6);
A comparison to other companies who either unsuccessfully managed a potentially disruptive innovation (e.g., Blockbuster), or successfully managed a potentially disruptive innovation (e.g., Netflix).
Mr. Thorsten Heins,
As part of Research In Motion’s corporate team, I have been reviewing our company history to provide an overview and analysis of our current situation and explain why we have ending up on the low end of the marketplace. Looking a bit deeper into our past as a company, it is without a doubt we began strong. Right off the bat we obtained a competitive advantage by offering a valuable resource to consumers to improve efficiency and effectiveness regarding their mobile communication needs. Our first innovation of the RIM 900 Inter@ctive Pager succeed in the market to a pleasing extent and showed us ways to