00:00:02Challenges of IT Distribution Leadership
00:09:03Building Vendor Relationships for Distributors
00:14:45Evolving Trends and Customer Expectations
00:22:03Technology Trends and Leadership Development
00:28:21Future Impact of Quantum Computing
معلومات عن هذه الحلقة
Join us as we sit down with John Poulter, the visionary director at Comstor, who takes us on a thrilling journey through the world of IT distribution. From his humble beginnings at Dubtail Distribution to his impressive roles at Oracle and NTT, John’s experience offers a unique lens into the fast-paced and complex terrain of IT distribution. Through his eyes, navigating this industry feels akin to piloting a fully-loaded 747 just above the ground—requiring constant innovation and astute leadership.
Explore the art of building robust vendor relationships, especially during turbulent times like the COVID-19 pandemic. John unravels strategies used to keep teams motivated and operations running smoothly, such as leveraging virtual tiger teams. He reflects on how authentic partnerships, much like nurturing a marriage, necessitate daily commitment. Learn how to strengthen these relationships by adopting structures akin to those of giants like Cisco, which can transform transactional interactions into thriving, long-term partnerships.
Peek into the future as we tackle emerging trends reshaping technology and customer expectations. John sheds light on the transformative potential of AI and quantum computing, and how these advancements compel businesses to adapt through automation and digital initiatives. Emphasising the need for openness to change, he offers insights for aspiring leaders on embracing innovation, developing varied perspectives, and staying ahead of the curve. Get ready for an enlightening discussion that bridges the present and future of technology distribution, offering invaluable lessons in leadership and adaptation.
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I remember this way back in the day I said running a distributor is like flying a 747 at full speed, fully loaded, two meters off the ground.
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It's exhilarating when you're doing it and if you get it wrong it's going to hurt.
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And if you get it right you know you can really sharpen your business skills.
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Today I have the pleasure in having a chat to John Poulter, who is the Comstor at and we're going to talk all the things about IT distribution, the challenges of that Most customers purchase equipment and don't really think about how it gets there and also particularly when things need to be changed, and it's quite of a process.
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Hey, john, welcome to the podcast.
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Thanks, MVR, I'm glad to be here.
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Yeah, great For those who are around.
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This will be played a little bit later on, but we're catching up at Cisco Live.
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Comstore is a big Cisco partner from a distribution point of view.
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We've known John for a while across the different businesses and particularly at Orro.
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Before we get started, john, do you mind sharing a little bit about your career journey and what got you to be the director of ComStore?
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Yeah, I can do so.
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As with a lot of people in IT, I fell into it accidentally.
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That's true actually.
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Many people do, they do, they do, and way back in the day I did a commerce degree that largely had a major in international business, which was really just economics, as it turned out, and I always thought that I'd be going to work for Macquarie Bank or CBA or something in economics and finance and this is going back a good 20-odd years now and I remember circling back in the leader of the local job boards and stuff like that.
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This is before seek.
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com or anything like that.
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I was very new at that stage and my old man worked a little bit of his career in IT, so I kind of had a little bit of a taste for it when I was growing up, and that was back in the days when digital equipment was still a thing, right.
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So I thought I might just apply for a couple of roles here and before you know it, I was sitting in front of a very small distributor called Dovetail Distribution, which was only five employees at the time, and, as it turned out, they were just offering that extra three grand a year, more than the starting salary of a grad somewhere else at a bank, and I took the money and rang.
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As a newly married man I thought I need every penny I can get, and that's how my career kind of started in IT thereabouts in a very small distributor.
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Wow, wow, and banking would have been an interesting place to be in, but certainly, if I think about the technology life cycles I've been through, it would have been a fascinating career for you.
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I mean, certainly there's a lot happened in the finance world as well, no doubt on no doubt, but one of those fork in the road moments and you're happy with the change, Although you probably never did the banking thing.
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But are you happy with where you ended up?
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I'm happy where I ended up.
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I ended up marrying a woman that's in finance.
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Oh, there we go so at least I've got a perspective of it thereabouts.
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And I think I really enjoy the pace of IT and the change and the constant.
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Nothing stays stagnant, right, you've always got to continue to innovate, right, and I think it really drives me.
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Yeah, but um, so after starting that in that little small disty, they got acquired by a slightly bigger one called itx group, which went on become abnet and then tech data as it is today.
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But I'd left that after about seven years in distribution, cutting my teeth in the world of what I'd say is sun microsystems, and then, after sun had been acquired by oracle, I had an opportunity to go and join Vendorland and I worked at Oracle for about seven years, which was a very interesting and diverse journey that I went on.
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I certainly cut my teeth on a lot of things there and, reflecting back, it taught me a lot that place, especially working in Vendorland.
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Yes, I then bounced over to a partner for a while NTT, before I was headhunted for this role, and then back to distribution.
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So I've had a, I guess, a very fortunate career where I've been able to sit on all three sides of the fence, being distribution vendor partner and now back to distribution.
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So I've played all positions on the field, if you will.
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I didn't realize you didn't time at NTT as well, but that's interesting because you would have seen, as you said, the other side of it, right, which is people don't get to do.
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They're either customer and they stay customer or they end up in integrated land, right, and distribution's one of the ones that some land in.
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But it's an interesting journey Off that.
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Then in your time and you've learned plenty of things, and now being a director, what would come as some of the responsibilities across your management, sales and operations that you find most impactful and rewarding for what you do, right, because, again, people don't see distribution, they're just things arrive.
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What sort of things do you find most rewarding and impactful?
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I think there's a couple of elements to that.
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The most impactful and rewarding thing I think I have as a director is the leadership side of things right.
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I admire my team, love working with them and it's a privilege to be able to lead them to guide them, to help develop them, and it's a privilege to be able to lead them, to guide them, to help develop them and coach them to actually be the best that they possibly can be, and I get a real kick out of that and I just find it really rewarding, right, and that's probably what drives me, usually a day-to-day, to bring the A game, if you will.
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The other thing, too, about distribution is at my level, you really get to unpack the different moving elements.
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So it is running a business at its foundation, right.
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You've got all sorts of levers that you're pulling in terms of driving profitability.
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When you're a distributor, switching costs can be low, so you've got to really be on your game.
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In terms of how you're approaching the market, in terms of unique go-to market campaigns and initiatives.
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How are you structuring yourself in terms of unique go-to-market campaigns and initiatives?
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How are you structuring yourself in terms of supporting the channel community and the vendors?
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How are you implementing certain processes and procedures or technologies and systems in terms of maximizing and getting scale, without having to necessarily keep throwing headcount at problems in order to grow?
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And then there's the financial acumen, right?
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Anyone in my team will tell you that I love my numbers, and running a distribution is definitely all about the numbers.
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There was an ex-CEO of Adistio I won't name his name because he may not want to be quoted on that but I remember this way back in the day he said running a distributor is like flying a 747 at full speed, fully loaded, two meters off the ground.
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It's exhilarating when you're doing it and if you get it wrong it's going to hurt, and if you get it right you can really sharpen your business skills.
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Yeah, fair enough too.
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How has your leadership approach evolved over the years and what strategy have you found most effective in developing a high-performing team?
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Because you guys are under pressure a lot of times.
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There's different vendor life cycles when things are due and of financial years are spread out through your whole calendar, unlike Australia where it's, you know, very fixed in the 12-month cycle.
