商界超胆侠程守宗能拯救黑莓吗

    人们可能依然记得埃维尔•克尼维尔的奇装异服，还有他冒险尝试飞跃爱达荷州蛇河峡谷（Snake River Canyon）的举动，尽管最后挑战失败。然而，没几个人敢说自己尝试过更大胆的挑战。不过，那些能让企业起死回生的能人对于这种追求刺激的本能却能心领神会。虽说西装可能要比布满星条旗的白色连体飞越服要保守得多，但是，在征服一道看似不可能逾越的障碍时，隐藏于西装里面的那颗跳动的心却深谙其中的艰辛。

    在2013年这个并不景气的年份，还有什么比让黑莓东山再起更具挑战性的事吗？让黑莓重振旗鼓、与苹果（Apple）、三星（Samsung）、微软（Microsoft）以及一大批正在崛起的亚洲制造商针锋相对地展开竞争，这个愿景并不是天方夜谭。然而，它却又是那么的遥远，有如一道巨大鸿沟将二者远远地隔开，吞噬着飞车和驾驶飞车的超胆侠。

    黑莓宣布程守宗将接替托斯滕•海因斯担任公司首席执行官时，虽然公司还宣布大股东枫信金融（Fairfax Financial）和其他投资者将通过可转换债券的形式注资10亿美元，但黑莓公司的股价却在一天之内下跌了16%。

    黑莓遭到抛售与投资者对海因斯的喜好无关，更不是对程守宗的不满。它体现了投资者的失望情绪，因为枫信早前建议的收购计划成为了泡影。没有人赞成收购计划，但这貌似是黑莓最为可行的出路。

    事实上，除了让黑莓在这个恶性竞争的市场中慢性死亡之外，被收购似乎是它的唯一选择。黑莓拥有强大的专利组合以及23亿美元的现金，尽管它也曾向潜在收购者伸出过橄榄枝，但却徒劳无功。总部位于北京的联想（Lenovo）曾表达过收购意愿，但加拿大却以安全为由叫停。其他公司例如微软、苹果和谷歌（Google）也有意收购黑莓的小块业务。然而，就像路透社周五报道的那样，每位收购商都被公司的董事会拒之门外。

    黑莓似乎在扭转业务的同时一心要保持公司的完整性。因此，在这种形势之下，程守宗肩负的担子分量着实超出了外人的想象。黑莓手机一度赢得了客户牢固的忠诚度，然而，即便黑莓推出了Q10和Z10等新机型，越来越多的客户还是投向了iPhone或安卓手机的怀抱。

    在最近的采访中，程守宗谈到，他可以胜任这一工作。他计划招募新的高管，向黑莓的核心客户群之一、政府部门寻求帮助，同事紧抓陷入困境的手机业务。程守宗表示，他曾在Sybase有过同样的经历。程守宗将Sybase以58亿美元的价格卖给了SAP，这个价格是程守宗12年前接管Sybase时该公司市值的6倍多。

    程守宗是香港人，毕业于布朗大学（Brown）和加州理工学院（Caltech），后供职于优利系统（Unisys）和西门子利多富（Siemens Nixdorf），分别担任工程师和高管职务。他在1997年加入Sybase担任首席运营官之后，于第二年升任公司首席执行官。1998年底，Sybase股票跌破5美元，公司市值在之前4年的时间中蒸发了91%。Sybase的股价表现与黑莓的类似，后者的股价较2009年9月的高点下跌了92%。

    在简历中，程守宗标榜自己把Sybase从破产边缘拉了回来。1998年，正当Sybase挣扎扭转接连数年亏损的局面时，公司因日本子公司的财务规则而被迫对收益进行重新申报。但是，作为一家数据库管理软件的开发商，Sybase还面临着更深层次的战略挑战，因为这个行业在走下坡路，而且逐渐成为了甲骨文（Oracle）的天下。

    Evel Knievel may be remembered today for his kitschy outfits or his ambitious but failed jump across Idaho's Snake River Canyon, yet few can claim to have attempted bolder challenges. A good corporate turnaround artist knows that adrenaline-seeking instinct. The business suit may be much more conservative than a star-spangled white jumpsuit, but the heart beating inside knows what it's like to master a seemingly impossible challenge.

    In the waning days of 2013, what challenge is more daunting than turning around BlackBerry (BBRY)? The vision of a revived BlackBerry -- competing squarely with Apple (AAPL), Samsung, Microsoft (MSFT), and a growing crowd of Asian manufacturers -- is conceivable. But it's also so remote, it may as well be on the far side of a yawning chasm that eats Skycycles and the daredevils who ride them.

    When BlackBerry announced that CEO Thorsten Heins would be replaced by John Chen, the company's stock fell 16% in one day, even though the news was folded in with an announcement that top shareholder Fairfax Financial and other investors would invest $1 billion in the company through convertible debt.

    The sell-off had nothing to do with investor fondness for Heins, or even a thumbs-down for Chen. It came from a disappointment among investors that a buyout that Fairfax had earlier proposed had fallen through. Few loved the idea of a buyout, but it seemed like the best available option for BlackBerry.

    In fact, it looked like the only option besides letting the company die a slow death in a vicious market. BlackBerry had courted suitors to no avail, despite a robust patent portfolio and $2.3 billion in cash. Beijing-based Lenovo showed interest, but Canada nixed it on security concerns. Other companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google (GOOG) were interested in buying small pieces of BlackBerry, but as Reuters reported Friday, the company's board rejected each suitor.

    BlackBerry seems firmly committed to keeping the company intact as it turns things around. That leaves Chen to accomplish a task that few outside the company can imagine happening. BlackBerry phones once inspired strong loyalty among customers, but more and more have defected to iPhones or Android phones even as BlackBerry countered with new handsets like the Q10 and the Z10.

    In recent interviews, Chen speaks as is he's up to the task. He plans to bring in new executives, reach out to governments that have been a core part of the BlackBerry customer base, and hang on to the troubled handset business. Chen says he's been down this road before with Sybase, which he sold to SAP (SAP) for $5.8 billion, a figure that was more than six times Sybase's value when Chen took over 12 years earlier.

    A native of Hong Kong, Chen graduated from Brown and Caltech before working as an engineer at Unisys (UIS) and an executive at Siemens Nixdorf. After joining Sybase as chief operating officer in 1997, Chen was promoted to CEO a year later. By the end of 1998, Sybase's stock had fallen below $5 a share, having lost 91% of its value over the previous four years. That stock performance is similar to BlackBerry's which is down 92% since its September 2009 high.

    Chen's bio boasts that he saved Sybase from bankruptcy. Back in 1998, Sybase was struggling to reverse years of losses when it was forced to restate earnings because of financial regularities in its Japanese subsidiary. But Sybase also had deeper strategic challenges as a maker of database-management software, an industry in a slump and one increasingly dominated by Oracle (ORCL).