Now Live : 2025 Global Most Loved Workplaces® — See the Top 100 Companies
The 2025 America’s Top 100 is live. See the list →
The 2025 America’s Top 100 is live. See the list →
Hey folks, welcome back to The Leader Show with Lou Carter. Today, we have the privilege of hosting John Chen, the CEO of BlackBerry. Appointed in late 2013, John masterfully steered BlackBerry through an impressive resurgence, bolstering its financial stability and solidifying its enduring relevance in the market.
He skillfully pivoted the company’s focus from consumer hardware towards the enterprise software sector, charting a fresh path for BlackBerry. Currently, the company thrives on emerging opportunities within the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cybersecurity domains, carving a niche by ingeniously merging these two rapidly evolving markets.
John has garnered recognition as a distinguished business leader and has an impeccable record as an executive adept at business turnarounds. His experience spans over four decades, encompassing both engineering and management roles.
Before embarking on his transformative journey with BlackBerry, John held the dual roles of Chairman and CEO at Sybase Inc. Under his watchful leadership, he ingeniously reinvented the company, achieving a remarkable streak of 55 profitable quarters over his 15-year tenure.
Now, without further ado, let’s find out what makes BlackBerry a Most Loved Workplace®.
For John Chen, to create a culture that employees love, the leadership has to have a clear vision of the culture they wish to establish, communicate this effectively, and stay consistent with it.
Building a culture goes beyond mere statements on paper and requires tangible action reflecting the proclaimed values. Furthermore, creating a culture is similar to defining a person’s character; it’s not something that can be easily altered based on feedback or reconsideration. If honesty is a part of the culture, for instance, it shouldn’t be compromised.
Moving on, Lou highlights the alignment of strategic product development and internal culture, using Blackberry’s focus on security as an example. He suggests that its technical expertise and strong security culture contribute to preventing serious data breaches.
John agrees, adding that BlackBerry’s mission is to secure everyone’s life, covering areas like security, protection, safety, and crisis management. This mission extends to all its products. He gives an example of how they build safety components for autonomous and connected cars, securing data and preventing hacker intrusions, which could compromise people’s physical safety.
Additionally, he reveals that BlackBerry’s software is embedded in 195 million cars, often controlling safety components like lane changes and communication systems. The company sees its role as influencing society positively, from its beginnings as a mobile phone company changing how people work to focusing on cybersecurity.
Lou reflects on BlackBerry’s innovative role in creating the modern, mobile work environment and suggests that the company’s culture aligns with its consumers’ experience. He then asks if this cultural alignment continues with their new focus on security.
John confirms this, stating that BlackBerry now operates as a ‘silent protector,’ securing the various digital interactions consumers engage with daily. He mentions a range of scenarios beyond just car safety, extending to medical equipment, drones, and smart city components.
He emphasizes that BlackBerry’s protective reach goes beyond the active use of its devices, extending to homes, offices, hospitals, and any vehicle with internet connectivity. The company’s mission is to secure communications among devices and infrastructures to safeguard consumers’ interactions.
On a similar note, Lou Carter asks if the culture at BlackBerry includes an interest in discovering vulnerabilities and getting involved in hacking.
John Chen affirms this, stating that in order to fulfill its mission to secure all aspects of their users’ lives, they must fully understand how hacking works. The company has a threat-hunting organization within it that analyzes trillions of files, building knowledge about how threats manifest and infiltrate organizations.
Chen explains the company also practices ‘white hat’ hacking, where its employees intentionally hack into an organization to assess its vulnerabilities. All these activities align with BlackBerry’s aim to provide robust protection and prevent threats like ransomware.
Next, Lou expresses his curiousity about Mr. Chen’s personal philosophy on leadership. He asks John to share the most important thing he believes in when it comes to leading his team and organization.
In response, John underscores the principle of fairness as a cornerstone of effective leadership. He acknowledges that fairness can be challenging to deliver since what appears fair to one person might not be fair to another. Despite this, he believes that striving for fairness in decision-making is crucial as people can better cope with negativity or hardships, if they are being treated fairly.
Chen also acknowledges the need for transparency in explaining decisions, especially those involving reward and compensation. He highlights the need for well-defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and clear communication about these to ensure that reward systems are understood and seen as fair by all.
While he admits that he doesn’t achieve this every time, it’s a practice he always tries to uphold.
Moving on, Lou asks John about any advice he might have for budding entrepreneurs and tech leaders who are navigating their way up toward major financial milestones.
In response, the latter highlights three key areas for these business leaders to consider:
John advises leaders to establish a clear differentiation for their product or service within the market. This differentiation would be the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that makes their offering stand out from competitors and drives consumer preference.
Mr. Chen believes that market share growth is more important than simply focusing on increasing revenue. He argues that if the market is growing and a company’s growth plan falls short of this rate, it could signal a problem. Therefore, capturing a larger portion of the market share should be a top priority for all companies looking to grow.
Lastly, John underscores the importance of sustaining a business and advises leaders to think long-term, looking three to five years into the future rather than focusing only on the short-term. He cautions that short-term solutions might make sense at the moment, but they often lead to issues in the long run.
John’s key message is to focus on providing unique value in the market, consistently growing market share, and planning for long-term sustainable growth. He believes that with these strategies, revenue will naturally follow.
Lastly, the speakers discuss the importance of sustainability of businesses. John highlights that short-term gains might look good on paper but often come at the cost of long-term sustainability.
Chen uses two illustrative examples:
If a company charges customers a one-time payment for a service extending over several years, the immediate revenue spike might look impressive. However, this strategy would lead to significant revenue shortfalls in the subsequent years.
To achieve short-term profitability, a company might decide to temporarily stop paying its employees. This would indeed make the company look very profitable in the short term, but it’s not a sustainable strategy.
All in all, John Chen emphasizes the importance of having a consistent and sustainable business plan. He advocates for focusing on the right metrics, moving progressively towards long-term goals, and ensuring the company’s strategies and operations are sustainable over time.
Lou and John go into much greater detail throughout this conversation.
Thank you for your time!
