[RubberChicken76]

People here who lambast JC are the ones who are clueless. There's a reason why he's the one up there leading BlackBerry and you are here posting non sense on his management capability. Just because you bought a BlackBerry device or two doesn't mean you have a stake at the company. You bought it based on your needs. Now if it doesn't meet your expectations, time to move on.

Posted via CB10

Don't try and argue with this.

This place is filled with arm-chair know-it-alls who's managers at Burger King are getting mad that they're busy telling John Chen how to lead a complicated turnaround instead of preparing whoppers for the noon rush.

I'd like to see any of us these armchair gum flappers put up their linkedin so we can learn about their fantastic business history, the complicated turnarounds they've led, the billion dollar corporations they've saved.

To me, BlackBerry is a mess. I have no idea if John Chen can turn it around. It was on a huge spiral with Mike and Jim and it accelerated with Thorsten. I wouldn't want the job. I freely admit I wouldn't know where to begin.

But, unless proven otherwise, if it comes down to Chen leading the company vs. any of the loudmouths with "all the answers" in this thread saving the day, I'll go with Chen.

Feel free to post your LinkedIns here, armchair know-it-alls. Who knows? Maybe Prem will be impressed and put you in charge. Or alternately, maybe Chen will provide you with thoughts on how to get Whoppers made more efficiently at Burger King ...

[anon9133023]

Don't try and argue with this.

This place is filled with arm-chair know-it-alls
I'd like to see any of us these armchair gum flappers put up their linkedin
Feel free to post your LinkedIns here, armchair know-it-alls.

This approach never works. Insulting us. It's a forum, it's about ideas, it's about managed conflict, it's about BS. It's not about real life or linkedin.

[keithhackneysmullet]

Don't try and argue with this.

This place is filled with arm-chair know-it-alls who's managers at Burger King are getting mad that they're busy telling John Chen how to lead a complicated turnaround instead of preparing whoppers for the noon rush.

I'd like to see any of us these armchair gum flappers put up their linkedin so we can learn about their fantastic business history, the complicated turnarounds they've led, the billion dollar corporations they've saved.

To me, BlackBerry is a mess. I have no idea if John Chen can turn it around. It was on a huge spiral with Mike and Jim and it accelerated with Thorsten. I wouldn't want the job. I freely admit I wouldn't know where to begin.

But, unless proven otherwise, if it comes down to Chen leading the company vs. any of the loudmouths with "all the answers" in this thread saving the day, I'll go with Chen.

Feel free to post your LinkedIns here, armchair know-it-alls. Who knows? Maybe Prem will be impressed and put you in charge. Or alternately, maybe Chen will provide you with thoughts on how to get Whoppers made more efficiently at Burger King ...

I would hire a fry cook from Burger King before Chen any day.

Posted via CB10

[RubberChicken76]

This approach never works. Insulting us. It's a forum, it's about ideas, it's about managed conflict, it's about BS. It's not about real life or linkedin.

Perhaps. But honestly, I'm sick of it. So many people here act like they're the goddamned greatest business minds in the history of commerce.

"Chen should do this , Chen should do that, Chen isn't succeeding because he's too stupid to realize ..."

Bleah bleah bleah.

Newsflash. We probably see only 1/100th of the things Chen sees about the situation. And that's likely generous.

Another newsflash. His job is to keep the company alive, not make devices we want.

Love it or hate it, that's life.

I'm disappointed that BlackBerry isn't making devices I want either, but I'm not a bit convinced that them making them would suddenly save the day and cause massive growth.

As I said before, I have no idea or not if Chen will turn the ship around. Not sure anyone can if I'm being honest. Maybe if he'd replaced Mike and Jim instead of Thorsten he'd have more runway. But as it stands, he has arguably the hardest job in the business world. And you know what? Analysts know it. You see little attack on Chen himself and a lot of "he's probably too late to save this turkey"

But I challenge any one of the members of the forum here who loves to comment on how Chen ought to go about leading the turnaround to answer one simple question:

What turnarounds of an ailing multi-billion dollar company have you personally spearheaded?

