The Essential CEO Tool

For an entrepreneur, not "carrying" a Blackberry is just stupid. A lot of business people and start-up CEOs think they save money by not having them.  Many CEOs have adopted, but a lot still are on the fence 5 years after the Blackberry's introduction.

Time is awasting.   A Blackberry is just a tool so that instead of making a 5-10 minute phone call to an assistant or an associate or a customer, oftentimes a 1 sentence or one word email response from a wireless Blackberry is plenty.  The time one saves avoiding playing the voice-mail retrieval game is worth it alone.

My estimate is that an hour or two everyday can be saved, and that's money in the bank. It has been saving me at least 40 hours a month for years now.   Complete return of investment is about a 2-3 days, a week at the most, by my estimate, if you value your manager's time to the extent that you pay them.  And on the intangible side, it's amazing what happens to your credibility when within minutes you can respond to a key customer, manager, board member or investor.

I've contemplated making all our CEOs carry a Blackberry as part of our term sheet, no joke. I know that might sound harsh, as you might think that I require entrepreneurs to be working all the time. That's not the case, and I don't expect my portfolio company entrepreneurs to be responding to emails by me at all hours of the night, weekends or holidays. I just want them to work smarter, more efficiently, get more done, including more sleep and seeing their families. A happy and rested entrepreneur is a productive one and will make investors more money in the end, as they will make better decisions.  I understand that the average white collar worker spends an hour plus at their desk answering email.  If they can answer that email in a shorter form in quick bursts on their commute, during a lull at work, a conference or on their way down the elevator, better use can be had for that office time.  I'd rather have the CEO or manager sleep an additional hour or relax than waste his time answering emails at his desk.

I know a lot of people who think their snazzy PalmOS Treo or PocketPC PDA is better, but frankly, it ain't.  The email is not instantly available, something I believe Blackberry has a patent on, which dramatically cuts down on these other units' utility.   [Note: comment below, which I appreciate, suggests that's I am incorrect on this for those with Exchange Server and use Treos, but I still like the Blackberry.]  Don't get confused and waste time worrying about which unit to get-- just go with Blackberry or it's equivalent.  Even if you don't want to spring for a server, it's better just to run it from your computer.  If your system admin can't handle it, for great outsourced service, try Mi8 or ASPOne.

So please, do your investors and yourself a favor this holiday season and start the new year with a Blackberry for you and your team, especially those that travel or commute. 

Comments

[Dean McGearey]

Steve I understand your enthusiam for the Blackberry products. We at WWE deploy them to all our senior employees. However you did state that the Treo cannot get mail instantly in the same way as the Blackberry can. This is in fact not the case, if as in many larger enterprises you are using an Exchange mail server.

I have both the Blackberry and the Treo 650 they both receive mail and schedule requests at the same time. I reply using the Treo as I happen to find the interface far less clumsy and I am able to open a far wider range of attachments on the Treo too.

The main thrust of your piece though was well directed and indeed technology should be about "empowerment" rather than encumberment.

Dean

[Steve]

Dean,

I probably should not have been so harsh on the Treo. I've used Blackberry for a while now, so I am comfortable just recommending that and some folks that lack the type of WWE-like corporate IT support provides have had latency issues with the Treo. Glad to hear that with Exchange Server that might not be the case anymore. I love the PalmOS, and was a fan until Blackberry converted me on-demand email.

Steve

[DavidA]

At the risk of being a smart-arse, I think you're making that presumption that e-mail is a good thing to encourage. I agree that it can be a useful communication tool but over-reliance on e-mail results seems to carry a large overhead.

I used to work at a large software company when I was regularly getting 100 mails a day. I now run a successful, if small, software company and I'm down to about 6 a day. My work is focussed and more productive yet no one seems to suffer from my less timely but more considered responses.

I'm playing devil's advocate a little, because I know that most companies use e-mail as their primary method of communication and yes, I can believe that a Blackberry helps you play that game. I just don't know if it's the best game to be playing.

[Peter Kazanjy]

Hiya Steve,

Liked the posting. I have no idea why one wouldn't require their stable of entrepreneurs to get a blackberry as part of a term sheet. Perhaps it could be framed differently, as an incentive or gift instead of a threat. Companies bring in dieticians and set up gyms to save themselves on health care costs, so why not "give" the entrepreneurs a monogrammed blackberry as a "welcome to our portfolio" present? Might be cute.

