Blackberry to cut 4,500 jobs

Blackberry to cut 4,500 jobs

I was ready to trash this article after reading the title, but as Chris Umiastowski points out, Blackberry’s round massive layoffs is a tragic but necessary move brought by years of mismanagement.

I don’t think there is any way to avoid sounding like I’m sugar coating bad news. That’s fine. That is what happens when you discuss the necessity of job cuts as a company reacts to the market rather than being proactive, as I wish BlackBerry had been. But these cuts are necessary. BlackBerry needs to get back to having a manageable base of employees who are focused on the few critical projects and programs.

A leaner BlackBerry with 7600 employees seems like it should be able to make decisions faster and get the important things done. Key word being “should”. In the end it all comes down to execution, which is where people have a perfectly valid reason for criticizing the company over the last few years.

Time will tell on the execution side of things. I’m just glad I moved away from Blackberry when I did.