Remember BlackBerry? The lessons we can learn from its spectacular rise and fall

Bruce Whitfield interviews former Discovery Health CEO Dr Ryan Noach, who is transitioning to CEO of tech investment company DNI.

Every week The Money Show interviews the author or reviewer of a new or trending business book.

This week Bruce Whitfield talked to Dr Ryan Noach, the former CEO of Discovery Health who is transitioning into the role of CEO of tech investment company DNI.

Dr Noach reviews Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of  BlackBerry.

It's written by veteran journalists Jacquie McNish & Sean Silcoff, who specialised in telecommunications.

Dr Noach explains that he is in a phase where he's trying to learn as he prepares for his new position at DNI, which is a major supplier of mobile handsets on the African continent.

"The combination of telecoms and handsets innovation is very interesting to me, so that's my interest in the story of BlackBerry."

"It's a really well-written book... The two journalists had deep insight into the telecoms industry. They also had significant access to various executives in and around Blackberry, and as a result provide a very detailed analysis of what led to this roaring success of RIM technologies with the BlackBerry device, and then to a very precipitous fall almost just as quickly as they achieved success."

"There's a quote in the book that I love, which is the combination of these two leaders led to a perfect balance of profit and invention (initially)

"There was a long history of no revenues and almost-closure... then they were eventually lucky enough to get a contract to assemble a mobile network for a Canadian telecoms company. They delivered, and monetized RIM as a result, but also learned about customer needs in messaging and came up with some clever ideas around devices... They went on very quickly around 1992 to 'solve the mobile email riddle'."

"They developed this insight that the future of technology would be driven by hardware, not software... and the immediate availability of communications, messaging and particularly email, would change the way business is done.... It did lead to the world of 24/7 online email... and had a massive social impact."

 "Lazarides had very strong views about what customers wanted, which would later be his downfall. He didn't do customer research, he used his intuition... Remember some of the key features like that iconic keyboard layout, the feel and the click of the buttons... you had a feedback mechanism. Today, on devices like the iPhone and other smartphones, you get a haptic feedback which is an electrical feedback from a vibration device... but that initial insight was actually BlackBerry's, that people would enjoy the feel of pushing a button."

"In terms of some of their failures, there was really a lack of willingness to challenge their model, to change and re-innovate... then they fell behind the innovation curve. They stuck to Lazarides' instincts on customers, but when Apple brought out a device with a touchscreen they said their keyboard would win the day, and they really got leapfrogged by Apple and android."

"And then there was what is a real lesson in tech... They had core technological failures, a famous outage which lasted three days around 2010, and really steered away nearly all of their customers in ONE event. So there is a bit of hubris in my understanding, that led to their fall... this led to dispute between these two leaders and a rapid cascade and downfall. So there are amazing lessons in this book - I would recommend it to anybody with an interest in technology or commerce."

Description on Amazon:

The true story of the BlackBerry empire―and how it would eventually come crumbling down in the wake of the smartphone revolution

Losing the Signal is a riveting story of a company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of Silicon Valley. This is not a conventional tale of modern business failure by fraud and greed. The rise and fall of BlackBerry reveals the dangerous speed at which innovators race along the information superhighway.

With unprecedented access to key players, senior executives, directors and competitors, Losing the Signal unveils the remarkable rise of a company that started above a bagel store in Ontario. At the heart of the story is an unlikely partnership between a visionary engineer, Mike Lazaridis, and an abrasive Harvard Business school grad, Jim Balsillie. Together, they engineered a pioneering pocket email device that became the tool of choice for presidents and CEOs. The partnership enjoyed only a brief moment on top of the world, however. At the very moment BlackBerry was ranked the world's fastest growing company internal feuds and chaotic growth crippled the company as it faced its gravest test: Apple and Google's entry in to mobile phones.

Expertly told by acclaimed journalists, Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, this is an entertaining, whirlwind narrative that goes behind the scenes to reveal one of the most compelling business stories of the new century.

Scroll up to listen to Dr Noach's review