>> he is known as text turnaround guy. john chen has been more than 30 years working and enterprise technology. he took one software maker from the verge of death to a $1.8 billion powerhouse. he is taking on an impossible job, leading blackberries come back. the teche become industry's fixer? ceo john.s blackberry thank you for joining us.

>> thank you for having me. >> even though you're running blackberry in canada, the bay area is where you call home. you technically live here. >> my family lives here. i live all around. it's our headquarters. >> how much time do you spend here? >> i try to spend about a week in waterloo. we still have 6000 people there. we are building a site here in silicon valley. i spent about a week or so every month year. around the world, seeing customers, meeting with panelist -- analysts, investors, partners and distributors, and so forth. >> part of the reason you are opening the office is -- >> it is so we can get much closer to all that is happening. there are a lot of great ideas in silicon valley. 90% do not go anywhere.

10% become the googles of the world could you have to pay attention to what is happening in our industry. so insular and focused on our own think we have a glut thing. >> you were born and raised in hong kong? tell me about your upbringing. poorcame from a relatively beginning, because my parents, although my father is quiet educated -- they were refugees from china. , where theostwar coming this were taking over before the curtain got drawn. they escaped from shanghai. >> you lived in a one-bedroom apartment? >> yes, for a long time. we did not even have a dining table. we put two suitcases on top of

each other and a piece of cloth over it. that was our dining table. >> will kind of kid were you? what did you want to be? >> i never thought about what i wanted to be. i just thought that -- everybody at the time, because of the war and because of what happened historically to china and so forth -- everybody wants the kids to be scientists. that is the hong kong way. everybody becomes an engineer or mathematician, doctors, just professionals, so you can have a good life. i started off doing a lot of math. i liked math. i started studying engineering. >> you went on to boarding school in massachusetts. how did that happen? was thinking of my education, the higher

education, my family is already in a middle income. my father studied english at night and started to accumulate wealth. he asked me what i wanted to study. i told him engineering. i wanted to go to ivy league. part ofces your chances bit. i went to prep school. >> it must've been quiet a transition. no snow to a lot of snow. it was quiet a transition. it was the best thing that ever happened to me. >> when did you learn how to code? >> i learned it in high school. this is one of those things that a lot of americans do not understand, the resources this country offers dramatic as

compared to every other country around the world. when i was in hong kong, we've were never -- we might have heard about it computer, but we had never seen one. we had never touch one. that was the first time i learned how to code. my lester high school, first year in the united states. school,rst year in high my first year in the united states. as arted my career manufacturing engineer. i started the ground floor. i went to caltech for my masters degree. i started working with his mainframe company. my first job was to fix things. what you started your career learning how to fix things. >> you started your career learning how to fix things. how did you do it? what did it take? >> i like fixing things.

and anth a challenge opportunity to learn stuff. old-school, loyal, stick with the type of person. were growing up, we never thought about it that way. you had to create opportunity yourself. i tried to go and learn different areas. my first job is in fixing manufacturing hardware. then i went into software. helping run factories. i had done a lot of different things throughout my career. from onook that company the verge of failure to $5.8 billion. how did you do it? >> first of all, you have to have a good team of people. i spent a lot of time recruiting. culture.a you focus something to do well. you focus on bayous that add to the market could you stick with those for the long haul. you build it a step at a time.

we came back. >> you were on mobile before mobile was big. >> it's funny, i have people calling me, investors calling me, telling me that the money that you have, company money, belongs to them. for me to invest in areas like --ile, i may has well thank god we did it. we were stuck at a value of 2 billion. mobile took us to 6 billion. >> was the hardest and you had to do their? >> the initial rounds of letting people go, refocusing the company, and being able to employeeshe remaining and the people you try to recruit that there is a future. >> you eventually sold? >> eventually, long time.

>> people are telling you that blackberry is party debt. >> yes. >> why did you take this job? ♪

>> you came out of there looking like a hero, and great ceos and executives, there is often a myth about them that is pulled into legend. what is the myth of john chen? what is the reality? >> i think i'm a simple, straightforward guy. i like working with people. i like focusing on objectives. me, you're asked doing this. the company's party dead. i thought i would just take it one step at a time and do better every day. i am more relaxed than most people think. >> people are telling you that

blackberry's party dead. >> yes. >> why did you take this job? >> that is a great question. retirement. i could give you this reason about it being iconic in the industry, and it's a great company, has a lot of technology. all of that is true. automaticallynot answer the question about why i am in doing it. i started as being the chairman of the company. i was going to find the management team and formulate a strategy. i thought i was a little too old to run around the world and play cowboys. once i got into it, i find that it is hard just to guide instead of doing. we don't really have a lot of time. we need to find the team. think about the strategy. we have to get it done.

right, wrong, or different, i ceo.ed to become the >> you are not crazy? >> there is a lot of potential here. it is not a done deal. we have been a lot of progress in the past six months. >> is a part of your personality? you like to feel needed? >> it is probably the negative part of my personality. i am a little paranoid about not being needed and wanted. it is important -- what i do every day, i know that it means something to people. >> history has been cruel to phone makers, gnocchi a, -- what makes you think you can change history? broaden ourselves way beyond the devise. just a phone. idon't sit there and think, could make another really great phone and somehow everything will be well. >> you did vow to keep making bones?

