CEO John Chen Not Focused On What ‘BlackBerry Used To Be’

There’s no hiding the fact that BlackBerry isn’t what it used to be anymore. The company’s market share has eroded over the past few years, its stock reached new lows this year and its devices division hasn’t been able to churn out a hit in a long, long time. Recently BlackBerry let go of its top management and brought on former Sybase CEO John Chen as the executive chair and CEO. Since then Chen has outlined his vision for the company a few times, and he so again today in an op-ed published on CNBC’s website. Chen says that he isn’t focused on what “BlackBerry used to be,” and that he is focused on “what BlackBerry will be today and in the future.”

The company’s future has been called into question a few times this year. After a failed attempt to go private, and bearing operating losses of $1 billion and $4 billion in the previous quarter and the one before that, many analysts believe that BlackBerry doesn’t have much time. Though Chen reiterated once again today that the company is financially strong, “technologically savvy,” and is well-position for the future. He details how they’ve moved to a new operating unit structure with focus on enterprise services, messaging, QNX embedded business and the devices business. They aim to drive greater focus on services and software, but don’t seem to be giving on the hardware business just yet.

Chen also touts BlackBerry’s success in the enterprise market where its customer base has exceeding 80,000 companies and corporations of all sizes, as well as its coveted “Authority to Operate” status provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, BlackBerry is the only MDM provider to have received it, allowing its devices to function on the DoD’s secure networks. Chen is of the view that BlackBerry has a clear lane ahead of it which will enable the new leadership to “create new trails as a nimbler, more agile competitor.” With $3 billion cash on hand, renowned platform as well as a new leadership, lets see what 2014 has in store for BlackBerry.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: BlackBerry, John Chen