Mike Lazaridis
Most know him as Mike Lazaridis, founder and CEO of Research in Motion (RIM), a company well known for the Black Berry smart phone. But there is much more about this visionary few know about.In this text, I look into the profile of this exceptional leader in terms of several leadership development models. I look at what sort of a leader he is, his characteristics and how they fit the profile of a successful leader.
Mike Lazaridis’ background
Mike Lazaridis was born in Istanbul, turkey. While still young, his family left for West Germany and later on settled in Canada. Lazaridis fascination with how things work started from an early age. As Livingston (2008) notes, Lazaridis and several of his childhood friends spent most of their time assembling rockets as well as radios.To underpin his interest in science, he won an award for going through every science book in the library at Windsor when he was only 12 years old.
His education
Lazaridis showed interest in school and especially for science subjects from a very early age and to be eligible for university; he enrolled for science courses while in high school. In an interview with Landsman (2005), Lazaridis notes that it was an electric train gift that ignited his love for electronics. He would later spend time assembling rockets and radios as he grew older. His interest in science was clear from the word go and this lead him to wining a science fair dubbed the Windsor Science fair for a solar panel he had made with a friend.When he enrolled for University of Waterloo in Ontario, Lazaridis remembered what his former teacher, Mr. Micsinszki, had said with regard to computer technology. Mr. Micsinszki had noted that whoever integrates computer technology with wireless technology will be very successful because that was the next big thing (Black 2008).With that in mind, Lazaridis enrolled for electrical engineering at the university where he paid for his initial school year with earnings from a buzzer system he had put in place for his former school. Lazaridis left school a few months before graduation, due to the pressure of a project he was discussing with General Motors worth an upwards of $600,000.To start the project, he sourced funds from his family and he teamed up with a friend to create a LED signs display system at the factories of GM as the contract stipulated (Meriwether 2005). This was the beginning of the success of RIM which was founded as a business that dealt with electronics and computer science.
Lazaridis’ attributes, behavior and personality.
From a very young age showed fascination with science and electronics. This interest in electronics was natured in a conducive family setting and school background and grew to what we see today. His parents taught him that someone charts his own destiny. They taught him that the world is a big place and opportunities bacon at every corner.In an interview with Landsman (2005), Lazaridis said that his parent’s lifestyle has influenced his in a big way. He notes that his parents were at all times self sufficient and took any opportunity presented to spend time at home with the family. They installed in him the importance of values and Lazaridis says his personality wash shaped to a great extent by his parents.As an innovator, since Lazaridis founded Research in Motion, he has registered 38 patents (Sweeny 2009). This shows a leader who has tireless effort to come up with new things as well as develop an idea to its maturity. His innovative streak started when he was very young, teaming up with friends to assemble rockets and radios.Another trait that shows Lazaridis resilience and resolve to succeed can be seen in the how he provided leadership during RIM’s court battles with NTP, a patent holding company based in Virginia.Lazaridis is also a leader who recognizes team effort and joint effort based on his partnership with Jim Balsillie.
Lazaridis recognized from an early stage that to take RIM to the next level, he needed to combine his technical ability with business prowess which Balsillie possessed.Lazaridis is also recognized as a business leader who has a soft spot for education (Meriwether2005). He recognizes the importance of education and has over time supported higher education as well as scientific research. He was also appointed as the vice chancellor for the University of Waterloo.Mr. Lazaridis is also concerned about the well being of the rest of his community based on his philanthropic acts. The establishment of Quantum Computing institute is currently high on his list of priorities and to that effect he has availed about $100 million to oversee this ambitious program at the University of Waterloo.As a visionary leader who sees science as a tool that can be used to solve or understand some of the worlds most puzzling issues, he has put $150 million and come up with $100 million more in further public cum private sector funding in a project dubbed- Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics which is said to be a global leader for scientific prowess. Lazaridis job profile and responsibilities define what sort of a leader he is. As the Co- CEO of RIM, he takes re4sponsibility for product strategy and development. Based on his previous record of building RIM from scratch, it is quite clear that Lazaridis current role places him squarely at a vantage point to advance RIM’s business even further.
Conclusion
In the global leadership arena, Lazaridis has curved out a reputation as a visionary and innovator of unparallel ability and he continues to influence many as the current president of RIM.
References
Black, H. (2008). Canadian Scientists and Inventors: Biographies of People Who Shaped Our World, 2nd Edition. Pembroke Publishers Limited
Landsman, A. (2005, November 7) Mike Lazaridis & RIM. BusinessWeek, pp. 55
Livingston, J. (2008). Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days. Apress
Meriwether, E. (2005, August 12) RIM Executives. Financial Times, pp. 11
Sweeny, A. (2009). BlackBerry Planet: The Story of Research in Motion and the Little Device that Took the World by Storm. John Wiley and Sons
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