I'll start: NONE whatsoever

[missing_K-W]

Perhaps. But honestly, I'm sick of it. So many people here act like they're the goddamned greatest business minds in the history of commerce.

"Chen should do this , Chen should do that, Chen isn't succeeding because he's too stupid to realize ..."

Bleah bleah bleah.

Newsflash. We probably see only 1/100th of the things Chen sees about the situation. And that's likely generous.

Another newsflash. His job is to keep the company alive, not make devices we want.

Love it or hate it, that's life.

I'm disappointed that BlackBerry isn't making devices I want either, but I'm not a bit convinced that them making them would suddenly save the day and cause massive growth.

As I said before, I have no idea or not if Chen will turn the ship around. Not sure anyone can if I'm being honest. Maybe if he'd replaced Mike and Jim instead of Thorsten he'd have more runway. But as it stands, he has arguably the hardest job in the business world. And you know what? Analysts know it. You see little attack on Chen himself and a lot of "he's probably too late to save this turkey"

But I challenge any one of the members of the forum here who loves to comment on how Chen ought to go about leading the turnaround to answer one simple question:

What turnarounds of an ailing multi-billion dollar company have you personally spearheaded?

I'll start: NONE whatsoever

You're really missing the point. Absolutely missing the point. This is about constructive criticism. Many of us are heavily invested in the BB10 platform.

Sent via Passport!

[RubberChicken76]

You're really missing the point. Absolutely missing the point. This is about constructive criticism. Many of us are heavily invested in the BB10 platform.

No, I get it. I'm heavily invested in it too, with two devices.

What I'm tired of is the "know-it-all" answers about how to save that company. You don't see the numbers he sees. You don't see the feedback he gets. You don't see the finances. You don't see the carrier contracts.

In fact you really know very little. I don't either.

I know - I know - "But he doesn't share it."

So what???!!!

You people won't be happy unless he calls you up to run every decision by you to get your sign off.

I know - it sucks. There's a chance that the BlackBerry you love may not may devices that you love anymore. It's a tough pill to swallow. I'm disappointed in it too.

Except I know they're trying to keep the company alive to fight another day. Maybe how they're doing it disappoints you, and that's fine. But stop acting like you have all the answers.

The "Chen's a moron, Chen's a fool, Chen should be doing this, Chen's so dumb he doesn't do ___" is tiring.

What have any of you done, besides flap your lips?

[Tre Lawrence]

When JC came on board, the red carpet laying and collective back-slapping was insane. At the time, a few folks cautioned against the ecstasy. I mean, practically the SAME thing occurred when Thor took the reins.

Now, JC is already the scape goat. That is remarkably short time to to turn on a new chief executive, even for us LOL. Don't get me wrong... the buck stops with him. I just feel that even the glorious Steve Jobs (oooh... I went there) could not do much more with BBRY in this current market and sandwiched by established giants in a sector with razor- thin margins.

[deptech]

Chen has done some good and some bad, no one is perfect, and it takes a team to make a successful company...Chen needs a good team.

Anyway, my thought on the Hardware or Devices is that there doesn't seem to be an obvious direction, Blackberry is all over the place with their current and future devices (silver passport & slider). They need 2-3 devices max, Classic, Passport, and a Z30 successor (high end all touch), and improve on each design each year, and focus on nothing else.

If all goes well, add a 8" tablet to the mix.

[Bonsaibo]

Many say he can't make money on hardware. Maybe. I'll ask this group. Could he achieve a greater hardware number with some marketing? One thing that's been said ad nauseum is that no one evens knows BlackBerry is still around. Would a targeted marketing campaign, showing off the unique phones, the strong OS and the Android compatibility help to increase sales over the current run rate, perhaps getting to, or closer to, the 10MM per year?