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How do you really develop that high-performing team around you?
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Yeah, there's no one easy answer for that.
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Sure, in terms of you know how do you develop a high-performing team?
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One of the core things that I've always focused on is diversity of thought, or diversity of thinking, and that's definitely true of the ComStore team.
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Most people on the team have got a very different, I guess, thought process, a very different way of thinking, and that allows us to, as a team, get together with very different frames of reference, very different perspectives, to then solution problems that benefit our vendors, in this case, Cisco and Pure Storage and Splunk under the ComStore banner, as well as all our general partners like Orro.
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The other thing, too, is being an authentic leader.
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I think goes a long way, and that's something that I spent a lot of time developing with a professional executive coach that was a qualified coaching psychologist.
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Professional executive coach.
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That was a qualified coaching psychologist.
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So there's a lot of stuff to do with leadership that I had no idea existed until I started actually engaging with an exec coach.
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That took me through all the different articles, the science behind it, and then you start implementing it.
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I mentioned that I worked for a vendor at one point in my career which was definitely all about hitting that sales target and the leadership was unique there, and one of the things I wanted to make sure of is that my team knew that they were accountable for hitting the number at the end of the day because that's what pays the bills for any organisation but going about it in a way which is authentic, inspiring, that they feel psychologically safe doing and I know that sounds like motherhood statements, but there's a lot to it when you actually get it right.
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And from the back of that, I've been blessed with a team that stuck with me for the better part of five years.
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I've had nearly zero attrition right and I think it's that authentic and that diverse thinking and that coming together as a team for the benefit of our vendors and customers that drives us every day.
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Well, that's fascinating.
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That's fascinating and also reading through some of your profile and thinking about distribution during COVID-19.
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So let's talk during COVID-19.
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So let's talk about COVID-19.
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I know you drew quite a process around remote work and transitioning to remote work during that.
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What challenge did you face during that shift and how did you ensure cohesive and productive work at the time?
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Was there some unique challenges in COVID-19 that you faced?
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There was because we had different moving elements of being a distributor.
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Right, you needed people in the warehouse yes, fair enough, right To actually move products from A to B, get them into the country and get them out to the site and with all the regulations and requirements around that, our warehouse and logistics team did an amazing job at pulling that together.
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But we had to split into doing A teams and B teams and C teams to make sure there wasn't people infecting each other so the warehouse could actually continue to operate.
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You got to really hand it to those guys early on before you know there was any known knowns in COVID to actually get out there and go to the warehouse and put their bodies on the line, if you will, in order to make sure kit was still getting delivered.
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And then there was the element of terms of the go-to-market side of things, which was how do we serve our customers in terms of all the things that specialised distis do, whether it be training and enablement, building relationships with clients to get deals done, clients being partners like yourself, strategising with vendors and all that type of stuff.
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And that was where I guess I had the responsibility, which is how do we take a pretty crazy situation and turn it into something that's a little bit fun, a little bit unique.
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So we built a lot of virtual tiger teams, we did virtual sales kickoffs where we'd break away into little working groups and come back and do live presentations not quite podcasts or anything like that, but I did a lot to make sure with my leadership team, to make sure that we kept every individual in the business unit highly engaged on something to do that was meaningful back into what the vendors and partners needed to serve their own business.
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And then we had a bit of fun along the way as well, such as and you can see the hair that my hair do is similar to yours right.
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It's reflective of the lights around, so as part of just having a bit of fun along the way as well, such as and you can see the hair that my hair do is similar to yours, right, it's reflective of the lights around.
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So as part of just having a bit of fun, I went out and invested in about 12 different wigs, so every time I'd jump on a conference call, I'd have a new wig to wear right, just to get a bit of laughs from the team.
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And in terms of moving through, I guess from a leadership point of view, One of the key things that we'd put together there was to have like a teaming system.
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So that way, you know, we had many people that were working in isolation.
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Other peoples were working in a household of eight, you know, up to eight people or something like that.
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So having a peer or a buddy that they could kind of build a relationship with and lean on and whatnot, I think worked quite well, you know, to make sure that no one felt alone or isolated during that time.
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Yeah, fair enough.
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And look, being a distributor vendor relationships is really fundamental to channel distribution and I know obviously a lot of your time is spent with these vendors that are significant to the business.
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But how did you approach building and maintaining those relationships?
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Because obviously everyone's trying to grab that business.
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Other distributors are always trying pick up these ones and of course there's a much bigger lens globally, et cetera.
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But you know, again, we're at Cisco Live and one of your largest ones is Cisco.
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You know what role do these partnerships really play in the success of the distributor?
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It's a lifeblood, it's a lifeline for us, right?
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If we had bad relationships with Cisco or any vendor and our partners, it'd be disastrous, right?
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So relationships is critical, which means having the right hires on your team is critical as well.
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But in terms of what drives those very strong relationships that Comstor has with Cisco?
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To answer your question is, I think, two things.
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I think the first thing is more structural, which is, if you look at how the business unit is designed, we exactly mimic Cisco's go-to-market structure.
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We've got a general sales team which is focused on geographies and accounts.
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Then you've got a technical team which has got the mix of solution architects and technical quote, specialist and pre-sales engineers, which mimics Cisco's team insofar as that they specialize per architecture, security, ENDC, colab, et cetera.
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And then you've got the architecture leaders, who are also focused on a single technology pillar, that are effectively the product sales specialists.
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We call them architecture leads, cisco calls them PSSs.
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So that direct alignment with Cisco allows us to have those deep-seated relationships at all moving levels of their organization.
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Now, that's only one of the two critical elements.
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The second critical element I alluded to a bit earlier, which is to be authentic, right, authentic relationships trump any other relationship.
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You know, we've had many of our customers in Cisco say and I'll probably say it from a customer point of view which is a partner, is that they've said.
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You know, what we love about Comstor is that it's not just a supplier-customer relationship, it's a true partnership.
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Yes, and that's something that I drive incessantly within the BU because I've sat, as I said, on all of those different sides of the fence, so I know exactly what it's like when you have a relationship with a distributor which is just transactional.
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Yeah, no one likes transactional right.
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No.
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Our CEO has this great analogy.
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He says we talk a lot about managed services, which Orro is fundamentally built on, and your point here about relationships in relation to keeping people happy, right, and, and that's the lifeblood, as you said.
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But he was definitely talking about you're being married, you.
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You don't go back to your wife or partner.
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I should say, uh, um, to be politically correct in say, every three to five years, when your renewal time comes up, let's sit down and have a renegotiation to see if we should continue this marriage.
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Right, it's a fundamental thing.
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You've got to do it every day, right?
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And it's a good kind of analogy on what you deliver.
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Right, for all customers as well.
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Yeah, yeah, I was just thinking that when you said that on Friday this week I've got my 20th wedding anniversary.
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Oh, wow, congratulations.
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I'm wondering whether should I do the renewal conversation, or should I?
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Is it due, or do you do it monthly?
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I think it's hourly sometimes.
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But it is a really good analogy, which is that it's that ongoing trust that you can have both ways that, I think, sees you through the good, the bad and the ugly times, because we're not perfect, we don't get it right.
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Every single time right we drop the ball every once in a while or we'll have some rough patches in relationships, but I think it's the intent to continue to work through it in an authentic manner, in a genuine manner, that makes all the difference for the long term.
