[Grafic111]

Is this going to have a major dent on BlackBerry? He was a heavy weight and has joined in at a very senior position at Samsung.

Gregg Ostrowski Leaves BlackBerry for Samsung | N4BB

Posted from my SuperHuman Q10

[Konrad Andree Nordvik]

Not good if a key person leaves to join the opposition.

Posted via CB10

[MAJ009]

Well it's never good loosing a fine employee and that too to a competitor, but that's how it works. BlackBerry should be fine as there are plenty of talented blokes out there waiting to get their turn and leaving great impression. BlackBerry just needs to hire right IMHO.

CAUTION : MAJ On Z30 Now!!!!

[Konrad Andree Nordvik]

That's true, the question though is why are so many top level employees leaving. Normally this would be looked apone as a response to internal problems or a company going under.

Posted via CB10

[MAJ009]

Or it could be due to the new boss wanting more out of an employee which the employee thinks is not possible for him to do so therefore he jumps as soon as he gets an offer deemed good. Just saying.

CAUTION : MAJ On Z30 Now!!!!

[menshawy]

Or he could been made an offer he couldn't refuse

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[MAJ009]

Or he could been made an offer he couldn't refuse

Posted via CB10

Yup, very much possible.

CAUTION : MAJ On Z30 Now!!!!

[crazigee]

The reality is that employees are going to be tempted to accept other offers as the long term future at BlackBerry is uncertain. Very unfortunate for BlackBerry, but to be expected in the current climate.

Posted using my Z10 via CB10

[Supa_Fly1]

Or he could been made an offer he couldn't refuse

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Considering g Google in the next major update will be following BlackBerry's personal & work space security partitioning model he's bizouncing! Google needs help without licensing from a juggernaut client which it makes its coffers full from! Samsung will be too controlling licensing knox to Google.

? BlackBerry Z30 ? If it Don't Make Dollars, It don't Make Sense ?

[Prem WatsApp]

Hope the NDA holds... if there is one!

Pasted via CB chen

[anon(1464249)]

Hope the NDA holds... if there is one!

Pasted via CB chen

Exactly what i'm thinking.
I'm surprised to see he's even allowed to join a competitor so early. Hopefully an NDA was in place and it will hold up in court as I'm sure we'll be seeing some BlackBerry tech in upcoming Samsungs...

[RH1Pearl]

No problem. Blaze will take over

[RubberChicken76]

The reality is that employees are going to be tempted to accept other offers as the long term future at BlackBerry is uncertain. Very unfortunate for BlackBerry, but to be expected in the current climate.

Posted using my Z10 via CB10

And even not in this climate, it happens - a lot. Every tech company I've ever been in has seen people come from competitors and go to competitors ... at all stages of company health. Honestly, I find these threads to be among the silliest on CrackBerry. "OMG - this particular person left the company. Things must be collapsing!" . It's unusual in my experience to meet people who've been with a particular tech company for like 10 or 15 years. It has happened for sure, but many people who are colleagues tend to be with a place in the 3-6 year range.

Like seriously people ...

Look at your own companies!!!!

People come and go all the time for all reasons. Unless its Chen himself suddenly resigning on his own accord, I'm not personally worried.

[trwallace]

And even not in this climate, it happens - a lot. Every tech company I've ever been in has seen people come from competitors and go to competitors ... at all stages of company health. Honestly, I find these threads to be among the silliest on CrackBerry. "OMG - this particular person left the company. Things must be collapsing!" . It's unusual in my experience to meet people who've been with a particular tech company for like 10 or 15 years. It has happened for sure, but many people who are colleagues tend to be with a place in the 3-6 year range.

Like seriously people ...

Look at your own companies!!!!

People come and go all the time for all reasons. Unless its Chen himself suddenly resigning on his own accord, I'm not personally worried.

You are so right. Everyone has a reason to leave. Maybe he decided he needed a change. This is not a sign of anything its the natural course of business. Nothing serious.

Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!

[anon(5818411)]

All the good seniors are starting to leave...

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[RubberChicken76]

All the good seniors are starting to leave...

Didn't know you personally knew all the good seniors they have there.

[anon(5818411)]

Didn't know you personally knew all the good seniors they have there.

I know what most of them have done. I live in waterloo with a lot of BlackBerry / ex BlackBerry employees.

So I do get a lot of inside info..

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[MobileZen]

His bio:

Since joining Research in Motion in 2001 Gregg has always been focused on the Enterprise. While running the in field Technical Account staff he also ran the BlackBerry Innovation Forum in North America. Currently Gregg is the Senior Director, Enterprise Developer Partnerships focusing on enterprise developer and "behind the firewall" applications.

Sounds like more of a relations management role. Don't forget, former BlackBerry CIO Robin Bienfait is now over @ Samsung so she might have lured them over. To be quite honest, not sure how much they were doing for the company considering they were part of the old regime. Likely, Samsung is paying for their enterprise contacts.

