BlackBerry exec on women in tech, iPhones, Facebook - and finding the off switch

Charmaine Eggberry is vice president and managing director of EMEA at RIM - a position that gives her responsibility for the company's growth targets in the region, expansion into new European markets, strategic partnerships and sales and marketing activity.

She joined the BlackBerry-maker back in 2002, after holding several senior executive roles at Lucent Technologies.

At RIM, Eggberry is involved with a company initiative to promote the role of UK women in technology via its annual BlackBerry Women & Technology Awards - which she describes as a "year-long project" to highlight the part women play in the tech industry, rather than a once per year awards bash.

silicon.com caught up with Eggberry recently to talk about smart phones, flexible working, why the tech industry needs more women and the new kid on the block: the Apple iPhone.

On the getting more women into tech…
We started this [the BlackBerry Women & Technology Awards] because I kept reading statistics - very sobering, very negative - about the declining numbers of women who are joining the tech industry as a whole. When you consider that over half the working population of the UK are female but less than 20 per cent are working in the tech sector - and that number's declining every single year. Those figures are sobering.

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We thought about all these statistics and we wanted to do something positive - we wanted to talk about the issue but to try and highlight it in a positive way. The thing that we thought we could do best is to create role models. We could celebrate the success of the women who are in the industry - and not just women who are working on the tech but women who are using technology in particular ways or the companies that are supporting them or the people who are mentoring them… There are very many women who are being very successful in the industry we are just not talking about them.

Last year we had a young lady [at the awards] I think under 20 and she was working on a clutch system for a Formula 1 car that would change the speeds that they ran at. She was under 20 working on something like that! Why should we not be telling her story? She's making a difference. She's working on a profoundly interesting project.

We've got to change people's perceptions about this industry. And hopefully by creating new role models and celebrating their success we're going to bring new talent into the industry. And we're going to highlight the fact it's an exciting industry to work in.

The point about this is half the working population is female. If we're not tapping into that we're losing out on talent… We're in a talent acquisition war. And if anybody does have a bias [against women] they should forget about it very quickly because they're going to lose out on talent.

Why is there a gender imbalance in the tech industry?
I think there are a variety of factors. When you look at it as a value chain that starts at school, when boys are good at maths or they're good at science they get told to go and be doctors or go and be engineers. That's the career advice that's given to them. When girls are good at those things what do you think they get told to go and be? They get told to go and be vets or nurses. I say this because I've actually heard this from career advisors.

And so I think what we've got to do is we've got to start at school. We've got to start there and have people understand - and be told - that there are other options open to them. That's one. But at university or even in corporates I think people have to understand that they don't have to be an engineer to come work in the tech sector. The technology sector requires people from every possible discipline. And at the core I think we have to market the fact that it's an exciting industry to be in.

People have a misconception that you either have to be an IT specialist or you have to be an engineer to be able to come and work in the tech sector. I am not an IT specialist and I am not an engineer. Yet I work in the high tech sector and I love it.

What inspires you about technology?
I don't just love technology for technology's sake. I love things that make a difference that change the way people work, change the way people communicate, change the way they interact with each other. That's always been a constant fascination for me. I think we started that off with things like mobile phones - now no one can ever live without them. When they first came out that was revolutionary. And I was involved with starting up one of the first mobile networks in South Africa and I remember people saying a phone you carry around with you? It was a huge breakthrough. I think BlackBerry is that kind of thing too - a breakthrough technology.

The rise of flexible working…
The way people work is changing. At my company, we, as purveyors of BlackBerry we talk flexible working but we actually do flexible working in our company. So we are very active in making sure we have both programmes and work practices that support that. A large proportion of our staff are people who have young families. And so they are able to leave the office, use their BlackBerry technology or whatever technology they need.

It's not about being bound to a desk it's about the work that you do and the quality of work that you do. I think, looking over the last 10 years, that work practices in the UK have changed. More and more companies are thinking about adopting flexible working or are currently doing it. I do think it makes a profound difference to the kind of quality and the kind of people that you bring in. The way in which we live has changed therefore the way we work has to.

And once you put those kinds of work practices in place you see a profound difference in the quality of work that's delivered, the happiness and morale of staff in lower staff turnover. People seem to understand that you're being flexible about them. It's a great way of bringing talent on board.

The Apple iPhone era…
I think the introduction of the iPhone and technologies like iPhone have had a positive effect on the industry. During the time that iPhone was launched we sold more BlackBerrys… because what happened? People suddenly start looking at technology and suddenly understand that it is for them too - I think we've moved well beyond this idea that high tech belongs in the boardroom, belongs to a certain class of individual only… because now that technology is now being adopted by people from all walks of life and it's not all about work.

Consumerisation of the smart phone…
More and more people understand that this stuff they used to think was high-tech and for a very small niche of individuals is suddenly for them. And I think there's been a plethora of introductions over the last few years - like the [BlackBerry] Pearl - people went, oh that's a smart phone? That's great. And it comes in pink? Fantastic, now I want one. We launched pink here in the UK a couple of weeks ago and the reaction has been phenomenal. And all because of the simple introduction of colour. The reaction we're getting is they're now saying 'that's high tech for me'.

People need to stop pigeonholing the tech into is that just business, or just prosumer, because we're seeing a blurring of the boundaries here. We've got people who are carrying BlackBerrys who are using Facebook... People who are using instant messaging for both collaboration on projects as well as to talk to their friends. So we're seeing a blurring of the boundaries. That's part of what's behind the rapid take up of smart phones. And actually part of what's behind the success of BlackBerry. It's this idea that it's crossed a boundary - it's now for consumers and business. Everyone's seeing value in it. It's gone well beyond this idea of business email.

Someone the other day told me that Facebook was banned at their school but she had a BlackBerry and suddenly she became the most popular person in school. And she's a kid. Everybody would come to her during break so they could go on Facebook. Now if you ask me if that is classic of what everybody thinks is a BlackBerry user. Probably not. But welcome to the new BlackBerry user. And we're hearing more and more of those kind of stories.

The iPhone as BlackBerry killer?
IT directors' major concern is around security. And it's not about whether you can get push email, it's about whether that information that you're carrying is safe. And that's certainly why we have the kind of security that we do. People recognise our security model. We have CESG approval for restricted data, we have common criteria which cover 22 countries and arguably we have the most number of security accreditations of any kind of technology like this in the world.

And IT decision makers who are making that kind of purchase decision, that's something that's very important. You ask them what's important and it's not about whether it's bright and shiny or pink and blue. The first thing they care about is whether this time sensitive and business sensitive data is secure. And can I manage it? That's the most important thing for them. And that's why they gravitate to BlackBerry.

On the 'CrackBerry'…
We have given some serious, serious thought to making sure that actually you are in control of that device. We have different profiles. You can use it as a phone only. We've got filters on there. You can only see the important mails. What I find fascinating is that there is also one little key that everybody could use which is called the 'off' key and that people choose not to.