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If I then pivot, you talked on cloud and licensing, which we've had a fundamental shift in many years.
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Do you see any other significant trends in the technology industry?
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You Do you see any other significant trends in the technology industry?
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You get to see lots of things and I know you go to quite a few different conferences over the year for certain things or your team certainly does, and you know if I think about channel distribution.
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Do you see any significant trends coming our way that you can talk about or think about?
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I think the biggest trend that's coming our way is probably around AI, and I hate saying that because everyone's saying it.
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Of course, of course, of course.
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But when you take a look at, I guess and I'm going to put back into just my distribution frame on this which is, what does it mean for us?
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I think when you look at the increasing adoption of AI and everything that we do and how it's going to be embedded into, you know, cisco's own security solutions, data center solutions, whatever else it's going, it's compute intensive, it's going to require, you know, upgraded networks and so on and so forth, right?
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So I think that trend of AI adoption as it starts to roll through, at whatever speed it's going to I don't going to, I think, depending on what article you read, it says that it'll take some time and others will say it'll be here in six months time right, but let's assume it's over the next three to five years.
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I think that's going to drive the need for new skill sets within everyone's company, including my own business unit, including for me to figure out how to start leveraging AI more in, whether it be Microsoft's co-pilot or other things in Cisco's technology, but also how do we train and enable our partners in terms of making sure that they've got the right messaging and positioning to service their customers to eventually sell more product right, because, at the end of the day, it's kind of what we're here to do and then we attach various services around it.
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Yes, and if I then think about the technology trends for the industry everyone's talking to ai, as you just touched on it's going to impact everyone's lives.
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From the back of that, though, do you see, uh, customer expectations, you know changing as much, and particularly their customer expectations of yourselves and the way you deal with them, or is that relationship pretty fundamental because you know us as the customer still dealing with change as well?
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Do Do you see that as a real different expectation today on the way people used to deal with distribution, and, if so, is Comstall thinking about how to realign to customer needs that are changing so rapidly?
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You don't know what you don't know and I think I like to take things kind of fluid right.
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So you've got to be ready to adapt as things change.
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And I think, with the way AI is going to roll out, I've got no idea where it's going to end, right, and I've got no idea necessarily how the business unit needs to change itself to service those customers.
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All I know is that I've got the right team that's got the right mindset to learn new things, to change their approach, to actually adapt as we're going through.
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Got the right mindset to learn new things, to change their approach, to actually adapt as we're going through.
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I think we are somewhat looking to the guidance of vendors like Cisco around what they're doing for AI, because we're so wedded to their business.
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We'll follow their lead to an extent and then it's around how do we help them scale that as they roll it out?
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I think if you had one of my ALs in front of you right now, they'd give you a lot more passionate response thereabouts.
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I've kind of been off the technology tools for a while, if you will, sure, sure.
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But I've also been around long enough to know that how something is written in a vendor slide deck or whatever else isn't necessarily how things actually unravels.
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I think it comes back to about making sure that we've got the right mindset to constantly learn and develop ourselves so we can actually pass on that to our partners and help them change as well?
00:18:26.903 --> 00:18:29.872
Yeah, and do you also see?
00:18:29.872 --> 00:18:41.489
Many of us in the consumer world have got used to clicking a couple of buttons and having something delivered in a timely fashion, you know, overnight even, and overseas it's almost, you know, by a number of hours.
00:18:41.489 --> 00:18:48.766
Are you finding that maybe some of the newer generation dealing in the space now have a different expectation of what distribution is?
00:18:48.766 --> 00:18:57.366
Knowing that you're ordering sometimes a lot more gear and it's more logistics like that, can you have a lens on the new generation, how they might think, or just the way people are used to having things done?
00:18:57.748 --> 00:18:59.111
Look, it's definitely evolved right.
00:18:59.111 --> 00:19:02.657
So we use a lot more automation in terms of how we process orders.
00:19:02.698 --> 00:19:18.373
If you will, and how we process quotes, we can suck them straight out of the Cisco system and do something called zero-touch quoting right, which means you take a deal ID, you whack it through the system and then within 15 minutes you know Orro's got a quote right at the agreed margins that we have, so on and so forth.
00:19:18.373 --> 00:19:22.877
So there is definitely a lot of those handspins that have already taken place to get that Now.
00:19:22.877 --> 00:19:23.077
Now.
00:19:23.077 --> 00:19:24.118
Now here is my quote.
00:19:24.118 --> 00:19:27.288
I'm not waiting five hours or next business day or whatever else.
00:19:27.288 --> 00:19:45.276
We've got the tools that allow for automation so that way that we can link in with yours right To actually have full B2B integration in terms of processing orders, quotes, you guys logging into a system of ours called Partner Central where you can review all your invoices, outstanding quotes, orders that have been placed.
00:19:45.276 --> 00:19:48.799
You name it and start looking at what vendors you've sold versus what.
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:57.595
You haven't map it all out, but we are moving more into the world of digital sales, which is in addition to the typical old school.
00:19:57.795 --> 00:20:15.750
I guess I shouldn't say old school, but the traditional method in which we engage our customers, and that digital sales is a global initiative that's being run at the moment in terms of how do we enhance our systems and our engagement and buying cycles with our partners to actually drive more of that online interaction.
00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:31.294
That doesn't mean that we're shifting to that and away from the way that we do it, because I think when you look at a lot of the deals that are worked on that are large, complex, multifaceted rollouts, that's never going to go digital in the near term right.
00:20:31.394 --> 00:20:32.557
Probably not even in my career.
00:20:32.557 --> 00:20:44.835
So I think it's about being able to cover all types of buyers and service all the different generations, if you will, in the industry that we have, but it's about using the right methodology for the right type of transaction.
00:20:45.096 --> 00:20:49.269
Yes, and I know you're passionate about business and process improvement.
00:20:49.269 --> 00:20:53.097
Is that kind of done at a more global level or at a local level?
00:20:53.097 --> 00:20:57.948
Like yourself, from a director point of view, really have big input on how we deliver that for customers.
00:20:58.789 --> 00:21:09.894
The execution is local, but the strategy, the development of it, is definitely global right, and that makes sense, because the last thing that you want is to have a different process in place for every single country.
00:21:09.894 --> 00:21:28.286
And I think where we can start to differentiate further against our competition as a specialized ISTE is by taking that global powerhouse that we have and that global intelligence across things that work well in all sorts of different markets and find that consistent approach that allows us to scale on behalf of our vendors.
00:21:28.385 --> 00:21:54.556
All vendors want to be able to scale right and all partners want to be able to consume in a predictable fashion, right, of course of course, if we pivot a little bit more towards leadership and I know you've touched on quite a bit of leadership, which I appreciate on but what advice would you give aspiring IT leaders or even ones wanting to get into the distribution channel, considering it's continuing to grow and continuing to be very important fundamentally, and you've obviously got some team members who are probably wanting to become leaders in the space.
00:21:54.556 --> 00:22:02.339
Would you give them any advice around strategic planning, business development, any other leadership pointers for them in our industry and development, any other leadership?
00:22:02.380 --> 00:22:02.820
pointers for them.
00:22:02.820 --> 00:22:03.301
In our industry.
00:22:03.301 --> 00:22:06.212
I think one of the things that's helped me best is definitely working on the different sides of the fence.
