Tech Capital Partners Blog

“So you are looking for the next RIM are you?” is the most frequent question I get when I tell people what I do. My response is usually some flip comment like “Wouldn’t that be nice!” because I suspect the inquirer doesn’t really want to hear what I think. So the conversation moves on to kids, the weather and how bad the Leafs are. But blogs are what they are and here is what I think.

What RIM has been able to accomplish in its 20+ years of existence is truly stunning. It is clear that RIM has changed the basis of competition for wireless mobile devices and applications. In a fiercely competitive landscape they have managed to outdistance their rivals through outstanding technological leadership. On the ground here in Waterloo, RIM continues to set the standard of global excellence to which all tech companies should be aspiring.

They have been able to affect the English slang lexicon by creating nouns such as  “crackberry” and verbs such as “to berry.” They have provided grown-ups with a socially acceptable security blanket… Face it, you too have “quickly checked your emails” at an awkward moment during a networking event when you had no one to talk to. Then there is the marital friction. A friend was told by his wife that he had to put the thing away for their Florida vacation. Imagine the discussion that ensued when he was caught sneaking into the bathroom for a quick peek!

So are we looking for the next RIM?

Of course we are. But what is it that makes the “next RIM” anyway?

Many years ago I worked for a big accounting firm in Toronto. Fax machines were just  reaching rapid deployment. After making that big investment, the partners were faced with the most vexing of dilemmas. Should they spend the money to roll out voicemail or should they invest in email? Acquiring both, indeed needing both, was simply out of the question.

It must have been about that time when the folks at RIM decided we would ultimately want our email on our belts. How did that happen? Why did they make that decision? Who in his or her right mind would think it was a good idea to build a consumer electronics product in Canada in a market already inhabited by corporate giants? And, this decision was made when the rest of us were still trying to decide if we needed email at all…

Vision or inspiration?

It must be that vision thing. Now that is an overused word if there ever was one. Every business plan has a vision. People go away for weekends to craft them. Shoot, you can even hire a consultant to write one for you. But if there are so many visions, why are there so few RIMs.

Thomas Edison said “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

There is no doubt that people in the tech business work hard. Endless late nights, and weekends, trying to get the next release out. Working hard is simply a fact.

A web search of the word inspiration yields:

• arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity
• a sudden intuition as part of solving a problem
• divine guidance: (theology)
• arousing to a particular emotion or action

So what do I really think? The “next RIM” won’t look like the “next RIM” when it is the “next RIM.” But when we see true inspiration, will we have the perspicacity to recognize it? That is what I think about.

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