????人們可能依然記得埃維爾?克尼維爾的奇裝異服，還有他冒險嘗試飛躍愛達荷州蛇河峽谷（Snake River Canyon）的舉動，盡管最后挑戰失敗。然而，沒幾個人敢說自己嘗試過更大膽的挑戰。不過，那些能讓企業起死回生的能人對于這種追求刺激的本能卻能心領神會。雖說西裝可能要比布滿星條旗的白色連體飛越服要保守得多，但是，在征服一道看似不可能逾越的障礙時，隱藏于西裝里面的那顆跳動的心卻深諳其中的艱辛。

????在2013年這個并不景氣的年份，還有什么比讓黑莓東山再起更具挑戰性的事嗎？讓黑莓重振旗鼓、與蘋果（Apple）、三星（Samsung）、微軟（Microsoft）以及一大批正在崛起的亞洲制造商針鋒相對地展開競爭，這個愿景并不是天方夜譚。然而，它卻又是那么的遙遠，有如一道巨大鴻溝將二者遠遠地隔開，吞噬著飛車和駕駛飛車的超膽俠。

????黑莓宣布程守宗將接替托斯滕?海因斯擔任公司首席執行官時，雖然公司還宣布大股東楓信金融（Fairfax Financial）和其他投資者將通過可轉換債券的形式注資10億美元，但黑莓公司的股價卻在一天之內下跌了16%。

????黑莓遭到拋售與投資者對海因斯的喜好無關，更不是對程守宗的不滿。它體現了投資者的失望情緒，因為楓信早前建議的收購計劃成為了泡影。沒有人贊成收購計劃，但這貌似是黑莓最為可行的出路。

????事實上，除了讓黑莓在這個惡性競爭的市場中慢性死亡之外，被收購似乎是它的唯一選擇。黑莓擁有強大的專利組合以及23億美元的現金，盡管它也曾向潛在收購者伸出過橄欖枝，但卻徒勞無功。總部位于北京的聯想（Lenovo）曾表達過收購意愿，但加拿大卻以安全為由叫停。其他公司例如微軟、蘋果和谷歌（Google）也有意收購黑莓的小塊業務。然而，就像路透社周五報道的那樣，每位收購商都被公司的董事會拒之門外。

????黑莓似乎在扭轉業務的同時一心要保持公司的完整性。因此，在這種形勢之下，程守宗肩負的擔子分量著實超出了外人的想象。黑莓手機一度贏得了客戶牢固的忠誠度，然而，即便黑莓推出了Q10和Z10等新機型，越來越多的客戶還是投向了iPhone或安卓手機的懷抱。

????在最近的采訪中，程守宗談到，他可以勝任這一工作。他計劃招募新的高管，向黑莓的核心客戶群之一、政府部門尋求幫助，同事緊抓陷入困境的手機業務。程守宗表示，他曾在Sybase有過同樣的經歷。程守宗將Sybase以58億美元的價格賣給了SAP，這個價格是程守宗12年前接管Sybase時該公司市值的6倍多。

????程守宗是香港人，畢業于布朗大學（Brown）和加州理工學院（Caltech），后供職于優利系統（Unisys）和西門子利多富（Siemens Nixdorf），分別擔任工程師和高管職務。他在1997年加入Sybase擔任首席運營官之后，于第二年升任公司首席執行官。1998年底，Sybase股票跌破5美元，公司市值在之前4年的時間中蒸發了91%。Sybase的股價表現與黑莓的類似，后者的股價較2009年9月的高點下跌了92%。

????在簡歷中，程守宗標榜自己把Sybase從破產邊緣拉了回來。1998年，正當Sybase掙扎扭轉接連數年虧損的局面時，公司因日本子公司的財務規則而被迫對收益進行重新申報。但是，作為一家數據庫管理軟件的開發商，Sybase還面臨著更深層次的戰略挑戰，因為這個行業在走下坡路，而且逐漸成為了甲骨文（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).