00:22:06.212 --> 00:22:14.775
Right, because then you get the different perspectives around what each person expects as a customer of one another right, and then you can start to really craft.
00:22:14.775 --> 00:22:17.830
Well, what is it that's going to make the biggest difference to a partner?
00:22:17.830 --> 00:22:19.471
Oh wait, I've been a partner before.
00:22:25.365 --> 00:22:27.895
These are the things that I always didn't get, that I never got from distribution, or that I wish that I had from distribution.
00:22:27.895 --> 00:22:32.035
Or this is what I got from one distributor that I wish the others might've actually come to market, or how great would it be if they applied that to that vendor.
00:22:32.035 --> 00:22:34.626
And same thing when you're sitting on the vendor side of the spend.
00:22:34.626 --> 00:22:36.171
It's like what do you need out of a distributor?
00:22:36.171 --> 00:22:47.227
And once you actually know that, you can push it forwards.
00:22:47.247 --> 00:22:48.711
What else for aspiring leaders in this?
00:22:48.711 --> 00:22:49.752
That you get good at numbers right.
00:22:49.752 --> 00:22:51.016
At the end of the day, it's a numbers game.
00:22:51.016 --> 00:22:52.317
Distribution there's no hiding that fact.
00:22:52.317 --> 00:22:53.621
Get good at developing strong relationships.
00:22:53.621 --> 00:22:54.784
Right and understanding you know you really got.
00:22:54.784 --> 00:23:06.761
It sounds so basic, but I don't think a lot of people necessarily do it, which is listen to what your customer is saying and deliver on it, yes, and be tailed in terms of how you're actually going to engage your customer.
00:23:06.761 --> 00:23:24.739
And I probably didn't mention that earlier, but one of the biggest things that's helped me in my career and it definitely helps us and all my sales guys and pre-sales guys, et cetera, in their current roles is we pride ourselves on having tailored engagements with all of our key customers and that makes all the difference.
00:23:24.739 --> 00:23:30.332
So how I engage with Auro is completely different to how I engage with any other customers.
00:23:30.573 --> 00:23:32.351
Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.
00:23:32.351 --> 00:23:50.461
And if I was to then ask you about your career a little bit further and, reflecting on your career, what have been some of the most rewarding achievements that you've seen or had, as well as what keeps you motivated to do what you're doing and continue to drive improvement and customer engagement?
00:23:51.565 --> 00:23:52.691
Rewarding achievements.
00:23:52.691 --> 00:24:00.328
I think a big part of the rewarding achievement has been in my current role.
00:24:00.509 --> 00:24:09.654
I think actually A big part of the rewarding achievement has been in my current role, I think, actually, and that has been building the team that I've got at the moment and seeing the success that that team has driven over the years.
00:24:09.654 --> 00:24:13.037
So our revenue is from when we started six years ago.
00:24:13.037 --> 00:24:20.843
Has, for our Cisco two-tier partners, it's probably gone up fourfold Wow, I think thereabouts, which is quite substantial.
00:24:20.843 --> 00:24:23.952
I'm one of these people personally that struggles to sit still.
00:24:23.972 --> 00:24:25.480
So I like change right, I like to learn new things.
00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:26.625
You do a lot for the last 40 minutes.
00:24:26.625 --> 00:24:27.465
Yeah, exactly.
00:24:27.487 --> 00:24:30.905
It's starting to get edgy, but no so I always like the new challenge, right?
00:24:30.905 --> 00:24:36.416
I think it comes back to one of the first questions you asked, which is you know you had that fork in the road finance versus IT.
00:24:36.416 --> 00:24:52.432
I'm glad I ended up in IT, because what I love and hate about IT is I love the fact that it changes every six months or two a year, and I also hate that fact because, just as you get kind of comfortable and you're just moving with something and the strategy is really starting to stick, all of a sudden you've got to uproot yourself and redefine yourself.
00:24:52.432 --> 00:25:06.655
But I think that's what keeps you sharp and I think getting better at using tools like AI et cetera is only going to accelerate that need right and make you probably sharper at, you know, changing yourself or redefining yourself on a regular basis.
00:25:06.655 --> 00:25:09.490
So that's kind of what drives me, and the team drives me as well.
00:25:09.490 --> 00:25:13.951
They bring their A game every day to work and that makes me, you know, want to reciprocate as well.
00:25:14.030 --> 00:25:20.768
Yeah, Look, and off the back of that, around you know, reflecting a career and helping the team develop and grow and seeing the reward of that.
00:25:20.768 --> 00:25:25.392
Are there other tips you could give in relation to helping develop as a leader or an individual?
00:25:25.892 --> 00:25:27.053
To develop as a leader.
00:25:27.053 --> 00:25:40.843
One of the best things that I can recommend anyone do is actually get a leadership coach, and I don't mean just one of the random ones that you can see on LinkedIn, no offense, but a proper coaching psychologist, a proper executive coach, makes all the difference.
00:25:40.843 --> 00:25:47.276
Right, because they go into the science behind people, leadership, the way people act, why they act a certain way.
00:25:47.276 --> 00:25:54.530
How do you actually get the best out of them for the betterment of that individual and the company and society as a whole, if you will, right?
00:25:54.530 --> 00:25:59.732
And the other thing, too, is to make sure that you're throwing yourself into different tasks, right.
00:25:59.772 --> 00:26:05.932
I like to roll up my sleeves and sit down with the solution architects and actually understand why they think the way they do.
00:26:05.932 --> 00:26:06.295
Right.
00:26:06.295 --> 00:26:10.653
Get involved with my architecture leads in terms of planning out what the strategy is going to be.
00:26:10.653 --> 00:26:15.594
Get involved with you know, my business development managers and account managers.
00:26:15.594 --> 00:26:26.446
I love doing a sales visit right and getting out in front of the customers right and hearing and keeping my finger on the pulse, talking directly to people like yourself to say what's happening in your business.
00:26:26.446 --> 00:26:27.913
You know what keeps you up at night.
00:26:27.913 --> 00:26:29.722
Where are you trying to take your company.
00:26:29.722 --> 00:26:32.030
I don't want to hear that third hand, I want to hear it firsthand.
00:26:32.211 --> 00:26:34.726
So, being actively involved, I think is still important.
00:26:34.885 --> 00:26:37.569
Yeah, it's super important and well said.
00:26:37.569 --> 00:26:56.276
As we come close to the end of the conversation here, which I appreciate, I have one question that I ask all participants in the podcast, and that is tell me about the most significant technology change or shift you've seen or been involved with during your career, and that doesn't have to be around distribution and doesn't have to necessarily be in your field.
00:26:56.276 --> 00:27:00.314
What is the most impactful thing you've seen in our industry?
00:27:00.314 --> 00:27:02.438
That's, you know, developing directly to you.
00:27:04.026 --> 00:27:10.200
Yeah, I guess, given my age, I've experienced a shift from analog to digital thereabouts.
00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:17.210
So I was a good five, six years into the workforce before I got my first BlackBerry right when I can get email on my phone.
00:27:17.230 --> 00:27:17.932
It was addictive, wasn't it?
00:27:18.325 --> 00:27:21.454
How great I thought it was getting email on my phone, yeah.
00:27:22.204 --> 00:27:22.625
Super addictive.
00:27:22.646 --> 00:27:24.250
I don't know the curse that was going to turn into.