Considering John Chen is a man of swift action and wants to build a new culture for the company, something tells me a lot of these executives that left were given some face on their way out (resign vs. let go) or saw the writing on the wall when he came in to clean things up and would uncover where the problems were.

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[abwan11]

I don't know anything about Gregg other than what I've read here, but what I do know is that no matter how talented anyone is at what they do, it can be a hindrance to change. He has been there a long time and worked through the reno, he may not have the energy/enthusiasm needed to transform his end of things further. Or Chens team sees a fault in his department that needs to be rectified.

Posted via CB10

[MobileZen]

I know what most of them have done. I live in waterloo with a lot of BlackBerry / ex BlackBerry employees.

So I do get a lot of inside info..

Posted via CB10

Good and bad is rather subjective.

I also have inside info on the "bad" seniors and employees. Let's just say the inbreeding and subcultures in the old RIM was pretty sickening. Hopefully Chen continues to clean house and changes the culture/morale there.

For me, I see the departures as old regime members that are unwilling to change under Chen. They know Chen and his new executive team are sharp pros.


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[early2bed]

These threads are always the same, probably because little if anything is known about the employee or why they left. So it usually goes like this:

1. OMG, [any employee] is leaving. This must be bad.
2. I looked up their job title online as part of my analysis and here's what it tells me.
3. Well, the [former employee's department] obviously wasn't doing a good job for the company so good riddance. Let's hope John Chen continues to clean house.
4. Maybe someone else will step in who is better.
5. [Employee's new company] must be pretty desperate if they are trying that hard to raid Blackberry talent. They must be in decline.

[FSeverino]

Or he could been made an offer he couldn't refuse

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Something like 'who knows what your new boss will do... but if you come with us you will be in charge '

There are always High level changes when new management comes in. People don't know if there job will be safe, and they need to think of themselves

Posted via CB10

[anon(5818411)]

Good and bad is rather subjective.

I also have inside info on the "bad" seniors and employees. Let's just say the inbreeding and subcultures in the old RIM was pretty sickening. Hopefully Chen continues to clean house and changes the culture/morale there.

For me, I see the departures as old regime members that are unwilling to change under Chen. They know Chen and his new executive team are sharp pros.


Posted via CB10

I do like chen but since he is getting paid in stocks or what ever I feel kike he doesnt care about anything but money like a normal business man. Which is good and bad. He doesnt seem like a listening type person to me.

Like he said in an interview consumer and enterprise overlap. I have yet to see him work on the overlap.

I can say anything really until 10.3 is released but he needs to make his in-house apps functional because those business users arent just using there phone for emails (whoch also isnt fully featured).

His unfinished in-house app issue is just as big as the lack of app issue except he can actually fix the in-house app situation. I'm just wondering if he will just bust out everything at once and relaunch BB10 with 10.3. Since from a BB10 user perspective I don't see anything exciting yet even with these new 10.3 leaks except for UI change.

Apparently BlackBerry has something up their sleeves so I'll sot patiently and wait.

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[BlackberryFan777]

Sebastian mentioned the reason for his leaving was a conversation with John Chen in which Chen outlined a view of BlackBerry as a niche player, a company that simply would not have the game-changing role in mobile that Sebastian wanted to be a part of. So, Sebastian joined Apple.

I'm guessing the same thing is somewhat true of Greg. In many ways, BlackBerry isn't the BlackBerry they built under John Chen. Success under John Chen isn't a fraction of what success meant under Mike L. and Thorstein. It's not that Chen is still bad and we have at least a generation of devices, which started their life under Thorstein (like the Passport, Classic, and Z50), but there will come a point when BlackBerry is as boring and irrelevant to most of us as Sybase. And, I think Chen will succeed and make it into a surprisingly profitable company. It's just not the same company with the same ambitions that Greg helped to build. There's been a significant exodus of valuable people from BlackBerry, but it's not that they were leaving BlackBerry, it's that BlackBerry left them. I think one of the reasons the board went with an internal successor with close ties to Mike L. in Thorstein is that it would reassure these people -- who could work anywhere, but chose to work at BB, that the change at the top was not a complete chance in vision. They new what they were getting when they hired a new CEO with dubious qualifications and loyalty to a particularly strong board member whose legendary success in investments have all happened in areas outside of mobile tech. People who thought BlackBerry had a role to play that mattered will leave to other companies that will give them that opportunity. And, Chen will deliver what he promised, a company that is leaner, more niched, and much more protective of shareholder value. Still, I don't blame Greg for leaving, nor Alex, nor Sebastian, etc., etc., etc....

[JeepBB]

Maybe off-topic, but does CrackBerry publish *any* news that isn't originally sourced from N4BB these days?

I remember a time when CrackBerry was *the* source and first call for all things BB... and that hasn't been my experience for months.