Drop your arrogance and certainty – think again and again. The Blackberry was a Canadian product, launched in 1984. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s engineers went to John S Chen, the CEO and Chairman of Blackberry and told him that the smartphone would kill his product. Chen brushed them off, suggesting that consumers […]

Drop your arrogance and certainty – think again and again. The Blackberry was a Canadian product, launched in 1984. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s engineers went to John S Chen, the CEO and Chairman of Blackberry and told him that the smartphone would kill his product. Chen brushed them off, suggesting that consumers would always want a phone that focuses on calls and messaging alone. Chen was wrong. Kodak was also wrong when engineers and marketing staff informed the board that film was on the way out and that the company in the world with the greatest number of digital patents (Kodak) should immediately transition to digital photography. With a view to preserving their non-digital business and damaging the margins in digital photography, Kodak stood its ground. In the late 1980’s, engineers at Apple went to Steve Jobs and suggested that Apple had to get into the smartphone…