00:27:24.751 --> 00:27:45.759
But I think transitioning from, I guess, analog world into a digital world where it's really just information at your fingertips was a big shift in terms of how you can actually cultivate all of that information, that data that you're getting to, and turning it into some cohesive go-to-market strategy or where you wanted to shift your career and whatever else.
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.490
And that probably was kind of when would that have been?
00:27:48.490 --> 00:27:54.332
Kind of like the mid-2000s to early teens thereabouts that really took off.
00:27:54.332 --> 00:28:00.970
And obviously the next shift I think is upon us now, which is how AI is going to transition.
00:28:00.970 --> 00:28:01.810
I think it'll be okay.
00:28:01.810 --> 00:28:05.598
I think as long as you embrace it and you actually learn how to use it, it'll be a benefit.
00:28:05.598 --> 00:28:06.327
I wouldn't resist.
00:28:06.327 --> 00:28:08.034
It is my recommendation to anyone.
00:28:08.034 --> 00:28:15.038
But the transformation that I personally am really looking forward to is when quantum computing goes mainstream.
00:28:15.586 --> 00:28:21.384
That, I think, is going to be a game changer that no one really comprehends at this point in time.
00:28:21.625 --> 00:28:22.509
I completely agree with you.
00:28:23.345 --> 00:28:28.196
That's one that's super fascinating and I think it's going to be on us sooner than we think.
00:28:28.196 --> 00:28:33.977
If not, you know, some may have already developed it but kept it under a skunkworks.
00:28:33.977 --> 00:28:37.776
And you talked about Gartner, and I'm happy to refer to them because it's public what they say.
00:28:37.776 --> 00:28:54.349
But at the Gartner Symp recently, on on the back of quantum, they were talking about the ability for it to, you know, decrypt uh people, uh, you know all sorts of encryption standards today and that the, you know, threat actors are really hoovering up this data and then being able to decrypt it later on.
00:28:54.349 --> 00:29:02.484
But also even how we're going to have another y2k problem, which is a lot of infrastructure is going to need to be replaced because it'll be decrypted today, right.
00:29:02.484 --> 00:29:18.645
So it's a fascinating change that's going to come along with quantum uh and and replication, which means uh distribution is going to be super busy because there'll be more stuff to to ship and fix, as as we always do in this ongoing life cycle of uh technology yeah, I look forward to that, I think yeah.
00:29:18.685 --> 00:29:20.990
Well, I hope it is sooner than what, than what I what I think.
00:29:20.990 --> 00:29:31.017
So I think it's going to be one hell of a shift in people's mindsets and what we do, and everything from how software is written through to how the technology is used.
00:29:31.017 --> 00:29:39.305
Right, and I think we touched on a couple of the negative consequences there which is around breaking down very secure encryptions by today's standard.
00:29:39.305 --> 00:29:50.153
But I also look forward to just some of the amazing things that quantum computing can bring around research, whether it be in medical fields or engineering fields and so on and so forth.
00:29:50.153 --> 00:29:51.757
So it's going to be interesting.
00:29:52.144 --> 00:29:53.432
Yeah, that's a very good point.
00:29:53.432 --> 00:29:55.041
People are getting used to the AI thing.
00:29:55.041 --> 00:29:58.191
Now we're 18 months into it and quantum is just another tick up.
00:29:58.191 --> 00:30:00.758
Look, john, I really appreciate the time today.
00:30:00.758 --> 00:30:03.855
Thanks for those great insights around distribution and leadership.
00:30:03.855 --> 00:30:06.431
I think it's a really important discussion, thanks.
00:30:07.011 --> 00:30:08.035
No worries, thanks for having me.
00:30:08.255 --> 00:30:08.776
I enjoyed it.
00:30:09.057 --> 00:30:09.357
Thank you.
00:00:02.166 --> 00:00:10.250
I remember this way back in the day I said running a distributor is like flying a 747 at full speed, fully loaded, two meters off the ground.
00:00:10.250 --> 00:00:14.079
It's exhilarating when you're doing it and if you get it wrong it's going to hurt.
00:00:14.079 --> 00:00:17.390
And if you get it right you know you can really sharpen your business skills.
00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:32.398
Today I have the pleasure in having a chat to John Poulter, who is the Comstor at and we're going to talk all the things about IT distribution, the challenges of that Most customers purchase equipment and don't really think about how it gets there and also particularly when things need to be changed, and it's quite of a process.
00:00:32.398 --> 00:00:34.043
Hey, john, welcome to the podcast.
00:00:34.043 --> 00:00:35.890
Thanks, MVR, I'm glad to be here.
00:00:35.890 --> 00:00:38.601
Yeah, great For those who are around.
00:00:38.601 --> 00:00:41.243
This will be played a little bit later on, but we're catching up at Cisco Live.
00:00:41.243 --> 00:00:45.365
Comstore is a big Cisco partner from a distribution point of view.
00:00:45.365 --> 00:00:49.868
We've known John for a while across the different businesses and particularly at Orro.
00:00:49.868 --> 00:00:56.073
Before we get started, john, do you mind sharing a little bit about your career journey and what got you to be the director of ComStore?
00:00:56.652 --> 00:00:57.753
Yeah, I can do so.
00:00:57.753 --> 00:01:01.377
As with a lot of people in IT, I fell into it accidentally.
00:01:01.896 --> 00:01:02.817
That's true actually.
00:01:02.857 --> 00:01:27.686
Many people do, they do, they do, and way back in the day I did a commerce degree that largely had a major in international business, which was really just economics, as it turned out, and I always thought that I'd be going to work for Macquarie Bank or CBA or something in economics and finance and this is going back a good 20-odd years now and I remember circling back in the leader of the local job boards and stuff like that.
00:01:27.706 --> 00:01:28.649
This is before seek.
00:01:28.649 --> 00:01:30.141
com or anything like that.
00:01:30.141 --> 00:01:40.944
I was very new at that stage and my old man worked a little bit of his career in IT, so I kind of had a little bit of a taste for it when I was growing up, and that was back in the days when digital equipment was still a thing, right.
00:01:40.944 --> 00:02:01.221
So I thought I might just apply for a couple of roles here and before you know it, I was sitting in front of a very small distributor called Dovetail Distribution, which was only five employees at the time, and, as it turned out, they were just offering that extra three grand a year, more than the starting salary of a grad somewhere else at a bank, and I took the money and rang.
00:02:01.221 --> 00:02:09.847
As a newly married man I thought I need every penny I can get, and that's how my career kind of started in IT thereabouts in a very small distributor.
00:02:10.147 --> 00:02:17.686
Wow, wow, and banking would have been an interesting place to be in, but certainly, if I think about the technology life cycles I've been through, it would have been a fascinating career for you.
00:02:17.686 --> 00:02:26.234
I mean, certainly there's a lot happened in the finance world as well, no doubt on no doubt, but one of those fork in the road moments and you're happy with the change, Although you probably never did the banking thing.
00:02:26.234 --> 00:02:27.656
But are you happy with where you ended up?
00:02:27.979 --> 00:02:28.943
I'm happy where I ended up.
00:02:28.943 --> 00:02:30.889
I ended up marrying a woman that's in finance.
00:02:30.889 --> 00:02:34.127
Oh, there we go so at least I've got a perspective of it thereabouts.
