科技品牌興衰起伏，但很少有公司像黑莓手機(jī)生產(chǎn)商RIM這般慘痛。以下就是我們從RIM的衰敗中獲得的一些經(jīng)驗(yàn)教訓(xùn)。
移動(dòng)技術(shù)領(lǐng)域競爭異常慘烈，只有不斷創(chuàng)新才能立于不敗之地。所以移動(dòng)品牌的興衰起伏也都在彈指之間。然而，RIM(Research-in-Motion)在今年的衰敗顯得格外突然和慘痛。
自今年2月以來，RIM的股價(jià)已經(jīng)下跌超過50％，而過去18個(gè)月，其在美國智能手機(jī)市場的份額也從34％下滑至24％。黑莓曾經(jīng)是最受消費(fèi)者青睞的手機(jī)，但蘋果(Apple)iPhone和谷歌(Google)Android手機(jī)的出現(xiàn)改變了這一切。與蘋果和谷歌競爭原本就并非易事，更何況RIM的管理層在今年還鑄下大錯(cuò)，導(dǎo)致RIM由下滑轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)槿姹罎?。RIM的衰敗可謂企業(yè)危機(jī)管理的典型反面教材，我們可以從中得到以下5點(diǎn)教訓(xùn)：
不要做出無法兌現(xiàn)的承諾。4月28日，RIM表示，鑒于新款黑莓產(chǎn)品將在今年晚些時(shí)候上市，公司預(yù)計(jì)本財(cái)年每股收益將達(dá)到7.5美元。一些分析師對RIM的樂觀預(yù)期提出質(zhì)疑，他們預(yù)計(jì)RIM的每股收益可能不到6美元。最后果然如此，在RIM公布第一季度業(yè)績后，該公司不得不將全年每股預(yù)期收益下調(diào)至5.25美元到6美元之間。
原因何在?RIM之所以提出了如此之高的預(yù)期，是因?yàn)榉浅？春谜陂_發(fā)的項(xiàng)目，但最后這些項(xiàng)目卻不能如期發(fā)布。升級(jí)版黑莓Torch和Storm要等到夏末才能上市，比預(yù)期的時(shí)間推遲了很多。在現(xiàn)在這個(gè)年代，智能手機(jī)推遲發(fā)布就等于胎死腹中。受這一消息影響，RIM的股價(jià)下跌了27％，創(chuàng)下近5年以來的最低點(diǎn)。
不要推出半成品。RIM的智能手機(jī)推遲發(fā)布，而其平板電腦Playbook又操之過急。不少評測者對RIM開發(fā)中的Playbook進(jìn)行了評測，對其大為褒獎(jiǎng)。不過在Playbook正式推出后，大家反響不一。最令人不安的是，正式版Playbook竟然沒有電子郵件服務(wù)，而這恰恰是黑莓智能手機(jī)的殺手锏。結(jié)果，Playbook雖然初期銷售強(qiáng)勁，但隨后很快下滑。Playbook給大家的感覺好像是RIM為了對抗iPad，倉促推出了一款半成品。
招徠開發(fā)者，不要疏遠(yuǎn)他們。在今天，只有應(yīng)用程序開發(fā)者愿意為之工作的移動(dòng)平臺(tái)才是好平臺(tái)。即使在惠普(HP)收購Palm之前，WebOS也是一款不錯(cuò)的操作系統(tǒng)，但它并沒能吸引到足夠的開發(fā)者。即使RIM在企業(yè)領(lǐng)域?qū)嵙軓?qiáng)，但開發(fā)者們還是紛紛撤離，轉(zhuǎn)投iOS和Android的懷抱。為了扭轉(zhuǎn)這一局面，RIM宣布將支持Android應(yīng)用程序，但這可能將適得其反。有跡象顯示，此舉已導(dǎo)致開發(fā)者們紛紛逃離Playbook所搭載的RIM全新QNX平臺(tái)。
不要攻擊批評者，要從善如流。科技新聞博客Boy Genius Report發(fā)布了一篇經(jīng)過證實(shí)的來自RIM管理層的匿名“公開信”，RIM隨后也通過匿名方式在博客上予以回應(yīng)?；貞?yīng)信件是對的，不過RIM采取的處理方式并不恰當(dāng)。這封公開信提出了不少切合實(shí)際的看法，盡管RIM的管理層難以接受：承認(rèn)蘋果正在“獨(dú)步”智能手機(jī)市場;專注于個(gè)人消費(fèi)者而非運(yùn)營商;考慮更換一名“具有創(chuàng)新思維、經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富”的首席執(zhí)行官。
RIM的回應(yīng)堪稱近來最糟糕的公關(guān)行為之一。RIM發(fā)表聲明，草率地全盤否定了公開信的建議。(“RIM完全清楚目前的形勢，我們正在積極應(yīng)對公司所面臨的機(jī)遇和挑戰(zhàn)。”)更差勁的是，RIM竟然還展開人身攻擊，指責(zé)作者“假冒身份”、“懷著不可告人的目的”。這一舉動(dòng)最后招致RIM前任和現(xiàn)任員工的強(qiáng)烈批評。
保持緘默可能是更好的回應(yīng)：RIM的舉動(dòng)使其顯得高傲自大，甚至不識(shí)時(shí)務(wù)。
不要把忠誠當(dāng)成理所當(dāng)然。這條教訓(xùn)所有企業(yè)都應(yīng)銘記在心。就在幾年前，RIM還在消費(fèi)者、員工和投資者中建立了令人欽羨的忠誠度。而且RIM也有機(jī)會(huì)贏得開發(fā)者的信賴。不過RIM在過去幾個(gè)月的所作所為將這一切銷蝕殆盡。
這種忠誠原本可使RIM迅速而輕松地實(shí)現(xiàn)轉(zhuǎn)型，不過RIM卻把它揮霍一空。誰也不知道這家公司究竟從中獲得了什么好處。
譯者：項(xiàng)航 In the hyper-competitive world of mobile technology， you''re only as good as your latest innovations. So brands rise and fall with surprising speed. But even by those accelerated standards， the fall of Research-in-Motion (RIMM) this year has been sudden and brutal.
What happened? RIM pinned its bullish hopes on Blackberry projects in had in the works， but then had to delay their releases. Upgrades to the Blackberry Torch and Storm models will come in late summer， much later than expected. In 2011， a delayed smartphone is a smartphone that''s dead in the water. On the news， RIM''s stock fell 27％ to its lowest point in nearly five years.
