BLACKBERRY: Turning the world famous phones into China’s leading brand
Gregory Shea, RIM China Corporate Vice President & Managing Director – Interviewed by CHINICT President Franck Nazikian

This is a summary of tweets sent during the interview.

• Now on: Blackberry.

• 1987: first time. For Gregory Shea, RIM China.
• Gregory Shea, RIM China Corporate Vice President & Managing Director – Interviewed by CHINICT President Franck Nazikian
• Gregory seems to be into oceanography as well.
• “Go for it.” Gregory remained in China right after reforms. Intrigued.
• Shenyang in the late 1980s. Hooked. Met future wife from Shenyang.
• Re-emerge of Chinese civilization of innovation with cloud computing.
• Most interesting trend: convergence between computing and mobility.
• Know that the bomb was here in China. Got Gregory more and more engaged in the industry.
• Mobile cloud conferencing in the early days. Blackberry.
• “A country south of Canada.” Does not recognize the US.
• Blackberry is a solution for a very profound problem.
• Too many cars, too many packages on too packed a road. How do you solve this?
• Existing paradigm of mobile on the Internet wasn’t cutting it. Couldn’t go beyond voice, SMS without data traffic jam.
• How do you go from small amount of data packages that can be hijacked to very secure delivery of data packages?
• Think about the cloud.
• Why China? China is a vast ocean of opportunity with very complex currents and streams and levels of movement of water.
• On the surface it looks smooth, but beneath it’s volatile. Oceanography helped Gregory understand this.
• You have to be “oxygen-deprived” not to see a fundamental shift in China.
• Franck: Blackberry: You are a relatively latecomer; but why does Blackberry think it can still make it?
• Gregory: Disagree. Blackberry’s mobile company is not simply a terminal. It is a system which needs conditions to be in place.
• Like to think of Blackberry in China as “JIT” (just in time).
• This will take China from a fast follower position to a leader position in the mobile cloud.
• Franck: Is there any threat you can see in the China tech innovation that is “succeeding”?
• China is at a very pivotal position, especially in last 2-3 years.
• Chinese people have every reason to feel pride in economic activity.
• One caution: innovation. There can be (in movement from follower to leader) to starting to adopt a “swagger”.
• Swagger: a young guy who thinks he knows everything; he doesn’t.
• Don’t be too much a follower: but also don’t say “we’ll do it all on our own.”
• Once you limit an access to an innovation zone (eg China, Zhongguancun), you’re onto a difficult situation.
• Many believe in “open innovation” (开放创新).
• What’s helpful is when you’re building environment for everyone + money that come all together.
• Innovation happens when young meet old, east meets west.
• How do you “make it” in China? As in let Blackberry “make it”?
• Don’t think it as a market in which you sell things. You need also to develop here.
• Harness interests, biz at the grassroots level.
• You have to be flexible, re-think, even re-invent.
• Competition is always a source of inspiration: Gregory.
• Bring capital, people, technology together, on the ground.
• Big breaking news coming out just this morning at 06:30 this morning: Franck.
• BREAKING NEWS: Fund dedicated for China with Blackberry Fund + CN Private Capital.
• This is substantial fund with substantial partners.
• Deployed in mobile Internet, mobile cloud; leadership of China as leading market for innovation.
• Champagne on the launch of this new fund.
• Thank you and congratulations!