00:02:34.287 --> 00:02:38.584
And I think I really enjoy the pace of IT and the change and the constant.
00:02:38.985 --> 00:02:43.431
Nothing stays stagnant, right, you've always got to continue to innovate, right, and I think it really drives me.
00:02:43.431 --> 00:02:53.638
Yeah, but um, so after starting that in that little small disty, they got acquired by a slightly bigger one called itx group, which went on become abnet and then tech data as it is today.
00:02:53.638 --> 00:03:10.175
But I'd left that after about seven years in distribution, cutting my teeth in the world of what I'd say is sun microsystems, and then, after sun had been acquired by oracle, I had an opportunity to go and join Vendorland and I worked at Oracle for about seven years, which was a very interesting and diverse journey that I went on.
00:03:10.175 --> 00:03:17.627
I certainly cut my teeth on a lot of things there and, reflecting back, it taught me a lot that place, especially working in Vendorland.
00:03:17.627 --> 00:03:24.913
Yes, I then bounced over to a partner for a while NTT, before I was headhunted for this role, and then back to distribution.
00:03:24.913 --> 00:03:34.669
So I've had a, I guess, a very fortunate career where I've been able to sit on all three sides of the fence, being distribution vendor partner and now back to distribution.
00:03:34.729 --> 00:03:36.944
So I've played all positions on the field, if you will.
00:03:36.944 --> 00:03:43.788
I didn't realize you didn't time at NTT as well, but that's interesting because you would have seen, as you said, the other side of it, right, which is people don't get to do.
00:03:43.788 --> 00:03:50.247
They're either customer and they stay customer or they end up in integrated land, right, and distribution's one of the ones that some land in.
00:03:50.247 --> 00:03:52.441
But it's an interesting journey Off that.
00:03:52.441 --> 00:04:05.513
Then in your time and you've learned plenty of things, and now being a director, what would come as some of the responsibilities across your management, sales and operations that you find most impactful and rewarding for what you do, right, because, again, people don't see distribution, they're just things arrive.
00:04:05.513 --> 00:04:08.527
What sort of things do you find most rewarding and impactful?
00:04:09.580 --> 00:04:11.348
I think there's a couple of elements to that.
00:04:11.348 --> 00:04:18.269
The most impactful and rewarding thing I think I have as a director is the leadership side of things right.
00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:38.244
I admire my team, love working with them and it's a privilege to be able to lead them to guide them, to help develop them, and it's a privilege to be able to lead them, to guide them, to help develop them and coach them to actually be the best that they possibly can be, and I get a real kick out of that and I just find it really rewarding, right, and that's probably what drives me, usually a day-to-day, to bring the A game, if you will.
00:04:38.244 --> 00:04:45.528
The other thing, too, about distribution is at my level, you really get to unpack the different moving elements.
00:04:45.528 --> 00:04:48.744
So it is running a business at its foundation, right.
00:04:48.744 --> 00:04:52.483
You've got all sorts of levers that you're pulling in terms of driving profitability.
00:04:52.483 --> 00:04:57.242
When you're a distributor, switching costs can be low, so you've got to really be on your game.
00:04:57.242 --> 00:05:02.182
In terms of how you're approaching the market, in terms of unique go-to market campaigns and initiatives.
00:05:02.201 --> 00:05:03.966
How are you structuring yourself in terms of unique go-to-market campaigns and initiatives?
00:05:03.966 --> 00:05:08.798
How are you structuring yourself in terms of supporting the channel community and the vendors?
00:05:08.798 --> 00:05:20.713
How are you implementing certain processes and procedures or technologies and systems in terms of maximizing and getting scale, without having to necessarily keep throwing headcount at problems in order to grow?
00:05:20.713 --> 00:05:23.629
And then there's the financial acumen, right?
00:05:23.629 --> 00:05:30.172
Anyone in my team will tell you that I love my numbers, and running a distribution is definitely all about the numbers.
00:05:30.172 --> 00:05:43.286
There was an ex-CEO of Adistio I won't name his name because he may not want to be quoted on that but I remember this way back in the day he said running a distributor is like flying a 747 at full speed, fully loaded, two meters off the ground.
00:05:43.286 --> 00:05:50.401
It's exhilarating when you're doing it and if you get it wrong it's going to hurt, and if you get it right you can really sharpen your business skills.
00:05:50.401 --> 00:05:51.303
Yeah, fair enough too.
00:05:51.625 --> 00:05:57.858
How has your leadership approach evolved over the years and what strategy have you found most effective in developing a high-performing team?
00:05:57.858 --> 00:05:59.382
Because you guys are under pressure a lot of times.
00:05:59.382 --> 00:06:08.214
There's different vendor life cycles when things are due and of financial years are spread out through your whole calendar, unlike Australia where it's, you know, very fixed in the 12-month cycle.
00:06:08.214 --> 00:06:11.410
How do you really develop that high-performing team around you?
00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:15.769
Yeah, there's no one easy answer for that.
00:06:15.769 --> 00:06:19.189
Sure, in terms of you know how do you develop a high-performing team?
00:06:19.189 --> 00:06:26.767
One of the core things that I've always focused on is diversity of thought, or diversity of thinking, and that's definitely true of the ComStore team.
00:06:26.767 --> 00:06:50.728
Most people on the team have got a very different, I guess, thought process, a very different way of thinking, and that allows us to, as a team, get together with very different frames of reference, very different perspectives, to then solution problems that benefit our vendors, in this case, Cisco and Pure Storage and Splunk under the ComStore banner, as well as all our general partners like Orro.
00:06:50.728 --> 00:06:54.367
The other thing, too, is being an authentic leader.
00:06:54.367 --> 00:07:04.394
I think goes a long way, and that's something that I spent a lot of time developing with a professional executive coach that was a qualified coaching psychologist.
00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:06.341
Professional executive coach.
00:07:06.362 --> 00:07:07.505
That was a qualified coaching psychologist.
00:07:07.526 --> 00:07:12.060
So there's a lot of stuff to do with leadership that I had no idea existed until I started actually engaging with an exec coach.
00:07:12.161 --> 00:07:16.802
That took me through all the different articles, the science behind it, and then you start implementing it.
00:07:16.802 --> 00:07:49.295
I mentioned that I worked for a vendor at one point in my career which was definitely all about hitting that sales target and the leadership was unique there, and one of the things I wanted to make sure of is that my team knew that they were accountable for hitting the number at the end of the day because that's what pays the bills for any organisation but going about it in a way which is authentic, inspiring, that they feel psychologically safe doing and I know that sounds like motherhood statements, but there's a lot to it when you actually get it right.
00:07:49.295 --> 00:07:54.798
And from the back of that, I've been blessed with a team that stuck with me for the better part of five years.
00:07:54.798 --> 00:08:07.783
I've had nearly zero attrition right and I think it's that authentic and that diverse thinking and that coming together as a team for the benefit of our vendors and customers that drives us every day.
00:08:07.803 --> 00:08:08.925
Well, that's fascinating.
00:08:08.925 --> 00:08:15.326
That's fascinating and also reading through some of your profile and thinking about distribution during COVID-19.
00:08:15.326 --> 00:08:16.149
So let's talk during COVID-19.
00:08:16.149 --> 00:08:17.233
So let's talk about COVID-19.