For your reading pleasure, a more rigorous ROI study of the blackberry. http://www.blackberry.net/select/roi/ROI_report_BlackBerry.pdf

Keep up the great blogging.

Best,

Pete

[greg]

I also use http://newsinmotion.net to get news everyday good reading on the way to work

[ned]

Treo+Good Technology (or Sprint Business Connection, similar)=push email. Better UI than Blackberry, more apps for platform,better phone. RIM does not own patent on push email.

VCs don't know everything.

[Bad Ass Reviews]

Treo's keyboards still difficult with those of us with big fingers.

I think what they need to do is bend the keyboard itself a bit, so that each button is just slightly farther away from the next.

But that will take retooling expensive factories, etc. Who knows, maybe in the future.

What Treo's have is versatility with that such a modern Palm OS, and that's very attractive.

Blackberry is boasting an interphase (java based) but I'm still skeptical. The fact is it's still exhorbidantly expensive to manage any small group of Blackberries. They're not meant for tiny offices (typical VC office size) where say you would need only 3 or 4 handhelds.

I do LOVE my Samsung i500 though! Form factor has sex appeal (at least to me it does), and I don't need to respond to emails as much as I simply need to read them.

Check out a review on our new site:

http://www.badassreviews.com/index.php?p=9

(just note, our target demographic is probably younger in age than readers here)

Kind regards,
B.A.R. Editor
www.badassreviews.com

[Jennifer]

Hi Steve,

Your article stats something that is pretty obvious but you're right some people just don't see it. Communication is the key of doing business these times. Some CEO's see this, remember they were one of the first market group to jump on the Blackberry and a lot of other people followed suit. These days it's pretty common to see a CEO carry 2 Blackberrys, a newer one and an old 957 which runs of the Mobitex network. The reason being is that the Mobitex network still gets a signal up in the air. So CEOs can use it while on an airplane or their private jet. This is the reason why RIM has not discontinued the 957, which is dinosaur compared to the other Blackberry models.

Check out my Blackberry resource site:
http://www.blackberrycool.com

[Vince]

Actually, with Treos and PPC devices, there is an application available to have "always on" email: GoodLink. Recently ranked by PC Magazine as the best mobile email solution available, it provides everything Blackberry does without being locked into their propietary devices as well as having the availability of over 30,000 third pary applications.

[MD]

Actually, RIM discontinued the 957 years ago. The only ones still floating around are original stock or refurbs. They were extremely resilient, so many are still around...

[toad of toad hall]

Blackberry has a role, but it shouldn't be a religion as it seems to be for this blogger. CEOs need to spend their time in quiet thought, and in meeting with customers, potential hires, team members, product development, and so on. I have been a CEO and a VC, and the big problem is too much email, not too little. There is no reason for a CEO or anyone else to be on 24/7 call. People need their time away. CEOs need lots of quiet time to THINK. Smart CEOs find ways to reduce distraction so they can focus on the important things and can maintain their freshness and positive energy; they don't permit their time to be wasted by people indiscriminately emailing them.

Another problem: Blackberries can subtly undermine initiative. If the CEO can be easily reached at all times, there will be a great temptation to post him on everything and get his approval for even small things. A meddlesome CEO will use his Blackberry to get in everyone's shoes. This is unhealthy for the company. It is better that people make decisions and solve problems on their own wherever possible--it builds leadership and initiative. It is actually good when people cannot easily reach their boss.

For those people keen to get a Blackberry, I suggest--and use--the 7100 series. It is a good phone, but its keyboard makes doing a lot of email difficult. That is a good thing, because one send very short emails if at all.

Another suggestion: keep your Blackberry email separate from your regular email, or have your assistant handle forwarding, or use some sort of filter to limit what gets sent to you to external customer emails and internal messages marked "urgent". Unless you are doing a closing of some kind, VC and Board messages are never urgent--they can wait. VCs shouldn't have busy CEOs on some kind of Blackberry leash.

As a final aside, the idea of insisting on Blackberries in the term sheet is hilarious and foolish. I hope you were joking.

[Fred]

Responding on a bb takes longer than on a regular keyboard.

From what Ive seen, CEOs don't need more reason to mindlessly rush their responses.

I'll give it this though, if you are always late and lack vision, rapidly responding to requests for things you were supposed to deliver a week ago can make up for it somewhat.