Most novice programmers seldom see the necessity of drawing a flowchart - Rodney Zaks - Programming the Z80
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RIM responds to employee’s open letter
CANADIAN POCKET WARMER FIRM Research in Motion (RIM) has responded to an open letter from a supposed executive that was posted on the web this week.
The original letter is a long one, some 1,500 words, and it paints a very bleak picture of life at the firm, including the suggestion that some of its offices look like they have been pulled direct from Soviet era workbooks on fun and productivity.
"To the RIM Senior Management Team," it starts, "I have lost confidence. While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone - the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams. Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base."
It carries on, warning Mike (Lazarides) and Jim (Balsillie) that RIM faces challenges on a range of fronts, including its lack of focus on end users, the "beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work", that Apple produces, and its lack of any clear differentiation when compared against that firm and the alternative Android OS.
One way to solve this could be to hire some decent executives, says the executive in his letter to the firm's most senior executives.
"We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren't talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind," the letter says.
"We are demotivated. Just look at who our major competitors are: Apple, Google & Microsoft. These are three of the biggest and most talented software companies on the planet. Then take a look at our software leadership teams in terms of what they have delivered and their past experience prior to RIM... It says everything."
RIM also rushes to release products that are only 90 per cent complete, we learn, and really needs to sort its life out when it comes to its application stores.
"We urgently need to invest like we never have before in becoming developer friendly. The return will be worth every cent. There is no polite way to say this, but it's true - BlackBerry smartphone apps suck," writes our new favourite penman. "Even PlayBook, with all its glorious power, looks like a Fisher Price toy with its Adobe AIR/Flash apps."
RIM is unimpressed by the letter, which it doubts could have come from anyone working high up in its ranks, and despite being apparently reluctant to get drawn into its criticisms has done so anyway.
"'An Open Letter' to RIM's senior management was published anonymously on the web today and it was attributed to an unnamed person described as a 'high level employee'," it said in a statement posted to its web site.
"It is particularly difficult to believe that a 'high level employee' in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company's challenges and its opportunities." µ
Tags: Hardware
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@ Someone Special
You do know what communistic means, Right? (hint: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/communistic )
Also, I think the current environment at RIM is very much like the one you describe, and the point of the open letter is to say "We need to foster a much different environment, one more like Apple, Google, or MS (maybe less so MS).
A bit naughty but some of it is true. TBH anyone can guess these sort of problems are at rim.
The balckberry is a beautiful phone and and beautiful OS. It just works.
However it lacks the spark that keeps you addicted to it like an iphone or android which is 'apps'.
Blackberry painted itself as a business phone. then kids jumped on the 'BB messenger hype'. BB should and can capitalize on both.
to me it sounds like the have just ran out of ideas and everyone else is just gonna copy their ideas and leave em to sink. (iphone imessage)
Management does not work that way. This open letter is a waste of time.
They will find this guy and send him home, with pay if needs be as a "disruptive influence".
From management perspective, it's all business as usual unless there is a mass exodous of employees.
They will count this person as affecting moral and the cause of moral being low, never taking ownership of the problem or admitting mistakes.
From his perspective he's trying to make a change for the better, practically doing them a favor he bothered to write the letter at all.
From their prospective he is anti communistic and should be made to disappear.
Management drones are all alike everywhere. Loyalty to the system trumpts everything. Who cares about employees anyhow? a big name like RIM will just get new people, everyone can be replaced.
A lesson to learn, never vote so candidly with your mouth, it just makes it all uglier. If you really mean what you say, vote with your feet.
With many employees leaving, senior management will have to look at each other and ask dumb questions like "why are they leaving?" having failed to notice anything prior to that stage.
IT employees are better off switching companies every 1-3 years and getting more for it than sitting and writing long candid emails to management.
Stop voting with your mouth people, no one gives a shit. Vote with your feet and go somewhere better if you have what it takes.