00:08:17.233 --> 00:08:22.711
I know you drew quite a process around remote work and transitioning to remote work during that.
00:08:22.711 --> 00:08:30.617
What challenge did you face during that shift and how did you ensure cohesive and productive work at the time?
00:08:30.617 --> 00:08:33.023
Was there some unique challenges in COVID-19 that you faced?
00:08:33.509 --> 00:08:37.178
There was because we had different moving elements of being a distributor.
00:08:37.198 --> 00:08:53.371
Right, you needed people in the warehouse yes, fair enough, right To actually move products from A to B, get them into the country and get them out to the site and with all the regulations and requirements around that, our warehouse and logistics team did an amazing job at pulling that together.
00:08:54.014 --> 00:09:02.413
But we had to split into doing A teams and B teams and C teams to make sure there wasn't people infecting each other so the warehouse could actually continue to operate.
00:09:02.413 --> 00:09:14.782
You got to really hand it to those guys early on before you know there was any known knowns in COVID to actually get out there and go to the warehouse and put their bodies on the line, if you will, in order to make sure kit was still getting delivered.
00:09:14.782 --> 00:09:35.542
And then there was the element of terms of the go-to-market side of things, which was how do we serve our customers in terms of all the things that specialised distis do, whether it be training and enablement, building relationships with clients to get deals done, clients being partners like yourself, strategising with vendors and all that type of stuff.
00:09:35.542 --> 00:09:44.677
And that was where I guess I had the responsibility, which is how do we take a pretty crazy situation and turn it into something that's a little bit fun, a little bit unique.
00:09:44.818 --> 00:10:10.380
So we built a lot of virtual tiger teams, we did virtual sales kickoffs where we'd break away into little working groups and come back and do live presentations not quite podcasts or anything like that, but I did a lot to make sure with my leadership team, to make sure that we kept every individual in the business unit highly engaged on something to do that was meaningful back into what the vendors and partners needed to serve their own business.
00:10:10.380 --> 00:10:16.158
And then we had a bit of fun along the way as well, such as and you can see the hair that my hair do is similar to yours right.
00:10:16.217 --> 00:10:22.307
It's reflective of the lights around, so as part of just having a bit of fun along the way as well, such as and you can see the hair that my hair do is similar to yours, right, it's reflective of the lights around.
00:10:22.327 --> 00:10:28.269
So as part of just having a bit of fun, I went out and invested in about 12 different wigs, so every time I'd jump on a conference call, I'd have a new wig to wear right, just to get a bit of laughs from the team.
00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:36.081
And in terms of moving through, I guess from a leadership point of view, One of the key things that we'd put together there was to have like a teaming system.
00:10:36.081 --> 00:10:39.865
So that way, you know, we had many people that were working in isolation.
00:10:39.865 --> 00:10:43.850
Other peoples were working in a household of eight, you know, up to eight people or something like that.
00:10:43.850 --> 00:10:55.437
So having a peer or a buddy that they could kind of build a relationship with and lean on and whatnot, I think worked quite well, you know, to make sure that no one felt alone or isolated during that time.
00:10:55.557 --> 00:10:55.938
Yeah, fair enough.
00:10:55.938 --> 00:11:08.581
And look, being a distributor vendor relationships is really fundamental to channel distribution and I know obviously a lot of your time is spent with these vendors that are significant to the business.
00:11:08.581 --> 00:11:11.940
But how did you approach building and maintaining those relationships?
00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:15.059
Because obviously everyone's trying to grab that business.
00:11:15.059 --> 00:11:21.440
Other distributors are always trying pick up these ones and of course there's a much bigger lens globally, et cetera.
00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:26.783
But you know, again, we're at Cisco Live and one of your largest ones is Cisco.
00:11:26.783 --> 00:11:31.822
You know what role do these partnerships really play in the success of the distributor?
00:11:33.171 --> 00:11:35.600
It's a lifeblood, it's a lifeline for us, right?
00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:41.519
If we had bad relationships with Cisco or any vendor and our partners, it'd be disastrous, right?
00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:47.123
So relationships is critical, which means having the right hires on your team is critical as well.
00:11:47.123 --> 00:11:52.619
But in terms of what drives those very strong relationships that Comstor has with Cisco?
00:11:52.619 --> 00:11:54.912
To answer your question is, I think, two things.
00:11:54.912 --> 00:12:05.041
I think the first thing is more structural, which is, if you look at how the business unit is designed, we exactly mimic Cisco's go-to-market structure.
00:12:05.041 --> 00:12:11.163
We've got a general sales team which is focused on geographies and accounts.
00:12:11.163 --> 00:12:27.361
Then you've got a technical team which has got the mix of solution architects and technical quote, specialist and pre-sales engineers, which mimics Cisco's team insofar as that they specialize per architecture, security, ENDC, colab, et cetera.
00:12:27.361 --> 00:12:36.580
And then you've got the architecture leaders, who are also focused on a single technology pillar, that are effectively the product sales specialists.
00:12:36.580 --> 00:12:39.259
We call them architecture leads, cisco calls them PSSs.
00:12:39.259 --> 00:12:46.701
So that direct alignment with Cisco allows us to have those deep-seated relationships at all moving levels of their organization.
00:12:47.330 --> 00:12:49.475
Now, that's only one of the two critical elements.
00:12:49.475 --> 00:12:57.503
The second critical element I alluded to a bit earlier, which is to be authentic, right, authentic relationships trump any other relationship.
00:12:57.503 --> 00:13:05.756
You know, we've had many of our customers in Cisco say and I'll probably say it from a customer point of view which is a partner, is that they've said.
00:13:05.756 --> 00:13:12.201
You know, what we love about Comstor is that it's not just a supplier-customer relationship, it's a true partnership.
00:13:12.201 --> 00:13:27.041
Yes, and that's something that I drive incessantly within the BU because I've sat, as I said, on all of those different sides of the fence, so I know exactly what it's like when you have a relationship with a distributor which is just transactional.
00:13:28.222 --> 00:13:29.644
Yeah, no one likes transactional right.
00:13:29.684 --> 00:13:29.745
No.
00:13:30.129 --> 00:13:31.736
Our CEO has this great analogy.
00:13:31.736 --> 00:13:43.097
He says we talk a lot about managed services, which Orro is fundamentally built on, and your point here about relationships in relation to keeping people happy, right, and, and that's the lifeblood, as you said.
00:13:43.097 --> 00:13:46.894
But he was definitely talking about you're being married, you.
00:13:46.894 --> 00:13:50.760
You don't go back to your wife or partner.
00:13:50.760 --> 00:14:00.640
I should say, uh, um, to be politically correct in say, every three to five years, when your renewal time comes up, let's sit down and have a renegotiation to see if we should continue this marriage.
00:14:00.640 --> 00:14:01.934
Right, it's a fundamental thing.
00:14:01.934 --> 00:14:03.336
You've got to do it every day, right?
00:14:03.336 --> 00:14:06.158
And it's a good kind of analogy on what you deliver.
00:14:06.158 --> 00:14:07.796
Right, for all customers as well.
00:14:07.836 --> 00:14:15.183
Yeah, yeah, I was just thinking that when you said that on Friday this week I've got my 20th wedding anniversary.
00:14:15.183 --> 00:14:16.672
Oh, wow, congratulations.
00:14:16.672 --> 00:14:19.085
I'm wondering whether should I do the renewal conversation, or should I?
