RIM's Balsillie says Canadians need to make their voices heard
TORONTO - Canadians need to become more involved in global issues and make their voices heard, RIM (TSX:RIM) co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said Thursday night.
Balsillie, who is himself quite active in social issues, says the world is willing to listen to Canada if it were to make itself heard.
"The key is to build capacity on addressing the kind of important issues that our nation faces and the world faces," Balsillie said after a speech at The Canadian Press annual dinner.
"The nature of the issues are quite substantial - they're big and they're multilateral and complex and they're getting bigger."
He said Canadians need to make more effort to address issues ranging from security, nuclear proliferation, the environment, trade and food.
"It's not that the Canadian voice isn't valued, it's that we're not there, we're not voicing," Balsillie said. "You gotta do what you can."
Last year, Balsillie spent $1 million to kick off the creation of the Canadian International Council, a public policy think-tank. Balsillie said he has personally spent about $100 million on promoting global issues.
The council is a partnership among the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.
The council funds 20 fellows every year from the academic, public service and business communities and will deal with foreign policy issues such as energy, trade and arms control.
Balsillie, is the head of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, one of Canada's most valuable public companies, with a market capitalization of $75 billion.
His comments came Thursday as part of a free-ranging speech that touched on issues that included media and technology convergence, his interest in hockey, and what it's like to be the head of RIM.
About his unsuccessful attempts to acquire an NHL hockey team, Balsillie said he still likes the idea of there being another Canadian team.
But, he says, the move had to be "coherent" and done for the right reasons.
"There's nothing personal in any of this. The issue is whether we agree or not. It's an issue of what's right and what do we believe in and what does the market believe in and what Canadians believe," he said.
"The tension lies in fundamental visions of status quo versus evolution."
While joking openly about his frequent use and affection for RIM's Blackberry, Balsillie wouldn't discuss the company's future plans or rumours about new product lines such as a flip-phone coming on the market.
But, he said the company has thus far been fairly immune to troubles in the U.S. economy.
"You clearly get affected by the economy, but the bigger elements are the sector specific things," he said.
"A lot more of the consumption is going to this sector - kids buying a Pearl instead of what they used to buy - so it's benefiting from the sector-specific segment; this is where people choose to spend their money on."
One of the biggest factors behind RIM's recent momentum is its successful push into the consumer market with its Pearl and Curve smartphones, which have more multimedia functions than the original BlackBerrys.
The company and carriers that sell RIM products have also been closely promoting the BlackBerry wireless devices as a way for young consumers to stay connected with friends, particularly with the Facebook social networking software.
RIM also recently announced a deal with German-based SAP for a new, mobile version of SAP business software that will be available on BlackBerry smartphones in the coming months.
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