Posted: 01/23/2012 07:37:22 PM PST
Research In Motion's Thorsten Heins got off to a rocky start to his tenure as the BlackBerry maker's chief executive officer.
Investors clamoring for a strategic shake-up were instead told by Heins on a conference call Monday morning that no "drastic change" is needed. The comments sent the stock sliding, more than erasing a gain of as much as 7.6 percent in early trading.
RIM, which helped pioneer the U.S. smartphone market more than a decade ago, is betting on the management overhaul to stem falling sales and market-share gains by Google's (GOOG) Android and Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and iPad. Heins, a 54-year-old German native who spent more than 20 years at engineering giant Siemens, said that he promotes "creativity, innovation and free thinking" and that he is ready to go head-to-head with the Silicon Valley rivals.
"We need to fight back and get stronger," Heins said in an interview. "You will see and hear much more from us."