RIM getting close to hiring new Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer

By Kevin Michaluk on 2 May 2012 11:19 am

During the press session with Thorsten Heins at BlackBerry World 2012, the RIM CEO made note that they are honing in on hiring their new Chief Media Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

Heins couldn't give any detail on who will fill the roles just yet (still need to get those signatures signed on the contracts), but it was clear sitting in the audience that Heins was enthusiastic about who they are looking at bringing on board.

On the marketing front, Heins acknowledged they have spent a lot of time looking at how good they are at marketing their product and brand, and noted that in the past the messaging has been somewhat fragmented. Expect that laser-like focus Heins is bringing to the organization to manifest itself in the marketing message moving forward. Heck, even without a CMO, I'm a big fan of the BlackBerry is for Successful People message that was delivered during the BlackBerry World keynote.

The COO role was previously a shared role -- Heins was one of RIM's COOs before moving into the CEO role -- but moving forward this will be consolidated to one position.

During our initial interview with Thorsten Heins when he was still in his first week as CEO, he made it clear that changes would be coming to RIM's organizational structure. Today Heins delivered the message that those changes are complete, having established a management team that has his full trust and is committment.

Topics: BlackBerry World 2012 News & Rumors Editorial

Kevin Michaluk 3673 (articles) 3016 (forum posts)

21 comments

BlackBerryIdea May 2, 2012 at 11:43 am

Good news

BlackBerryIdea 'Your Idea's In Motion' @BlackBerryIdea

drummer_god May 2, 2012 at 11:45 am

'Blackberry is for successful people' sounds similar to diesel jeans', 'for successful living' slogan.

either way, i like it.

depscribe May 2, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Truth would demand "Blackberry is for people who can afford to wait. And wait. And wait. And watch everybody else blow past them because Blackberry seldom delivers and never delivers on time."

depscribe

Rub3n5 May 5, 2012 at 11:27 am

depscribe - Tell that to the people of 911 around ground zero when their only means of communication to their loved ones was not phone calls, text messages or e-mail... but BBM.

Hater gonna hate...

datta72 May 2, 2012 at 11:45 am

I hope it's not the guy from T-Mobile, who is retiring at the end of the month

stackberry369 May 2, 2012 at 11:49 am

The new cmo will be the ghost of Steve Jobs.

depscribe May 2, 2012 at 11:58 am

RIM talks well and touts products well.Everything else, not so much. Who they need to hire is someone to drive the boatload of PlayBook keyboards here from China or wherever they are, so that people who wanted to buy them when they were "released" month before last will actually be able to find one to purchase, other than the two dozen or whatever it was shipped exclusively to Canada.

depscribe

SharpieFiend May 2, 2012 at 12:00 pm

That BlackBerry "BlackBerry is for Successful People" message is far too close to Diesel's (the high end clothing brand) "for successful living' motto.

WillieLee May 2, 2012 at 12:23 pm

Your post is far too close to drummer_god's

SPACE-AGE-INC May 2, 2012 at 12:01 pm

Did you give him your resume Kevin?

VeGiTo May 2, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Would much rather Kevin remains an independent fanboy. If Kevin actually works for RIM, everything that comes out of his mouth will be treated as corporate PR rather than the words of a true enthusiast.

depscribe May 2, 2012 at 1:22 pm

Nose will be the same color either way. Would be nice if there were a BB site devoted to *covering* the subject instead of merely sucking up to it.

depscribe

squeegeeboy May 2, 2012 at 1:26 pm

Why are you signing your posts?

krokus May 3, 2012 at 8:17 am

Kevin knows what Blackberry users want. I have suggested Kevin as RIM's marketing manager several times. RIM just do not seem to listen to me. I wonder why...

Brianflys May 2, 2012 at 12:23 pm

This transition of leadership is not "complete" if there are the huge gaps in the CMO and COO positions. As noted by the media and stock market reaction to BBWC so far, there are at least very large gaps in the marketing side if not operations.
"Honing in" on selections is not good enough. Those positions need to be filled NOW and people should have been at least introduced at this conference. As CEO, Thor needs to make this happen.
You should press this point in the press event or interviews.

gregorylkelly May 2, 2012 at 12:26 pm

I don't like the "BlackBerry is for Successful People" slogan. It sounds snooty and limited. I get it and like it the way it was used yesterday, but I wouldn't like it as an official marketing strategy.

oldtimeBBaddict May 2, 2012 at 1:26 pm

And despite this announcement, RIMM is currently down 5+%?

dcgore May 2, 2012 at 1:49 pm

Thorsten 'laser focused' Heins