Strategic Entrepreneurship

Businesses cannot succeed in an industry unless they continue to create and implement new and innovative products and services. Today, organizations and firms must strategize and create partnerships with other companies that have similar strategic goals in order to rapidly develop and produce innovative goods and services to consumers. While the downfall of Blackberry Limited was due to its lack of innovative products and strategic leadership for the company, alliances with firms, such as Apple, Inc., can help the company produce innovative Smartphones that meet the wants and needs of their consumers.

Creating innovative products and services is a key element to having a business thrive in a global industry. According to Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson (2013), innovation is the “process of creating a commercial product from an invention” (p. 395). One company that is not exceptionally innovative is Blackberry Limited. Blackberry went from being the global leader in Smartphones to being in jeopardy of closing. The company’s downfall is due to a lack of innovative cell phone products and services while rival businesses in the market created faster and more inventive products and applications that met the wants and needs of consumers.

In addition, the downfall of Blackberry Limited is due to a lack of strategic leadership within the firm. Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson (2013) found that leaders set goals to develop and commercialize new products and services, effectively communicate knowledge with members of the team, and help to support the firm’s vision and mission. A lack of strategic leadership within Blackberry is a lesson that would benefit the future direction of the company, as Blackberry’s CEO and founder failed to acknowledge that the cell phone market was changing and that the firm’s devices needed to be improved. As a result, Blackberry’s CEO did not push for the development of new products to meet the demands of its consumers, and the company lost billions of dollars within a short period of time.

One company that would make a good strategic partner for Blackberry Limited is Apple. Although Blackberry’s demise is mostly due to the popularity of the Apple iPhone, Blackberry’s new mission and the market is to supply high-quality Smartphones for businesses. Since Apple’s market is mostly composed of younger demographics and Apple excels at innovation, Apple would be able to help Blackberry upgrade its outdated operating system and to regain a share in the business market without compromising its own stake in the market. Therefore, a strategic partnership with Apple could enable Blackberry to provide innovative business applications for their Smartphones that meets the needs of its business clients.

The three approaches to innovation include internal innovation, cooperative strategies, and acquisitions. After analyzing the effectiveness of each, it has been determined that strategic alliances with other firms are the approach that holds the greatest value to the greatest number of organizations. Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson (2013) explained that “alliances with other firms can provide information on new business opportunities and how to exploit them, and research suggests that such innovation will lead to breakthroughs and new product classes more often than other modes” (p. 404). As a result, alliances between firms can lead to a greater number of innovative products being implemented and produced, which will benefit each company’s market position and sustainability.

One innovative approach for increasing the amount of innovation within a large company is for employees to create innovative products on their own. Although this approach may not be effective by some since members of a team may not have the resources that they need, if organizations allow employees to freely create and design innovative products for the company, companies would benefit from it in two ways. First, organizations would not lose a substantial amount of money creating a product since it would have to be approved by leaders in order to be developed and implemented. In addition, since organizations would maintain the patent for the invention, the firm would see high returns from the product if it became successful in the market.

To conclude, while the downfall of Blackberry Limited was due to its lack of innovative products and strategic leadership for the company, alliances with firms, such as Apple, can help the company produce innovative Smartphones that meet the wants and needs of their consumers. By forming strategic alliances with other firms, businesses can create innovative products that will highly benefit themselves and their partners. However, if internal innovation, cooperative strategies, and acquisitions are not possible, firms can still produce innovative products by allowing employees to freely create products and services that might revolutionize the market.

Reference

Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2013). Strategic management: Concepts and Cases: Competiveness and globalization (10th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.