Canadian smartphone giant BlackBerry (BBRY, Financial) came out with its fourth quarter earnings very recently and the numbers had a very different story to tell. Among a lot of depressing figures, there were few points that highlighted possibilities of BlackBerry turning into success eventually.
The man behind bringing this day to the phone maker is none other than John Chen, the new CEO of the company. Chen with his traditional but radical ideas and straight forward approach towards work seems to be steering the company in the desired direction. It seems that finally BlackBerry has found its white knight – the solution to its long standing troubles.
The man and his moves
John Chen entered BlackBerry at a time when the company was in its lowest – losing customers like forest fire and moving down the market share ranks. Since then some of his moves have already started showing results. Though the company reported losses in the recently concluded fourth quarter, the figures were far less than market’s anticipation. Moreover, the moves resulted in substantial cost reduction.
Chen follows the philosophy “customer is the king” and automatically what customer wants becomes the correct choice of working. He started focusing on what the company’s core customers i.e. the enterprise market, has to say about their requirements. As a result, Chen plans to bring back several of the discarded features back to its smartphones. In the words of this makeover artist,
“I knew we’d have to stabilize the company and show some level of confidence…And the only way to do that is to tell your customers that you’re here to stay; we’re very focused on delivering better products, better services, going forward.”
These words are quiet encouraging and clearly hint at the super strong turn around plans Chen has in mind and also the level of confidence the carries. However, John’s focus on the enterprise market should not make its consumer market users worry since the company also has robust plans to support and excite the 60 million users.
Apart from this, Chen also has plans to revolutionize the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and there are reports that the messenger soon might be available on personal computers also.
Departing thoughts
John can clearly see huge unexploited potential in BlackBerry and he plans to take advantage of every bit of it. He strongly believes that the shareholders are surely going to witness great days again and all he asks in return is patience and faith. BlackBerry under Chen’s guidance is gradually shifting from hardware-focus to software-focus.
The CEO anticipates BlackBerry to become a vital supplier of software services that enables corporations to manage their communications and devices better. With the success in mobile security management, John wants to combine a little success from the hardware business also and then paint a brighter future for the company.
