Saving a falling icon is a challenge that true leaders relish. And John Chen wouldn’t let the opportunity to lead the iconic but imploding Blackberry pass. The new CEO definitely has the credentials, with his rescue and subsequent turnaround of Sybase now a well documented feat in the tech lore. Moving quickly after taking over, the 58-year-old has stabilised the company—cutting costs, realigning supply chain and bringing in focus to the core strengths of enterprise and security. In an email interview with Corporate Dossier, Chen talks about return to the core, path to profitability and BlackBerry’s future strategy.I thought BlackBerry was an iconic company with a lot to offer, including more than 44,000 patents. However, I also saw that everything wasn’t lined-up to take advantage of current market opportunities. After six months in the company, I along with my leadership team have a clear vision. We have engineered a new strategy to stabilize the company, focusing on several key areas to capitalize on our traditional strengths in security and enterprise, while also leveraging our QNX Embedded business to focus on future growth opportunities in machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. I’ve done this before and I wanted a new challenge. This is definitely a challenge, but one that my team and I are up for.I made it my top priority to meet with our customers around the world to instil confidence that BlackBerry was not going away anytime soon. I had to narrow the Company’s broad approach on both enterprise and consumer markets. I decided it was only natural to pivot the company back to its roots in enterprise and security, which is built into everything we do, and we have been doing it longer and better than anyone else in the industry. Nothing is more secure than the BlackBerry platform and security will continue to be central to our strategy. As more confidential data is taken beyond the walls of organizations and into mobile devices, it is vital to ensure that mobile communications are not compromised. I believe in the values of this brand and I’ve assembled the right team and strategy with the strong confidence that we will rebuild BlackBerry for the benefit of all of our constituencies.By the end of this fiscal year, we are forecasting our operations to be cash-flow positive. Within the next fiscal year, I expect to see the company turn a profit. Beyond monetary milestones, Blackberry has a cash and investment balance of $2.7 bn and we are well positioned to leverage these funds for acquisitions that help deliver value and springboard us into strategic growth areas. NantHealth is an example of how we are making strategic investments into companies that bring us into key regulated sectors such as healthcare. These investments will help us stabilize our position in the enterprise mobile computing industry, while creating a trajectory for future innovation efforts.However, a turnaround isn’t just about being cash flow positive or creating a near-term strategy. It’s thinking long-term and identifying what will help us leapfrog current trends and to be a leader and not a follower. We also see long-term value in BlackBerry and in five years, we expect to have a major play in the M2M space. BlackBerry is well positioned to lead this charge as it looks to unite people and machines across the Internet of Things – from smartphones to in-vehicle telematics systems, smart appliances and much more. Everything will be connected and we would like to become a major hub of this next important technology wave.The most difficult challenge has been turning external perceptions. BlackBerry is not just a smartphone manufacturer. It’s a mobile solution company that takes a broader approach to servicing the needs of customers looking for secure technologies that drive productivity, communications and collaboration.We still have a very compelling proposition for our retail customers who see the value in our iconic keyboard. BlackBerry has invested years of research and development to create the world’s best mobile keyboard, and that will continue to be a central differentiating focus for us. We will continue to offer customers a rich portfolio of secure devices across price points for multiple regions to enable improved productivity, enhanced security and overall communications experience. This week’s pre-sale launch of our BlackBerry Z3 for Indonesia is a testament to how we are listening to our customers and delivering technologies that meet the needs of our core markets.Additionally, we forged a joint device development and manufacturing agreement with Foxconn with an initial focus on development of a consumer smartphone for emerging markets. The BlackBerry Z3 is the first smartphone to emerge from our strategic partnership. It embodies all that BlackBerry 10 offers, with its exceptional productivity features and reliable communications, in a stylish, all-touch design made affordable for customers in Indonesia From a messenger perspective, BlackBerry has been a pioneer in the instant messaging space with BBM. We have made BBM available cross-wplatform to Android, iOS and we will add the Windows platform soon as well. BBM continues to deliver new functionality as a premier messaging platform that provides a simple and effective way to stay connected. BBM Channels is also a new introduction to BBM users, a great way for brands, organizations and individuals to drive deeper conversations with their fans and followers.BlackBerry manages the mobile infrastructure of tens of thousands of customers worldwide, including all G7 governments, 16 of the G20 governments and 10 out of 10 largest global enterprises in each of the pharmaceutical, law firm and automotive industries. As more confidential data is taken beyond the walls of organizations and into mobile devices, it is vital to ensure that mobile communications are not compromised industries. BlackBerry is the most secure end-to-end communication platform, from the device, network to the server level. We offer enterprise customers the gold standard of security, a solutions framework that is not only versatile and device agnostic, but also scalable.Both at Sybase and BlackBerry, I have been focused on rebuilding confidence both inside and outside the company. A key priority must be getting the “house” in order first, learning about the business and concentrating on the employees and core customers. When customers are happy, they stick with you, and that’s positive for the shareholders. I also think it’s important to have short, medium and long-term strategies. Often it is the medium-term strategy in play. I had to do that at Sybase many times. We’d try different strategies, and some worked and some were not as successful. But we found that if the short-term plan wasn’t working, the medium-term plan would kick in. A lot of companies have only one plan. That’s great if things go perfectly, but you don’t always have that luxury, so that’s why I find great value in having a plan with different layers.I have been in this industry a long time, and I’ve been fortunate to meet some very talented people who I consider trusted advisors that I seek out to provide ideas and advice. I have also surrounded myself by a team that shares my excitement for the future of BlackBerry – and they bring skills that we need to make a turnaround happen. To us, there’s no room for doubt.I think the world would be a better place with a stronger BlackBerry and I wanted to help make that happen. I’ve successfully turned around companies before and this latest challenge doesn’t scare me – it inspires me.