How to Write a Good Business Plan

1) What is the impact on RIM's cashflows from the delay in the new Blackberry?

It brings significant impact on RIM’s cashflows from the delay in releasing the new Blackberry 10 OS and the phones.

Obviously Blackberry 9 OS and the phones it’s currently selling on the market had become technologically obsolete comparing to industry leaders Apple and Google. RIM’s sales keeps going down quarter by quarter and keeps losing market share. As sales is its most important source channel to increase revenue and cash, delay in releasing new OS and new phones will absolutely hurt RIM’s future revenue and cashflow.

On the other side, although RIM said it still has a lot of cash in hands and debt free, RIM had spent huge amount of money (cash) on R&D for new system and phones, and its inventory is also an area that will eat more money. The delay of new Blackberry phones and OS will make RIM keeps losing money and delay in collecting money from new products.

2. Should RIM consider left-hand side balance sheet financing? What about its patents and other IP?

RIM should consider left-hand side balance sheet financing (and I believe they are also working on it right now). As I explained in question #1, although RIM now has 2.2 billion dollars in hands which is a quite sizable, debt free and also has access to large credit line, however it has already some degree lost its ability to generate cash from its sales and market share keeps going down. RIM should consider how to leverage its assets to generate more cash to continue company operation.

However I disagree to sell its patents or other IPs to generate cash, at least this should not be RIM’s first option, maybe the last option. As we have learnt from this new article that RIM will lay off 5000 employees, these employees are mainly in US and Canada. Together with layoffs, many fixed assets (like building, real estate, equipment, etc) will not be used any more and become available. RIM can generate cash through these...