Thorsten Heins said that BlackBerry is in the “second phase” of its transformation plan, which is to “build and invest in the future”, following launch sales of its new BlackBerry devices that were best described as lacklustre.

“Like most of these major transformations of companies, progress can be volatile on a short-term basis,” the CEO said.

He noted that the current fiscal year will focus on investment, as BlackBerry looks to “position ourselves appropriately for sustainable growth by the end of fiscal 2015”.

Late last month, the company said that it had shipped 2.7-million BlackBerry 10 powered devices in the first quarter of the year, making up around 40 per cent of its total device volumes – below some analyst expectations.

And the Wall Street Journal reports that the company is set to shed more middle management jobs across its sales and support units, with Richard Piasentin, its US VP of sales, having already headed for the door following the launch of BB10 devices in this market.

According to the executive, speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting yesterday, growth drivers include its BlackBerry 10 Enterprise Service platform; its BlackBerry devices and opportunities in vertical markets; extending its BlackBerry Messenger service to other smartphone platforms; and developing the BlackBerry secure data network beyond its “traditional” user base.

The CEO said that the first stage of BlackBerry’s transformation was “the survive stage”, during which it needed to cut costs, bring BlackBerry 10 products to market, maintain its liquidity, and ensure products were relevant – a process which he described as “pretty heavy lifting”.

The next stage is “about benefitting from those massive changes and significant investment we will have made in phase 1 and 2”. This includes BlackBerry 10 becoming a “leading secure mobile computing platform for a variety of endpoints”, such as smartphones, but also in cars, M2M, and “what people call the internet of things”.

And these new devices can also use the BlackBerry data network and BlackBerry 10 Enterprise Service platform, enabling the company to extend its reach beyond smartphones into connected devices and supporting management services. “This will make BES10 the leading mobile enterprise services platform,” Heins said.

The AGM also rubber-stamped the company’s change of name, from Research In Motion to BlackBerry.