BlackBerry India Officials Conduct an Interactive Workshop with TSCFM's PGDBM Students

A month ago, Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director, BlackBerry India, gave the students a unique opportunity in the MBA world – to work on a live case of a company that is in the middle of a historical transition. And on Friday, Mr. Lalvani and his colleague Somi Lal, Head, Finance & Operations, BlackBerry India, arrived to hear what the students had to say after weeks of research and deliberation.

In his morning address to the students, Mr. Lalvani, an alumnus of Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, reminisced about walking down the same corridors as a student. However, the agenda for the day was clear – to engage the PGDBM students in a unique two-way learning workshop. Four teams of PGDBM students – both from the first-year and second-year batches – had prepared well in advance to present their ideas on their turnaround strategy for the BlackBerry brand.

Before opening up the floor to the students, Mr. Lalvani set the context for the workshop. “There is a plethora of choice in the market today and eventually, it is the decision of the end user that matters. Two thirds of the Indian population is under 30 and the future workforce, like all of you. We are here to hear from you because you are the future.”

Team 1: Khalid Memon, Kartik Kothari, Shravya Rao, Luv Joukani, Abhishek Dandekar & Nikhil Naik

The first team of second-year PGDBM students described their collective experience of BlackBerry, which varied from individual to individual. While Abhishek Dandekar recently made the decision to switch to Samsung, Khalid Memon confessed to being hooked to BBM, while Luv Joukani uses both a BlackBerry and a Samsung smart phone. The students listed resale value, quick texting and real-time push email (“Email takes more time to load on Android”) as some of the advantages of owning a BlackBerry device.

The students posed a pertinent question: Why did BlackBerry compete on prices when it was initially marketed as a niche phone targeted at working professionals? They also listed some criticisms about the phones, namely longer reboots, a tendency for the OS to hang, small screens and limited apps.

Team 1 also shared their findings after surveying 5 mobile phone outlets in Bandra. The students discovered 3 BlackBerry models that had not been sold for the past 3 months, even though they had nearly the same features as other brand models within the same price range.

In their recommendations, the team emphasized the need for innovation, along with more brand awareness, attractive exchange offers, efficient after-sales service and more apps. They also suggested that the warranty term be extended to 2 years and a system be created wherein promotional offers would be unlocked after 20 months of use to regain the confidence of customers and retain them for longer periods of time.

Team 2: Vijyendra Parthasarthy, Jagriti Singh, Neha Sone, Arka Bose, Tanay Pradhan, Rahul Seth, Bhargvi Patel & Vinay Chakraborty

As the runners-up of the event, the second team of first-year PGDBM students made an excellent SWOC analysis of the BlackBerry brand. Underlining BlackBerry’s key advantage as being a highly secure phone, they also pointed out that the high service charges and the challenge of regaining the confidence of distributors and dealers were the major obstacles for the brand.

The team revealed the results of an online survey they conducted among 102 BlackBerry users. Of the entire sample set, 39% still owned the relatively old BlackBerry Bold, while only 6% owned the Z or Q series. For a majority of them (52%), the reason for purchase was of course, BlackBerry Messenger. However, when asked if they would recommend their device to others, a whopping 84% said they wouldn’t. Among the reasons given were expensive BB services (78%) and slow processing speeds (35%).

The team highlighted the lack of effective marketing efforts as a possible reason for the lack of awareness about the new BlackBerry series and their useful features. The team members questioned why it is that BlackBerry TV ads do not focus on showcasing key features of its phones, and instead choose to highlight BlackBerry’s brand ambassador Ranbir Kapoor who may connect with the youth, but had no relatability factor with corporate working professionals.

Among the other solutions the team suggested was sponsoring events to gain public view and retaining and motivating the existing sales force.

An innovative idea put forth by first-year PGDBM student Bhargvi Patel was creating an automated information flow service on BlackBerry mobile devices by which top management could access real-time data from factory managers and sales teams on the field, thus helping them make executive decisions that were not disconnected from ground realities.

Team 3: Salil Rane, Tanvi Gada, Danish Shaikh, Sharad Shenoy & Amaad Bhati

Despite having first mover advantage in its initial years, poor sales and marketing strategies had affected BlackBerry’s overall performance in the market. This was the base from which the third team of second-year PGDBM students went on to present their recommendations for the brand.

Having researched BlackBerry’s tie-up with Infosys, wherein all Infosys employees conduct all their work communication on company –provided BlackBerry devices, the team suggested other target group-specific promotional plans to capture larger sections of the market. The team members presented a BlackBerry Campus Plan aimed specifically at 11th and 12th grade students who are on the cusp of entering institutions where their friend circles will grow. The plan would include offering BlackBerry Curve models at a highly competitive price of Rs. 6,500 with unlimited internet for Rs. 225.

The team also stated that BlackBerry should consider investing in long-term innovative technology such as Sixth Sense (Pranav Mistry) wherein BlackBerry devices can map human gestures to create a seamless communication between user and device. They also talked about PhoneBloks, an idea that has garnered much attention in the past month. The PhoneBlok model proposes a Lego-like device in which parts of the phone, not the entire device, can be replaced.

Team 4: Vishesh Dalal, Aditya Raval, Vidhi Parmar, Sanjay Rohra, Karan Bhatia, Kunal Khatwani, Monisha Bhatia & Dhiren Ahuja

The winning team for the day, the first-year PGDBM members of Team 4 began by performing a visual metaphor of how BlackBerry’s ‘light’ had dimmed in the presence of new and faster-growing competitors, eliciting a round of applause from their classmates and setting the tone for the rest of the presentation. The team also showcased their innovative thinking by presenting video case studies of BlackBerry users in which they list the reasons why they switched to or still use a BlackBerry device.

Some of the students noted that the reason for BlackBerry’s early success – government & corporate contracts – became a disadvantage later in the game. This team too pointed to a weak marketing strategy, which was most likely the reason the BlackBerry Playbook, the company’s first and only tablet offering, failed.

Mentioning how a competitor like Apple comes up with iOS versions frequently, thus keeping itself in the public eye, the team questioned BlackBerry’s strategy of jumping from BlackBerry 7 OS to BlackBerry 10 OS with a gap of nearly two years between them. Some team members also wondered why BlackBerry has never tapped into the Chinese market, even though the country has the highest number of mobile phone and smart phone users. Incidentally, both these issues were addressed by Mr. Lalvani later in the session.

Perhaps the most important observation made by Team 4 was one they felt the company would benefit from by addressing – the lack of adequate educated, qualified dealers who are well-versed with the newest and most attractive features of the Z and Q series. The team members also felt that launching the BlackBerry Z10 at a cost of Rs.45,000 after a two-year gap was something that consumers didn’t respond to very well.

When queried by Ms. Lal about how they would suggest improvements to marketing efforts, the students recommended a flash mob event to generate buzz among the youth. They also felt the need for better communication between marketing and sales teams. Second-year PGDBM student Aditya Raval said, “There is a need to focus on BlackBerry’s strengths and eliminate weaknesses. Perhaps, one can focus on weaknesses at the boardroom level, but doing so at the organizational level can lower employee morale.” This astute observation was well-appreciated by Mr. Lalvani later in the session.

Even though members of Team 4 were declared the winners, Mr. Lalvani and Ms. Soni commended all of the teams for their excellent work. “The kind of work all of you have put in is amazing,” said Mr. Lalvani. Ms. Lal added, “As BlackBerry people, it’s obvious that we would be enthusiastic about the brand. But seeing all of you talk so passionately about BlackBerry was a complete pleasure!”

To see more photos from the event, visit http://on.fb.me/H0Qg2B