On the heels of two recent executive exits and one high-profile firing, BlackBerry is bracing itself for more departures in the near future. An unnamed source told Bloomberg that two key reasons may cause additional managers to leave in the coming weeks.
In the first case, a number of one-year incentive packages provided to managers to keep them onboard as the company was readying its BlackBerry 10 operating system and smartphones are set to expire this month. Second, CEO Thorsten Heins is also reportedly aiming for higher goals from his managers in areas as varied as phone sales, subscriber growth, growth in the number of BlackBerry 10 apps and product development. Those not meeting those tougher targets would face termination, according to the same source.
The report adds that Heins is also eyeing further cuts through staff attrition. A similar report earlier this week suggested that BlackBerry was looking for further staff reductions at the middle management level in the sales and support divisions which account for about 10% of BlackBerry’s current 12,700 employees.
At this week’s annual meeting, Heins described the company’s current cost-savings program, known as Polaris, as “really trimming and slimming the organization.” For example, BlackBerry may not need as many developers going forward now that the first version of BlackBerry 10 is done.
BlackBerry lost US$84 million in its last quarter and expects another loss for the current quarter.
Source : Bloomberg