Waterloo - ON Canada
The big idea: In 25 words or less, please tell us how this Fast 50 Nominee is helping to address the planet's problems.
Almost a decade after the BlackBerry solution changed the face of business communications, its inventor, Mike Lazaridis, is still shaping the smartphone industry through his passionate approach to innovation.
Please describe how this nominee is using business as a force of positive change. What technology, idea, or strategy is the nominee using -- and what problem, such as global warming, poverty, or pollution, does it address? (suggested length: 100 words)
Given today’s increasingly mobile world, it’s hard to imagine that only 10 years ago, there was no such thing as mobile e-mail. When Mike Lazaridis and RIM introduced the first BlackBerry in 1999, they significantly changed the face of business with an innovative product that enabled professionals to remain connected at all times. Almost 10 years later, Lazaridis is still leading the drive for innovation at RIM, maximizing his personal commitment to creative thinking by encouraging open dialogue and idea-sharing among employees. The result of this strategy: RIM’s inventive corporate culture and, in turn, the company’s progressive advancements in smartphone technology.
Lazaridis regularly initiates team brainstorms, which are a major source of RIM’s successful innovations. He encourages team members to think collaboratively about ways to enhance the BlackBerry experience – be it through applications, design, functionality or new technologies.
The ubiquitous BlackBerry smartphones clearly illustrate the end result of this approach to product design, as well as Lazaridis’ ability to detect worthwhile ideas from ones that don’t add value to the product, and to teach others to do the same. BlackBerry devices incorporate consumers’ desire for robust technology in the smallest possible package. RIM has been able to overcome a long-standing paradox in the smartphone market: how to package sophisticated technology into an easy-to-use, compact product.
Lazaridis carries his passion for innovation beyond his day job at RIM by contributing significant time and money to the scientific community. He established the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an independent, resident-based research institute devoted to foundational issues in theoretical physics. The Institute holds a physics camp for high school students every summer, helping to instill a passion for science in the next generation. Lazaridis is also a long-standing member of the Board of Governors of the University of Waterloo and, in May 2003, was appointed as its Chancellor. In addition, Lazaridis helped establish the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing. He is also a member of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Ontario Research and Innovation Council, and a Governor of the Information Technology Association of Canada.
What are the results, both financial and social? How has the nominee's business performed, and what impact has it had on the problem it addresses? (suggested length: 100 words)
While Lazaridis was in high school, a teacher shared this advice: “Don’t get too caught up in computers. It’s the person who combines wireless and computers that will come up with something special.” With a lifelong passion for engineering, Mike took these words of inspiration and forever changed the way millions of people communicate.
To understand the social impact of Lazaridis’ work, simply take a look around at our increasingly mobile world. BlackBerry smartphones are now in the hands of about 14 million subscribers worldwide and are offered on more mobile carriers across the world than ever before. Since sparking the social phenomenon of wireless mobility in 1999, RIM has consistently produced industry-leading smartphones. When the desire for mobile connectivity grew from the business community to the consumer realm, RIM’s ability to design advanced, yet consumer-friendly, products added to the rapid growth of this market.
