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“Behind the Scenes” Of Mike Lazaridis and The Blackberry

Mike Lazaridis and The Blackberry

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 By: Saad 

 

Mike Lazaridis and The Blackberry

Canada is a great country. What makes Canada a great country is the Canadian heritage. The Canadian heritage includes the Canadian people, places events, history and inventions. One person who has helped Canada become a better country is Mike Lazaridis. Mike Lazaridis has put an impact on Canadian Heritage by inventing one of the most innovative inventions in Canadian History, the BlackBerry.

Mike Lazaridis was born on March 14, 1961 in Istanbul, Turkey. Late in 1966, Mike’s family sailed with his uncle Paul and his family, across the Atlantic Ocean with all their valuables in three suitcases. Two of the three suitcases were large and one of them was small. Mike, who was five years old at that time, stood at the stern of the ship flying his plastic airplane kite, beginning the path of a new life. As a kid Mike always loved science and wondered how things worked. Mike’s family moved and settled in Windsor, Ontario. Ada C. Richards public school was so close to their house that Mike’ s mom could watch him walk through their neighbor’s yard, across the playground and in the school. The basement of the house became Mike and his friend’s private lab. They would do all kinds of science experiments in the basement. Mike was into electronics, Doug Fergin made model airplanes and Ken Wood’s mom was a chemistry teacher who provided them with the ingredients they needed for their science experiments. Mike spent so much time at the Windsor Public Library that when he was twelve years old, he won an award for reading every science book in the Windsor Public Library. Mike’s family was so poor at that time that his dad couldn’t afford a sled but that was no problem. They got two pieces of wood from the garage and there was some left over metal from building the garage door. They cut the wood so it had a curve to it. Then they had some cross braces, a piece of metal and a few nails to hold the wooden frame. Next, they put a rope in it and painted it white and blue. Mike had a sled now to go sledding with his friends down the big hill in the schoolyard. All it took was one afternoon to build the sled. At W.F Herman Secondary school, Mike and his friend Doug Fergin took combined academic subjects with technical shops, which was a fairly difficult curriculum that only a very few students took. Mike became skilled in a variety of areas. He also took science and technology courses to be acceptable and succeed in the university.

Mike chose to attend the University of Waterloo. The University of Waterloo was three hours east of Windsor, which is more than halfway to Toronto. Because of Mike’s family being poor, he had to take help from a Co-op program that combined study terms with paid work experience. He also applied for two scholarships won both, which were added to his earnings. In Mike’s final year at Waterloo, Mike started thinking of starting a business of his own. So he phoned Doug Fergin, Mike’s friend since grade school and said,” I’m thinking of starting a company. I need your help”. That‘s all Doug needed to hear and he dropped out of the University of Waterloo. Graduation seemed pointless to Mike. The rules of the university also allowed taking a two year leave from studies. If things didn’t go well, Mike would return anytime during those two years and continue on with his studies. However, this required a personal permission from the president of the university. The president of the university was Doug Wright, who was also a former dean of engineering. So Mike met with him who listened patiently to what Mike had to say and supported him with his business plans. Then Doug leaned forward looking directly at Mike, and said,” speaking personally, just between you and me, go for it.” So Mike postponed his graduation.

Mike’s first choice for the name of his company was Paradigm Research, but he was told that it was already taken. One evening, Mike was watching a story on his old Black-and-white TV about football players trying to improve their running skills. As the footage went on, the words at the bottom said: “Poetry in motion”. That’s when it hit Mike. He applied “Research In Motion” for the registration and it got accepted. On March 7, 1984, research In Motion (RIM) was officially established by Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fergin. Even if Mike’s parents were not happy with the decision he made of postponing graduation, they lent him $15000 to help start his business. Mike and Doug rented a 500 square-feet two-room office on the second floor of a strip mall. Monthly rent of the office was $330. The business phone number 519-880-RIML (7465) is still the same today. RIM won a $600,000 contract from General Motors, known as GM, for making a 6 by 1 feet LED panels. In 1986, Mike awarded Micheal Barnstyn and Doug Fergin with 20 percent of the ownership. RIM’s fortunes had improved to the point where the company was able to move to a larger location.

In 1992, Mike started to struggle business side of operations. He had hardware engineers and software developers and innovative thinkers who could solve any technical problems but he badly needed help with the business side of operations. Then Mike was joined by James Laurence Balsillie. James was known by the name of Jim Balsillie. Jim was born in a small town of Ontario called Seafort in 1961. Jim was five weeks older than Mike. Jim joined RIM in August 1992 as RIM’s new vice-president of finance and business development. Jim invested $125,000 and Mike awarded him with 33% of the ownership making Doug and Micheal 13% each. The arrival of Jim Balsillie was a turning point for the company. As Jim settled into his role, Mike made the decision of giving him the title of chief executive officer.

In March 1998, RIM came up with 36 products and eliminated 30 of them in order to focus on what this new device would be. RIM was finalized with a hand held wireless Person Digital Assistant (PDA). RIM’s focus for the new device was the ability of e-mailing or texting whenever a few minutes became available. This new device also needed a name. In August 1998, RIM hired David Placek, the founder and president of Lexicon Branding Inc., of Sausalito California, in the search of a suitable name for the device. By 1999, the device was ready to be sold but it still needed a name. David noticed that the oval keys on the keypad looked like berry seeds. Then David was hit by the simple fact that the handheld was black. So he thought, why not call it Blackberry. Lexicon presented 40 names to a group that included Mike Lazaridis, Jim Balsillie, Dave Castell, and three more of the RIM’s employees. The name “BlackBerry” was the last out of all forty. After they were done showing the names, Mike said in a very loud voice, “I don’t like any of the names.” Everyone fell silent but after a while he said, “Except for the last one.” That’s how Blackberry was born.

Now BlackBerry is known all over the world. BlackBerry is designed for e-mailing, texting, web surfing, video recording, and GPS etc. It comes with a built in QWERT keypad, camera, multi-media and social networking softwares, wireless internet connectivity etc. It has software called VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) which makes calls better quality and cheaper. RIM generates an annual revenue of approximately 15 billion dollars. It had employees up to 12000 in 2010. RIM’s international corporation worth was $68 billion by the end of year 2007. Fortune Magazine ranked RIM number one on the list of “100 fastest growing companies in the world.”

RIM’s success provided generous support to their communities and country. On April 30, 2004, Mike Lazaridis also donated $33.3 million to the Institute for Quantum Computing. In 2002, Mike was awarded Canada’s national builder of the year by globe and mail.

The invention of BlackBerry has affected Canada a lot. Now people can contact each other without going on the computer. RIM has produced lots of BlackBerry models including Electron, Pearl, Curve, Bold, Storm, Torch, and many more. RIM plans on producing such device that will make iPad look like a piece of junk. Who knows what the future holds for BlackBerry.

This is the “behind the scenes” of BlackBerry.