My buddy Kevin over at CrackBerry managed to score another awesome Q&A with another new BlackBerry CEO. He asked John Chen, the freshly minted interim CEO of BlackBerry, a few questions that I thought are worth sharing. Mainly he asked how long they have been working on his appointment as CEO and chairman. Sadly he dodges that question but does answer that he has been a BlackBerry, and other device, user for years.
Chen also clarifies that “Interim” just means that he will first be deciding his strategy. He will then be deciding how interim his position will be as he looks for a possible solid CEO for the company. Specifically Chen is looking for a software person as CEO instead of a tech engineer who can understand the services part of BlackBerry and reaching out to more people.
The best clarification he made was stating that it is too early to make any determination about what BlackBerry will be doing in the near future. He simply stated that it is way too early to make an informed statement about major decisions.
I highly recommend checking out the full Q&A over at CrackBerry. You get the distinct impression that Chen does not have a specific strategy already set for execution. What does rub off is that he sees value in multiple parts of BlackBerry and he is still working out how to maximize that value.