[abwan11]

This fish is fried. If there's no apps, there's no chance for hardware. The passport was interesting enough to spur sales, but a non competitive eco system kills it. Chen knows this. He knows he can't compete. Nothing is going to change until he can show up, on race day, with a competitive car. It's simple really. Blaming him because he's realistic or reasonable is odd.

Posted via CB10

[JORENO]

When JC came on board, the red carpet laying and collective back-slapping was insane. At the time, a few folks cautioned against the ecstasy. I mean, practically the SAME thing occurred when Thor took the reins.

Now, JC is already the scape goat. That is remarkably short time to to turn on a new chief executive, even for us LOL. Don't get me wrong... the buck stops with him. I just feel that even the glorious Steve Jobs (oooh... I went there) could not do much more with BBRY in this current market and sandwiched by established giants in a sector with razor- thin margins.

I remember everyone praising JC for what he was doing!

[Beakman]

After perusing the first page of this thread I have to ask all the armchair CEO's with all the complaints and demands where is all the funding coming from for all these wonderful fixes? Chen's doing a damn good job with what resources he has IMO, and this is comings from someone who works in a
similar environment on an every day basis. I'm winning and have a record to prove it, low margins as par for the course, and have an affinity with Chen on this, so I call BS on the whole premise of this and other similar threads. Some people here need a reality check on their entitlement expectations. Maybe they should just jump ship already and save the world with their master plans pulled out of their keisters.

[anon9133023]

I have never felt resting on one's laurels is much use, but I'll throw one at you. In a past career, I was the architect, lead engineer, and project manager of a system that revolutionized an aspect of mass transport, and did it for the largest transport of it's type at the time. It took a team of 50 over 2 years to engineer and implement. It's still in use 16 years later. I certainly delivered value on the dollar to those stockholders.

[KNEBB]

Has anyone ever considered he was hired to do actually what he's done. Make BlackBerry devices for the purpose of bankrolling the new focus on software. But not to design a BlackBerry Device that would cost more money than the "powers that be" at BlackBerry were willing to invest or a device that would be successful enough to cause anyone to question if BlackBerry's new focus should be second guest because of the marketing success of a BlackBerry Device, that the BlackBerry Fateful and new consumers would buy.

The assumption is that BlackBerry would have stayed heavily invested in device manufacturing. But maybe that dream left with the founders, and those in power now don't share that vision.

Because to many of us, they haven't seen to be listening when in great numbers we said what we would gladly buy, if only they would make it.

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Arthur Conan Doyle



Posted via CB10

[asherN]

KNEBB, I think you're spot on. To me it looks like the goal is to un-encumber the company from any ties to hardware. Once it is only a software company, it either stands on it's own, or can more easily be sold for the software assets and the patents. The end game is to make money for the shareholders (*cough*Prem*cough*).

[1Criz]

In this case it would be prudent to put HW and OS part of the company for sale, instead letting it wither and die.

Posted via CB10

[nt300]

The CEO continues to not listen to its customers. We want a FULL TOUCH BB10 phone with Passport like specs or better. And market the bloody thing for once. Re-releasing the Passport that already failed in sales is ludicrous. Let alone a silver version lol.

[nt300]

Funny enough when BB10 devices were first launched there was a very vocal community of users on these threads screaming for a new Torch slider type device to be released, and now that the shoe is on the other foot so to speak its the opposite lol. Statistically speaking I wonder what the ratio of all touch to pkb users is? Does anyone know?

Within BlackBerry users or the overall consumer? The overall consumer, Full Touch to PKB is 99.9 % to 0.1%. For the BBRY users, I believe it sits around 60% full touch to 40% PKB. John Chen is clueless more than ever.

