What Was Great about Blackberry

As the movie is coming out soon, a lot of old friends are reminiscing about the old days at working at Research in Motion / Blackberry.

Those were incredible times, it’s hard to remind ourselves how amazing and world changing the company was at the time. Looking back, I was privileged to be a part of it.

A bunch of what is being written is about “what went wrong”. It’s such a common topic of conversation, and I know we all have opinions and stories about it. Those that know me know that I have a lot of negative things to say about Blackberry and things I witnessed there. But in this part of my life, I am really pushing myself to focus on the positives, and so, on that note, I thought I’d write about a bunch of the things that went right at Blackberry, things that have stayed with me for more than 20 years.

1. Hiring the Best, Betting on Canada

I remember when I got my first job at Blackberry, it was something you could brag about. It may have even been a bit elitist, but one thing I remember is that the company in its early days focused on staying small and only hiring the smartest people. It was hard to get a job there, and when you were inside, you felt like you were surrounded by the best.

When I traveled across the world, I could feel that in this small town in Canada, we had people that were unquestionably the very smartest in their field. The company never questioned whether building in Waterloo was a smart decision.

Now, much later in my career, I remain a believer that Canada doesn’t ever have to feel “second best” when it comes to the people.

2. Talent over Experience, Investing in Interns

I still remember representing RIM at one big conference in San Franciso and when it came time to check-in at the hotel, they asked for a credit card... but I was too young to qualify for one... I had to wake up at 6am every morning and withdraw $500 dollars (my daily limit) from an ATM and give it to the hotel in cash.

I remember being in an early coop (internship) term, probably only 20 years old at the time, and management saying “why don’t you speak at the conference”. I still remember being a kid, still with acne, stuttering and speaking in front of large audiences, and representing the company.

People who were senior in their careers at other companies were begging me for advice or access — the billion dollar company took a big risk letting someone so new and young represent the company but those experiences were a launching point for who I am today.

And there were so many interns at RIM! The RIM campus was built adjoining the University of Waterloo campus — there was a break in a fence that everyone knew about that would let you go straight from class to the office. I remember at one point someone saying that 30% of the company was interns. The company believed in young talent.

3. Showing how to Lead in the US, from Canada

Blackberry showed a lot of us that you can build a global leader in Canada. It was amazing to see it first hand. I also remember a culture of not emphasizing that we were Canadian. A manager once told me that Blackberry was the preferred choice for a lot of US military and government communications so it was better that people thought we were a US company. Since those days, I’ve always felt like the best Canadian companies sell actively in the US without emphasizing “we’re Canadian” (while still housing the bulk of the development here).

4. The Balance of Sales and Technology

In the early days at RIM, on Thursdays, we could sit in a special theatre and listen to Mike L talk about physics and science. There was this deep culture and appreciation for learning and appreciating the geeky science that drives the industry.

But RIM was unique in that it had two CEOs. A crazy concept that made it in-your-face overtly clear that success comes combined leadership in Tech AND Sales. The idea that you can’t JUST be good at tech has remained with me for the rest of my career.

5. Spread the Wealth

I didn’t join the company early enough to get stock in the company, but I witnessed second hand the amount of wealth that came to so many people in the community because of RIM’s success. RIM made the community richer in more ways than one. Mike L went on to use his wealth to found the Perimiter Institute which is a major contributor to the field of theoretical physics.

6. Attention to Detail

The Blackberry 850 (oh the feeling I get when looking at images of that device… chills) — it ran for 3-4 weeks, always on (always connected) on a SINGLE AA battery. How insane is that? Imagine if our phones today took a single tiny AA battery and ran for 3 weeks!

When I was invited to work with the RIM hardware teams, I saw how every single tiny item on the circuit boards was added with careful thought because the company had to think about power consumption in ways that the industry still can’t replicate. The company from the top down cared about every tiny detail in the tech and it allowed it to do things that no one else could do.

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Are there other amazing, positive things you learned when working at Blackberry (or listening to the stories). Please share!