Yearly Archive: 2010

My new book landed on the Globe and Mail best-seller list today in the number five slot. I’m in good company with three books by Malcolm Gladwell and one by Eckhart Tolle (praised by Oprah) ahead of me. Gladwell, who is from Elmira, Ontario, has a BlackBerry connection. He and Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research In Motion, knew each other at Trinity College and have kept in touch since their college days. Being on the best-seller list is a real thrill. Thousands of books are published each year that never achieve this status. But I’ve long since learned not to...

On Monday March 22 I’m speaking about my new book at the Rotman School of Management. It’s an honour to be invited to this prestigious venue in the Fleck Auditorium at 105 St. George Street on the University of Toronto campus. The event starts sharp at 5 p.m., I’ll talk for 25 minutes, then take questions until 6. Cost for the event is $32.95 and includes a copy of BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research In Motion. Here’s the link to register. See you there! I’ll be happy to sign your book.

Whenever I bring out a new book, people always ask two questions. First, what’s next? It’s a crazy question, really. I’ve just spent four years on this project. Couldn’t we enjoy the moment? Second question is: How’s it doing? I’m delighted to report that in its second week of availability my book seems to be doing very well. The Globe and Mail today says “BlackBerry” is #2 on the business best-seller list, right behind “Who Moved My Cheese?” which has been off and on the lists since it was first published in 1998. On Amazon.ca “BlackBerry” is ranked #54, not...

Time was when an author’s publicity tour was a national campaign. In the 1980s, I’d spend two days in Toronto, a day elsewhere in Southern Ontario, then head out to do a day in each of Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria. In each city a local publicist hired by the publisher would ferry me around to six-or-eight media interviews she’d arranged, drop me back at the airport and on I’d go to the next city and repeat the process. It could be a bit of a blur. There would come a point during interviews when I’d...

Authors enjoy reading reviews of their books, even slightly misguided ones like the review that appeared in yesterday’s Montreal Gazette. Reviewer Roberto Rocha is unhappy because I didn’t write more about work burnout, carpal tunnel syndrome or Tech Neck, a malady caused by spending too much time hunched in the BlackBerry prayer position. It’s an odd point of view, really, because what Rocha seems to be saying is he’d rather read about things he already knows. Not a very adventuresome view, is it? Prior to beginning my research, I knew all about those topics, too, but I decided to write...

When you appear on daytime television, you never know who else will be on the same show. In the past, I’ve shared studios with magicians, chefs and animal acts. Yesterday, on Canada AM, was the first time I’ve ever been the lead-in to a skeleton. Here’s the link to my interview. The bones were among the props used by a physiotherapist whose message was don’t carry too much in your purse or laptop satchel because excess weight can be hard on your back. In addition to the skeleton she was lugging four heavy bags of stuff, an irony not lost...

The day began with breakfast. John Spears from the Toronto Star interviewed me yesterday at Creme de la Creme, a cafe in my neighborhood. His questions about the book were informed and the interview lasted an hour, punctuated by the arrival of a photographer from the newspaper. When the waitress brought my bacon and eggs, she proudly encouraged him to take a picture of the plate “before he messes it up.” Broadcasters are different from print reporters. I’ve noticed over the years that broadcasters who talk to me about a new book usually have never read the book. That’s OK,...

There wasn’t much pre-interview chit-chat as I sat in the CBC-TV studio last evening with Amanda Lang and Kevin O’Leary. They were both busy on their BlackBerrys which I took to be a good sign since I was there to talk about that very product as part of a series of media interviews this week to promote my new book. I did hear that O’Leary attended the Canada-U.S. hockey game Sunday and left Vancouver on a 6 a.m. flight for Toronto on Monday to be on hand for the inaugural Lang & O’Leary Exchange in prime time. Until this week,...

Welcome to my refreshed website on the occasion of the publication of my latest book, BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research In Motion. This week I’ll be doing interviews with a number of media outlets as part of the launch. First up is The Lang & O’Leary Exchange on CBC-TV tonight during their new prime time slot of 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Among the many crucial moments in the history of Research In Motion was the arrival of Jim Balsillie in 1992. At the time, when he was hired by Mike Lazaridis, there were only fourteen employees. As RIM’s new vice-president of finance and business development, Balsillie invested $125,000 for a one-third interest in the business. “The arrival of Jim Balsillie was a turning point for the company in several respects,” said Dale Brubacher-Cressman, employee number five at RIM. “There was only so much Mike could do. He recognized the need to get business support into the company to get the company to...

Even after spending a quarter of a century building Research In Motion, Mike Lazaridis remains deeply passionate about what he’s doing. “Mike is still a little-boy gadget freak. Whenever I see him at a trade show, he takes me aside, pulls out the latest toy, and he oohs and he aahs all over it,” says California-based wireless consultant Andy Seybold. “Mike is not driven by money. He is driven by ‘What can I do next to take this platform and turn it into something super cool yet again?’ And he keeps doing it.” Co-CEO Jim Balsillie equates their roles at...

Of all the erroneous allegations made about Research In Motion over the years, the most persistent has been that some competitor is developing a killer device that will either end RIM’s growing dominance or dispatch the company into oblivion. Analyst Mike Urlocker once drew up a list of all the products that had been billed by somebody as “BlackBerry killers.” They included Palm 7, Qualcomm PDQ, Motorola PageWriter, Motorola T900, 3G, MSFT Exchange Server 2003, Compaq Ipaq, Ogo, Sidekick, Nokia E62, Sendo, Microsoft Stinger, and Pocket PC. To that list could be added other, more recent, mainstream candidates such as Palm Pre and Apple’s...

Look at those two men, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, co-CEOs of Research In Motion, on the back cover of my new book. Don’t they look ready for takeoff? Well, so’s BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research In Motion. Regular readers of this blog will see a visual change. With BlackBerry due to be published on March 2, it was time to move on from Manulife, which was published last May. In the days ahead, I’ll be talking more about BlackBerry and RIM. Meanwhile, I can tell you I’ve enjoyed working on this book during the last three years. Much...

I love a conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but the one propounded over the weekend by the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors (CAITI) is a bridge too far. I look at the group’s website from time to time and am amazed how long they’ve managed to maintain their fervor against the federal government for ending income trusts in 2006. Among the group’s dark contentions is that Ottawa killed income trusts so that the life insurance industry, including Manulife, would have a clear field to sell retirement plans. That’s quite stretch but nothing like CAITI’s recent claim...

Standard & Poor’s yesterday dropped its credit rating on Manulife Financial to A+ from AA-. Normally, a one notch fall like that wouldn’t matter much, but in this case, the agency had warned management in advance. S&P didn’t like a plan by Manulife CEO Donald Guloien to reorganize U.S. operations claiming that what he had in mind would reduce the company’s cash flow. Guloien went ahead anyway, thereby proving that as a leader, he’d rather be a loner than someone who just plays along. You can see that personality trait in his music. Guloien’s father and his many aunts and...