New CEO: BlackBerry's Turnaround Could Take A Year And A Half

新任CEO程守宗：重振黑莓需要一年半

The man announced on Monday as interim CEO of BlackBerry has publicly reiterated his goal of reviving the struggling company’s fortunes, and even put a rough timeframe on when he expects to see progress. “I know we have the ingredients to build a long-term sustainable business, ” John Chen told Reuters, estimating that the turnaround at the Waterloo, Ontario-based company would take about six quarters, or one and a half years.

本周一获得任命的黑莓临时CEO程守宗（John Chen）公开重申了他的目标：重振这家奋力挣扎的公司。他甚至还提出了一个大致的时间框架，预计在此期间会看到改善。

“I have done this before and seen the movie before, ” Chen added, highlighting why BlackBerry’s board hired him to takeover the six-year reign of CEO Thorsten Heins. Chen is a troubleshooter. He took the reins of money-losing database firm Sybase in 1998 and led it back to profitability within a year.

程守宗告诉路透记者：“我知道，我们具备成为一家可以长期持续发展的企业所需的条件。”他预计，这家总部设在加拿大安大略省滑铁卢市的公司大概需要6个季度也就是一年半的时间来走出低谷。

Sybase was a similar story to BlackBerry. Its shares had traded at $57 in 1994 and dropped to $9 when Chen came on board, following his stint as an executive at mini-computer maker Pyramid Technologies. An energetic CEO who worked long hours, Chen ended up cutting 1, 000 jobs, or around 20% of staff at Sybase, lowering annual costs by $100 million. He also pivoted Sybase to avoid competing directly with dominant enterprise software players Oracle

在解释为何黑莓董事会聘请自己接替六年来稳坐首席执行官之位的托斯腾•海因斯（Thorsten Heins）时，程守宗这样强调：“我以前就曾挽救企业于危时，目睹过这样的过程。”1998年，他接管了正处于亏损困境的数据库软件公司赛贝斯（Sybase），领导该公司在一年之内就扭亏为盈。

Microsoft, and drove further into niche parts of the database market.

当年的赛贝斯与如今的黑莓何其相似。1994年时，赛贝思股价曾一度达到57美元，而及至程守宗接掌帅印之时，其股价已经跌至每股9美元。临危受命以前，程守宗在一家迷你电脑制造商Pyramid Technologies任首席执行官。上任赛贝斯CEO后，这位精力充沛的领导者加班加点地工作，最终裁员1,000人，相当于辞退了赛贝斯约两成的员工，使公司的年度成本削减1亿美元。在程守宗的领导下，赛贝斯避免了与当时占主导地位的企业软件巨头甲骨文（Oracle）和微软正面交锋，选择了进一步开拓数据库市场的利基。

SAP for $5.8 billion.

2010年，程守宗以58亿美元将赛贝斯出售给了全球四大软件供应商之一SAP公司。

Chen has yet to detail his plan for BlackBerry, but he may similarly guide it into safer niches like enterprise software services. Many analysts contend that BlackBerry should shutter its consumer business, long-dominated by Apple

而这一次，程守宗并未详细说明自己挽救黑莓的计划，但他可能会沿用针对赛贝斯的方法，引导这家公司进入企业软件服务这类更安全的利基市场。眼下，消费类产品业务被苹果和三星长期主宰，许多分析师都主张黑莓关闭这类业务，让微软-诺基亚联盟去坐第三把交椅。

Apple and Samsung, and let Microsoft- Nokia

黑莓已经表示，继去年裁员5,000人后，今年年底前，还将在全公司1.27万名员工中裁员四成。

Nokia try to become the third horse in that race.

程守宗接受采访时表示：“现在挑战重重，大有可为，否则我也不会有兴趣。”

BlackBerry has already said it will cut 40% of its 12, 700-strong workforces by the end of this year, following 5, 000 layoffs in 2012.

作为知名品牌，黑莓所带来的挑战应该会比赛贝斯更大、更复杂。而作为加拿大成功典范，更令人震惊的是黑莓败落之迅速：据市场研究公司IDC的数据，黑莓占有的美国市场份额从两年前的14%剧减至如今的不足3%。作为智能手机家族首批赢得大众口碑的成员，黑莓堪称手机发展史的一座里程碑。黑莓的董事会和对该公司未来有兴趣的众多科技界人士必然抱有更多的看法。

“There is a lot to do, ” Chen said in his interview. “There are a lot of challenges, or otherwise I would not be interested.”

程守宗说，担任首席执行官后，他首先计划与政府和金融及电信业的客户会面，借以稳定部分黑莓的重要客户关系。他还会任命一些新的高管。

BlackBerry may prove a bigger, more complex challenge than Sybase, thanks to its resonance as a well-known brand. It is a Canadian business success story whose failure has been all the more stunning for its rapidity: in the U.S., its market share has dropped form 14% two years ago, to less than 3% today according to IDC. It also has a landmark role in the history of mobile, as one of the first smart devices to gain mass popularity. There are bound to be more voices in both the boardroom and wider tech community with an interest in BlackBerry’s future.

如果程守宗心中已经为黑莓描绘了最终的蓝图，那它可能就是让一家更大的企业软件公司收购黑莓。过往经历表明，程守宗了解怎样向SAP推销。最近一次外部高管空降身处困境的设备制造商，就是以出售企业告终的。2010年9月，曾任微软高管的埃洛普加入诺基亚，成为该公司首位非荷兰籍CEO，不久，他就促成了微软与诺基亚的并购。

Chen said his initial plans as CEO will be to stabilize some of BlackBerry’s key relationships, by meeting its customers in government and the financial and telecommunications industries. He’ll also bring new executives on board.

今年9月，埃洛普以72亿美元将诺基亚卖给了微软，距离在他上任正好三年。

If Chen has an endgame in mind, it may be selling to a larger enterprise software firm. History shows that he knows how to sell to SAP. That’s what happened the last time an outside executive was parachuted into a struggling device maker to turn things around. Not long after former-Microsoft executive Stephen Elop joined Nokia as its first, non-Finnish CEO in Sept. 2010, he brokered a partnership between Nokia and Microsoft.

译 若离 校 丁盈幸

Then last September, exactly two years later, he sold Nokia to Microsoft for $7.2 billion.

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consumer [kən'sju:mə] video n. 消费者；用户，顾客

staff [stɑ:f, stæf] video n. 职员；参谋；棒；支撑adj. 职员的；行政工作的vt. 供给人员；给…配备职员vi. 雇用工作人员

partnership ['pɑ:tnəʃip] video n. 合伙；[经管] 合伙企业；合作关系；合伙契约

reign [rein] video vi. 统治；支配；盛行；君临n. 统治；统治时期；支配

resonance ['rezənəns] video n. [力] 共振；共鸣；反响

takeover ['teik,əuvə] video n. 接管；验收

shutter ['ʃʌtə] video n. 快门；百叶窗；关闭物；遮板vt. 为…装百叶窗；以百叶窗遮闭

analyst ['ænəlist] video n. 分析者；精神分析医师；分解者

contend [kən'tend] video vi. 竞争；奋斗；斗争；争论vt. 主张；为...斗争

bigger [bigə] video adj. 更大的（big的比较级）