[nt300]

Who cares where he went wrong. Even if a all touch screen didn't come out, I got the passport

Posted via CB10

You got the Passport, so John Chen leaves the 8+ million Z10 and Z30 owners in the dust without a proper high end full touch replacement. Listen to yourself lol. John is completely clueless and he's proven this over and over again I've supported him in the past but now he's proven to all that he's not the man to assist BBRY in its time of need.

[asherN]

The CEO continues to not listen to its customers. We want a FULL TOUCH BB10 phone with Passport like specs or better. And market the bloody thing for once. Re-releasing the Passport that already failed in sales is ludicrous. Let alone a silver version lol.

The CEO continues to listen to the Board and the major shareholder(s)

[crackberry_geek]

The CEO continues to listen to the Board and the major shareholder(s)

Really?

BBRY at almost 52 week lows?

Sometimes I just have to walk away scratching my head...

Posted via CB10

[deptech]

Chen has done some good and some bad, perfection doesn't exist. One issue I have that could be improved upon is the time it's taken for these new devices to get to market, they need to produce these device faster. Let's imagine if the Passport and Classic were released 6-9 months earlier, and the new Slider including a Full Touch high end variant were available now, we would all be praising BB, maybe...

[zodmode247]

Yeah the passport is a nice device, but I understand that people need more. What people don't understand is that even if blackberry drop a octo-core, 4 gig ram, 64 gigs onboard, 256 SD card, removal battery, 5.7 inch all touch screen WITH all the apps people use and TONS of advertising, it won't sell as much as you would think. Why? Because people don't leave their comfort zones. If you been using android or apple for at least 5 yes, I seriously doubt you're going to go to a completely different platform. Some will take the chance and be glad they did, some will go back to their old platform when a little issues comes up. The techies will be interested and try it out. Good luck getting the average Joe to change. It's like a mom and pop cafe vs starbucks. The small cafe been around before starbucks opened up. And when they did open, people flocked to it. Now people still go to the cafe, but the numbers are getting smaller. Once people have been going to their favorite places, they just get use to it. But what would keep the cafe doors open is to have a unique and different products, make the environment more home like, and carve a niche for itself.

Blackberry is more like the cafe now. Used to have tons of people back in the day, money was good and blackberry didn't keep getting bigger. Then the new guys shows up in town and things change. Blackberry doesn't need to take the number one or two spot, they just got to keep making solid hardware, solid OS, and keep their loyal customers happy. They should focus on finding out what business communication and security needs are and work with that. People only cares about getting business done and being cost efficient. Once the employees/business owners start seeing how things get done with blackberry, then they can show other people that the device their using is helping them make money, save money and getting though the day. But if blackberry fail those customers, you got a mess on your hands

Posted via CB10

[undone]

Really?

BBRY at almost 52 week lows?

Sometimes I just have to walk away scratching my head...

Posted via CB10

Good for the share buy back they are going to do.

[Paisley Pirate]

Someone asked "how to sell more hardware" and I again offer this relatively simple solution:

Have a good presentation available to phone store sales people about what the BB10 can do.
Put a $10 or $20 spiff on each BB10 device sold at a phone store to the end salesperson.
Make sure to have a way they get their money reasonably quickly.
Done.

They push certain brands because it is in their best interest (that spiff) to get those units sold. Having a set of training tools (you-tube videos? Webinares?) it isn't hard to make BB10 run well.

A little marketing at the grass roots would again do wonders - been saying it for 2 years

The sad part is, right now the Passports got decent (not awesome, just decent) hardware and the others - old and outdated. Get some seriously cutting edge hardware out there, get a few million units out there (via the $20 a phone deal) and the apps will come back (because the devs will see $$$) ESPECIALLY since it's a much easier android port now.

I am not one to bust JC's ballz - he's done ok - and if my earlier post pointing out the couple of misses he did in a mostly good game so far are taken as completely negative, not what I meant at all - but no one gets 100% right. And I am only pointing out what I've seen and heard working around small and midsized businesses in the tech industry.