>> yes, of course true this is our strategy, into and mobile computing for the enterprise. committed, that i am and even though i lost my shirt, i will continue. i hope that by now the industry realizes what i'm talking about. we have some great phones coming out, very cool. entry,ur first point of or one point of our big strategy of everything secure. the phone is part of it. our phones of the most secure phone because of the way we make it in the software we have. i would like to continue to do if i can be successful in it, i'm ok to work with somebody else to do it. >> blackberries global market shipping in 2009 at 21%. it is lesson 1% now. it is predicted that blackberry 2.3et share will fall

percent by 2018. are you going to chance a direction of that? >> i hope so. can i change it immediately question mark no. blackberries are still the preferred phone in many markets. i will admit that in north america, with the banks, some of the hospitals, and the governments, i find we don't do well. professionalin the world still using our devices. it is my job to recapture it. that interest in that loyalty. >> in a future where chips are in bedded everywhere, in our close, walls, do smartphones matter? >> smartphones will not matter on the long term. will matter.es how things talk to each other. the whole internet of things is real. the question is how and who will make money of it -- out of it. next you sold sybase s.a.t.

are you going to sell blackberry to? nonstandard, i would prefer to do a lot of buddies before i contemplate that. >> as the ceo, you are beholding to shareholders to consider offers. >> is not owing to shareholders, it's the employees. one thing i am prayer above at sybase is that the people who slaved away with me for so long, although selling to sap was not my desired outcome, i was hoping to build a big company. it was the right thing. they gave us an offer that was very hard to refuse. >> if you got a good enough offer? >> if i got a good enough offer, i would. . don't have any offers >> no. >> people like to talk. talk is not an offer. >> would you sell to a chinese company?

>> i would probably be unable to do that. one of our biggest bases is the government. i think there will be a lot of regulatory issues and concerns. i appreciate that. >> would you think of the current state of u.s.-china relations given the new regime and china? >> i find them to be a constructive -- i try to be a constructive bridge between the two. i think the current status -- u.s.-china relations are always full of challenges and opportunities. >> when it comes to security and cyber security and the privacy of american citizens, who is more of a threat, china or the united states? >> i think everybody is spying on everybody. i think they will are equally a big threat inside our country as outside our country. >> what the nsa has been doing, as far as we know, fair or unfair? >> if the intentions are truly

for national security, i think it is fair. setback.want another this is only a personal view. --if the nsa wanted a black backdoor to blackberry, would you open it? >> we don't have backdoors but we would not do that. from time to time, the government wanted information from us, ok? first of all, we don't keep it around could you need to know that. if we do it, it has to be under court order. >> have you ever had a moment where you thought what did i get myself into? >> twice. yes, i have. ♪

>> since you are the tech industry's turnaround guy. i would like to ask you help other turnarounds are going to

yahoo!? >> from what i can reed, they seem to be doing well. they look at it from the growth, revenue, and all that. guided that way, that is one thing. comee compass fundamentals stronger in the long term i would focus on that page from that perspective, it feels like they are doing the right thing. doing think russ meyer is a good job? >> i don't know her very well. yes. .> you are also a father what kind of an are you? >> i'm close to my children, and i always enjoyed time with them. , runningf the job around the world, don't spend a lot of time with them. thankfully they all grow pretty good. i feel good about it. >> how do they feel about you letting -- living half here and halfing canada? >> my wife loves it appeared we have been married 34 years. sometimes she does not want to

see me every day. if i go home early, she always says, what's wrong. i say i just want to come home early. >> they support me if i'm happy. -- they support me. if i'm happy, they're just fine. >> what's an app you can't live without? >> facebook or twitter? >> neither. i got so hooked on it. on spending a living moment it. i can't do it. i need to stop. watch or no? >> no. i'm a traditionalist. say i want i did not to be tracked like that. i think there is a certain i would have- and my own private moment in my own private life could >> if you

were not doing what you are doing now, what would you do? >> i would love to go to law school. lawyer, wanted to be a but my father thought it was not a good profession. >> when is the last time you were nervous? >> i am very fortunate. if anything would happen to my family, i would be nervous. outside of that, there is nothing to be nervous about. >> what is your guilty pleasure? >> cigars. i love having a cigar. when i played golf with my doctor, i finish around, and pull out a cigar. he says, i must advise you against us. i say i only smoke after i play golf for getting a drink with some friends to he says, does it help your golfing? i say, not really, no. been doing you have this blackberry thing for almost a year, would you give your own chances for success? >> if you are talking about iing able to create value,

think i can do that. >> 100%? >> i would say better than 80/20. am comfortable with how we manage our technology, business, technologies, margin, distribution channel, new products, the strategy that gets into communicating in a secure manner. i think there is enough runway here for us. we scale our expenses to a level that allow us to stay back, invest money. i am comfortable with generating more value. whether it will be good enough to be iconic again, that is something i need to chew on. i don't know the answer to that question. >> being completely honest, have you ever had a moment, a single moment, where you thought what did i get myself into? >> twice. yes, i had.

after the first 30 days, i said is -- i amthis running against time on so many things, but then i did not dwell on it for too long. i started putting a plan together and thought to do one thing at a time. i am -- myl when mind is not very focused. -- i amw, i'm qualities quiet at ease with the plans we are working on pick >> had you want to be remembered? >> him but he who could generate results. i would like to remember that i did some thing that made a difference. a lot of people benefited from a effort. if i can feel that, i'm good. chen, thank you for so much joining us in studio 1.0. great to have you. >> thank you. ♪

>> welcome to "money clip" where we tie together the best stories, videos, and interviews and business news. we have been explicit interview with michael dell. protests in new york over another controversial police homicide. will cameras on cops actually help? around the world, put in valve's to punish speculators who bet against the ruble. he defends russia's annexation of crimea and likens his foreign adversaries to hitler. today's innovation story, bloomberg "businessweek" tracks 85 of the world's great disruptors for its special 85th anniversary issue. finally, starbucks brews up a new way to skip the .