>> he is known as tech's turnaround guy. john chen has spent 30 years working and enterprise technology famously taking the software from the verge of death to a $5.8 billion powerhouse. now he is taking on what some say is an impossible job. can he prove them wrong and how did he become the tech industry's fixer. my guest today is john chen. runningugh you are

blackberry in canada, the bay area is where you call home. you technically live here. i live all around. >> how much time do you spend here versus waterloo? have five or 6000 people. here --ilding a state site here in silicon valley's i spent a week or so here and then the rest of the time i go around the world seeing customers and meeting with analysts and investors and partners and distributors and so forth. usingf the reason you are an office here is because of the talent? so we could get closer to all the happening.

you really have to pay attention to what is happening in our industry so you're not as insular. technologyof great but you can't say this is it this is the universe. >> you were born and raised in hong kong? tell me about your up bringing. i came from a relatively poor beginning. because although my parents are quite educated they were refugees from china postwar and kind of where the communists were taking over before the curtain was drawn. tothey escaped from shanghai hong kong. >> you lived in a one-bedroom apartment. >> we lived in a one-bedroom apartment for a long time. have a dining table so to speak. we put two suitcases on top of each other and a piece of cloth

over it. that was our dining table. >> what 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? >> by the time i 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 the ivy league. it enhances your chances. i went to prep school. >> it must've been quiet a transition. >> we went from 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 are 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 touched one. that was the first time i learned how to code-- my first year of high school, my first year in the united states. i started my career as a manufacturing engineer. i started on the ground floor. i went to caltech for my masters degree. i started working with this mainframe company. my first job was to fix things. >> you started your career learning how to fix things. how did you do it? what did it take? >> i liked fixing things. it's both a challenge and an opportunity to learn stuff.

old-school, loyal, stick-with-it type of person. when we 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. >> you took sybase from on-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, building a culture. you focus on something you do well. you focus on those things that add to the market. 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 mobile, i may as well -- thank god we did it. we were stuck at a value of $2 billion. mobile took us to $6 billion. >> what was the hardest thing you had to do there? >> the initial rounds of letting people go, refocusing the company, and being able to convince the remaining employees 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 already dead. >> yes. >> why did you take this job? ♪

>> you came out of there looking like a hero. with great ceos and executives, there is often a myth about them that becomes 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. most people ask me, why are you doing this, the company's is already 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 already 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. but that does not automatically answer the question about why i am 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 decided to become the ceo.

>> you are not crazy? >> there is a lot of potential here. it is not a done deal. we have seen a lot of progress in the past six months. >> is a part of it 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, nokia, motorola -- what makes you think you can change history? >> we try to broaden ourselves way beyond the device, just a phone. i don't sit there and think, i could make another really great phone and somehow everything will be okay. >> you did vow to keep making phones? >> yes, of course true this is our strategy, mobile computing

for the enterprise. you can say that i am committed, 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. it is our first point of entry, or one point of our big strategy of everything secure. the phone is part of it. our phones are the most secure phone because of the way we make it, in the software we have. i would like to continue to do that, but if i can be successful in it, i'm ok to work with somebody else to do it. >> blackberry's global market share in 2009 was at 21%. it is less than 1% now. it is predicted that blackberry market share will fall to .3% by 2018. are you going to change the

direction of that? >> i hope so. can i change it immediately? no. blackberry phones 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. i see people in the professional world still using our devices. it is my job to recapture it, that interest in that loyalty. >> in a future where chips are embedded everywhere, in our clothes, walls, do smartphones matter? >> smartphones will not matter in the long term. i think devices will matter, how things talk to each other. the whole internet of things is real. the question is how and who will make money out of it. >> you sold sybase to sap. are you going to sell blackberry? >> i would prefer to do

something before i contemplate that. >> as the ceo, you are beholding to shareholders to consider offers. >> it's not shareholders, it's the employees. one thing i am proud of about 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. i 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 do you think of the current state of u.s.-china relations given the new regime in 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 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. we don't want another setback. this is only a personal view. >> if the nsa wanted a 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. 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 about how other turnarounds are going. yahoo!? >> from what i can read, they seem to be doing well.

they look at it from the growth, revenue, and all that. if a company guided that way, that is one thing. if the company's fundamentals become stronger in the long term, i would focus on that. from that perspective, it feels like they are doing the right thing. >> you think russ meyer is doing a good job? >> i don't know her very well. yes. >> you are also a father. what kind of dad are you? >> i'm close to my children, and i always enjoy time with them. because of the job, running around the world, i don't spend a lot of time with them. thankfully, they all grew up pretty good. i feel good about it. >> how do they feel about you living half here and half in canada? >> my wife loves it. 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're just fine. >> what's an app you can't live without? >> e-mail. >> facebook or twitter? >> neither. i got so hooked on it. i'm spending a living moment on it. i can't do it. i need to stop. >> smart watch or no? >> no. i'm a traditionalist. >> but you want your chips and everything? by the way, i did not say i want to be tracked like that. i think there is a certain amount that -- and i would have my own private moment in my own

private life. >> if you were not doing what you are doing now, what would you do? >> i would love to go to law school. actually, i wanted to be a lawyer, 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 a round and pull out a cigar. he says, i must advise you against it. i say, i only smoke after i play golf or getting a drink with some friends. he says, does it help your golfing? i say, not really, no. >> he said ok fine. >> now that you have been doing this blackberry thing for almost a year, what would you give your own chances for success? >> if you are talking about being able to create value, i think i can do that. >> 100%?

>> i would say better than 80/20. i am comfortable with how we manage our technology, business, margins, distribution channels, 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 allows 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 to myself, this is -- i am

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 could feel when i am -- my mind is not very focused. right now, i am quiet at ease with the plans we are working on. >> how do you want to be remembered? >> the one who could generate results. i would like it to be remembered that i did some thing that made a difference, that a lot of people benefited from my effort. if i can feel that, i'm good. >> john chen, thank you for so much joining us on studio 1.0. great to have you. >> thank you. ♪ >> bobby darin, frank sinatra,

dean martin. tony bennett. not king cole, johnny