TORONTO and WATERLOO, ONT. -- For 20 years, the hyper-competitive Jim Balsillie has been the driving force behind Research In Motion Ltd., pushing the company's BlackBerry to the far corners of the world and battling just about anyone who dared get in the way.
Now, after a dramatic shakeup in the company's leadership, the question for one of Canada's most prominent businessmen becomes: What's next?
It's hard to imagine RIM without him - in many ways, he became the face of the company, typically leading quarterly conference calls with analysts and popping up in exotic locations to tout the latest RIM innovation. For Mr. Balsillie, being reduced to a mere director at RIM - former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis was named vice-chair and heads an innovation committee of the board - represents a dramatic transition from several years as head of the global smartphone giant.
And while he wouldn't say what he plans to do next in an interview over the weekend at RIM's head office in Waterloo, he hinted the company's recent troubles had taken their toll. "It's a demanding game," he said.
"Having that 7-24 responsibility, it's a big responsibility. And it's very different to know that you don't have 7-24 responsibility, where you're going to get the calls in the middle of the night or the e-mails first thing in the morning.
"That's a very, very different feeling."
Friends don't expect Mr. Balsillie to remain on the sidelines for long.
At 50, he's split from his wife (they have two children) and by all accounts he's in remarkable shape, thanks to a health regime that includes cycling, hockey and many other sports.
"He's a great Canadian and was very proud of his Canadian roots, I knew that from the first time I met him," said James Bradbeer, a U.S. businessman who met Mr. Balsillie at Harvard. "And, whatever he does I'm sure it will great."
Wherever he lands, he brings a mixed legacy. Mr. Balsillie has a reputation as a tough and at times abrasive taskmaster whose competitive nature sometimes became a fault. That was evident in 2006 when RIM paid $612.5-million (U.S.) to settle a protracted patent infringement case laid by a small-time American inventor who was dying of cancer. RIM could have ended the case years earlier for as little as $23-million, but Mr. Balsillie kept fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. At one point a U.S. judge threatened to shut down every BlackBerry in America, a prospect so frightening at the time the U.S. Congress got involved.
James Wallace, a Washington lawyer who took on RIM in the case, says by pushing so hard Mr. Balsillie opened the door to RIM rivals. That's because so many firms got spooked by the possibility of the judge shutting down RIM, which dominated the market at the time, they began trying other hand-held devices. "That opened door to Palm," Mr. Wallace said Monday. Companies "started allowing their employees to have a choice." And, he added, that eventually cleared the path for Apple, Google and others to take on RIM.
So was Mr. Balsillie stubborn? Uncompromising? Difficult? "I would say determined," Mr. Wallace said. "I'm trying to be diplomatic."
Others have been less diplomatic about Mr. Balsillie's driven nature. That includes National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman, who tangled with Mr. Balsillie several times over his botched attempts to relocate an NHL team to Hamilton. Mr. Bettman once drew up a 21-page internal memo on why Mr. Balsillie shouldn't own an NHL franchise. And that was before the commissioner called him a liar in documents filed in a Phoenix court.
The league didn't seem any more accepting Monday. When asked if the NHL board of governors would welcome Mr. Balsillie as a potential owner now that he is out of RIM, deputy commissioner Bill Daly replied: "Better to ask him. I don't think being 'out at RIM,' though, affects any of the factors that disqualified him in the view of [the board of governors] before."
Some close to Mr. Balsillie doubt he has the stomach or wherewithal to mount another bid for a team. The value of his holding in RIM has been cut by 75 per cent in the past year to around $430-million. A team, even if the league accepted him, would likely cost more than $300-million.
He has other interests. He runs a private charitable foundation that makes donations to a variety of causes. He has worked on projects with the UN, founded the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont., and set up the Canadian International Council. "It's great to have him as chair and he's been very generous to CIGI through the years so I hope there's a continued involvement with CIGI," said Fred Kuntz, a spokesman for the Centre.
*****
Thorsten Heins takes over as CEO of Research in Motion at a time when analysts and investors have made myriad demands of the company - some straightforward, some extreme. Mr. Heins' job will entail responding to these demands one way or another:
Sell more
Come up with a better marketing strategy, especially in North America, where the BlackBerry's market share has fallen to 9 per cent.
Share more
License RIM's software to rivals - similar to Google's Android distribution - to bring in revenue and spur app development.
Simplify
Trim the lineup. Some analysts have argued RIM should only have three BlackBerry models - a sub-$100 unit, a mid-range unit and a high-end device to compete with the iPhone.
Split it up
Divide the business into device and network operations, a move that could unlock some value for investors.
Sell it all
Sell the company. The 75-per-cent plunge in share price over the past 12 months has left RIM with just an $8.2-billion market capitalization and a lot of unhappy investors.
Omar El Akkad
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