Don''t release half-baked products either. The smartphone delays coincided with a bumpy release of RIM''s tablet， the Playbook. Reviewers who tested the Playbook in development had a lot of early praise for it. But once it was released， the reviews turned mixed. Most worrisome， the Playbook launched without the email service that makes its smartphones so attractive to many users. As a result， initial sales started strong and fell off quickly. The Playbook ended up feeling like it had been rushed to market to compete with the iPad.
It''s better to court developers than to alienate them. At the end of the day， a mobile platform is only as good as the developers writing for it. Even before HP (HPQ) bought Palm， webOS was a fine operating system， but it failed to draw a critical mass of developers. Despite RIM''s strength in the enterprise market， developers have been fleeing its platform for iOS and Android. RIM tried to remedy this by announcing it would support Android apps， but this may be backfiring. There are signs that this move is driving developers away from RIM''s new QNX platform， which powers the Playbook.
Don''t attack the messenger. And don''t take the message personally. After the tech-news site Boy Genius Report printed an anymous but verified "open-letter" by a RIM executive， the company replied with its own anonymous blog post. RIM was right to respond to the letter， but so wrong in it its handling of it. The open letter had sensible ideas， even if they were hard for RIM''s leadership to swallow: Admit that Apple is "nailing" smartphones， focus on consumers and not carriers and consider a "fresh-thinking， experienced" CEO.
RIM''s reply was one of the most hamfisted PR moves in recent memory. It blithely dismissed the open-letter''s suggestions with a declaration of denial. ("RIM is fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company''s challenges and its opportunities.") Even worse， it took some ad-hominem swipes， suggesting the author was "fake" or had "ulterior motivations." That inspired a dozen other impassioned criticisms from current and former RIM employees.
Dead air would have been a better response: RIM ended up looking arrogant and even more out of touch.
Don''t take loyalty for granted. This is the lesson underscoring all the others. Only a couple of years ago， RIM had built up an enviable degree of loyalty among consumers， employees and investors. It was positioned to win over developers as well. But its moves in the past several months are eroding all of that good will.
All that loyalty could have made a turnaround quick and painless. Instead it''s frittering that good will away. And it''s not really clear what the company is getting in return.
