Steve jobs didn't do "better in everything" when he came back. He knew he couldn't win the race, so he changed the rules : a computer had to be "pretty" as well, and (re)introduced a very strong emphasis on design, with the marketing that goes with it (remember those dancing translucent imacs).
I guess that means you don't have to be absolutely better on everything, but just one thing that others underestimated and which could compensate for everything else you may be lacking (imacs were expensive, slow,and not compatible with windows).
In the case of blackberry that could mean restart from a niche, such as extra-strong security, beat everybody else on that market with science-fiction stuff such as retina authentication, ultra strong encryption everywhere, etc...
This is a good point, and one that I should have thought of in my original comment: an alternate strategy is to keep the company alive by retreating to a defensible position, a niche that you own in some way that makes you a compelling alternative for customers in that niche, and then focus all your energies on owning the shit out of that niche. It's less ambitious, and the upside is smaller, but the risk of total failure is smaller too.
That's essentially what Jobs did with Apple -- we think of Apple as a huge success under his leadership, but that didn't really happen until they entered a different market with the iPod. Before then he kept them alive by giving up their ambitions to compete with Microsoft for the PC business in general and focusing their business on a few strong, high-margin products distinguished by classy design. They weren't enough to make Apple dominant again, but they were enough to keep the company afloat.
> (imacs were expensive, slow,and not compatible with windows).
Not one of those things is true, except for Windows compatibility which was hardly a concern for the users of it. The iMac was actually quite aggressively priced for the time, and it was far from "slow".
I hope you honestly try and launch something based off this philosophy, so you can see it crash-and-burn firsthand. The iMac had plenty more going for it at the time. Design was a big part of it, but it was far from the only good thing about the iMac as you insist.
iMacs had built in screens, high capacity hard drives (for the time), tray loading CD drives with burner options, USB, FireWire, etc... almost all of which was hot new shit at the time.
The iMac was the first example. Great product, experience, and price. It was just getting long in the tooth in terms of ecosystem because of Mac OS Classic.
In other words Jobs successfully pulled a Kobayashi Maru. I think his second coming was brilliant, and will be taught in business schools in the yers to come.
I guess that means you don't have to be absolutely better on everything, but just one thing that others underestimated and which could compensate for everything else you may be lacking (imacs were expensive, slow,and not compatible with windows).
In the case of blackberry that could mean restart from a niche, such as extra-strong security, beat everybody else on that market with science-fiction stuff such as retina authentication, ultra strong encryption everywhere, etc...