Well it’s always sad to see a founder, or even two end up leaving an active management role at their company. It could be a natural evolution but it got me thinking about my love/hate relationship with my Blackberry. I remember the first time I got a Blackberry. It was about 2000/2001 and I thought this was a great new device. It was amazing how quickly I became addicted to it, checking messages regularly and answering them at all hours of the day. The first time I noticed that there was a problem with their use was in a meeting at Arch Venture Partners in Chicago. One of the rites of passage in getting venture capital funding is presenting your pitch to all of the partners. We sat in a windowed boardroom and due to cellular reception, the partners had to place their Blackberries on a window ledge. On a regular basis during the meeting the partners would get up from their seats, go over to the window, retrieve their Blackberry and check and perhaps answer messages. Perhaps I was boring or they just were not interested but that was a defining moment for me. I started to look at how I used the Blackberry and discovered that I was becoming involved in a lot of things that my employees should be handling themselves. It was too easy to get me and to get me to deal with things they should be dealing with. It was also too easy to check email at all hours of the day and mentally to never leave work. RIM has managed to change human behaviour by the introduction of an innovative device and whether history will see this as positive or negative change, here’s a thank-you to Balsillie and Lazaridis for creating a world changing company.
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