00:14:19.793 --> 00:14:21.097
Is it due, or do you do it monthly?
00:14:21.097 --> 00:14:23.256
I think it's hourly sometimes.
00:14:23.638 --> 00:14:34.216
But it is a really good analogy, which is that it's that ongoing trust that you can have both ways that, I think, sees you through the good, the bad and the ugly times, because we're not perfect, we don't get it right.
00:14:34.216 --> 00:14:45.320
Every single time right we drop the ball every once in a while or we'll have some rough patches in relationships, but I think it's the intent to continue to work through it in an authentic manner, in a genuine manner, that makes all the difference for the long term.
00:14:45.590 --> 00:14:50.671
If I then pivot, you talked on cloud and licensing, which we've had a fundamental shift in many years.
00:14:50.671 --> 00:14:55.294
Do you see any other significant trends in the technology industry?
00:14:55.294 --> 00:14:57.216
You Do you see any other significant trends in the technology industry?
00:14:57.216 --> 00:15:04.102
You get to see lots of things and I know you go to quite a few different conferences over the year for certain things or your team certainly does, and you know if I think about channel distribution.
00:15:04.102 --> 00:15:08.767
Do you see any significant trends coming our way that you can talk about or think about?
00:15:15.929 --> 00:15:19.409
I think the biggest trend that's coming our way is probably around AI, and I hate saying that because everyone's saying it.
00:15:19.409 --> 00:15:21.037
Of course, of course, of course.
00:15:21.037 --> 00:15:29.398
But when you take a look at, I guess and I'm going to put back into just my distribution frame on this which is, what does it mean for us?
00:15:29.398 --> 00:15:49.756
I think when you look at the increasing adoption of AI and everything that we do and how it's going to be embedded into, you know, cisco's own security solutions, data center solutions, whatever else it's going, it's compute intensive, it's going to require, you know, upgraded networks and so on and so forth, right?
00:15:49.756 --> 00:16:02.716
So I think that trend of AI adoption as it starts to roll through, at whatever speed it's going to I don't going to, I think, depending on what article you read, it says that it'll take some time and others will say it'll be here in six months time right, but let's assume it's over the next three to five years.
00:16:03.317 --> 00:16:33.275
I think that's going to drive the need for new skill sets within everyone's company, including my own business unit, including for me to figure out how to start leveraging AI more in, whether it be Microsoft's co-pilot or other things in Cisco's technology, but also how do we train and enable our partners in terms of making sure that they've got the right messaging and positioning to service their customers to eventually sell more product right, because, at the end of the day, it's kind of what we're here to do and then we attach various services around it.
00:16:33.837 --> 00:16:42.466
Yes, and if I then think about the technology trends for the industry everyone's talking to ai, as you just touched on it's going to impact everyone's lives.
00:16:42.466 --> 00:16:58.568
From the back of that, though, do you see, uh, customer expectations, you know changing as much, and particularly their customer expectations of yourselves and the way you deal with them, or is that relationship pretty fundamental because you know us as the customer still dealing with change as well?
00:16:58.568 --> 00:17:12.336
Do Do you see that as a real different expectation today on the way people used to deal with distribution, and, if so, is Comstall thinking about how to realign to customer needs that are changing so rapidly?
00:17:13.806 --> 00:17:20.726
You don't know what you don't know and I think I like to take things kind of fluid right.
00:17:20.726 --> 00:17:24.395
So you've got to be ready to adapt as things change.
00:17:24.395 --> 00:17:34.088
And I think, with the way AI is going to roll out, I've got no idea where it's going to end, right, and I've got no idea necessarily how the business unit needs to change itself to service those customers.
00:17:34.088 --> 00:17:39.553
All I know is that I've got the right team that's got the right mindset to learn new things, to change their approach, to actually adapt as we're going through.
00:17:39.553 --> 00:17:41.884
Got the right mindset to learn new things, to change their approach, to actually adapt as we're going through.
00:17:41.884 --> 00:17:50.825
I think we are somewhat looking to the guidance of vendors like Cisco around what they're doing for AI, because we're so wedded to their business.
00:17:50.825 --> 00:17:56.996
We'll follow their lead to an extent and then it's around how do we help them scale that as they roll it out?
00:17:56.996 --> 00:18:02.971
I think if you had one of my ALs in front of you right now, they'd give you a lot more passionate response thereabouts.
00:18:03.965 --> 00:18:07.636
I've kind of been off the technology tools for a while, if you will, sure, sure.
00:18:07.636 --> 00:18:15.818
But I've also been around long enough to know that how something is written in a vendor slide deck or whatever else isn't necessarily how things actually unravels.
00:18:15.818 --> 00:18:26.883
I think it comes back to about making sure that we've got the right mindset to constantly learn and develop ourselves so we can actually pass on that to our partners and help them change as well?
00:18:26.903 --> 00:18:29.872
Yeah, and do you also see?
00:18:29.872 --> 00:18:41.489
Many of us in the consumer world have got used to clicking a couple of buttons and having something delivered in a timely fashion, you know, overnight even, and overseas it's almost, you know, by a number of hours.
00:18:41.489 --> 00:18:48.766
Are you finding that maybe some of the newer generation dealing in the space now have a different expectation of what distribution is?
00:18:48.766 --> 00:18:57.366
Knowing that you're ordering sometimes a lot more gear and it's more logistics like that, can you have a lens on the new generation, how they might think, or just the way people are used to having things done?
00:18:57.748 --> 00:18:59.111
Look, it's definitely evolved right.
00:18:59.111 --> 00:19:02.657
So we use a lot more automation in terms of how we process orders.
00:19:02.698 --> 00:19:18.373
If you will, and how we process quotes, we can suck them straight out of the Cisco system and do something called zero-touch quoting right, which means you take a deal ID, you whack it through the system and then within 15 minutes you know Orro's got a quote right at the agreed margins that we have, so on and so forth.
00:19:18.373 --> 00:19:22.877
So there is definitely a lot of those handspins that have already taken place to get that Now.
00:19:22.877 --> 00:19:23.077
Now.
00:19:23.077 --> 00:19:24.118
Now here is my quote.
00:19:24.118 --> 00:19:27.288
I'm not waiting five hours or next business day or whatever else.
00:19:27.288 --> 00:19:45.276
We've got the tools that allow for automation so that way that we can link in with yours right To actually have full B2B integration in terms of processing orders, quotes, you guys logging into a system of ours called Partner Central where you can review all your invoices, outstanding quotes, orders that have been placed.
00:19:45.276 --> 00:19:48.799
You name it and start looking at what vendors you've sold versus what.
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:57.595
You haven't map it all out, but we are moving more into the world of digital sales, which is in addition to the typical old school.
00:19:57.795 --> 00:20:15.750
I guess I shouldn't say old school, but the traditional method in which we engage our customers, and that digital sales is a global initiative that's being run at the moment in terms of how do we enhance our systems and our engagement and buying cycles with our partners to actually drive more of that online interaction.
00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:31.294
That doesn't mean that we're shifting to that and away from the way that we do it, because I think when you look at a lot of the deals that are worked on that are large, complex, multifaceted rollouts, that's never going to go digital in the near term right.
00:20:31.394 --> 00:20:32.557
Probably not even in my career.
00:20:32.557 --> 00:20:44.835
So I think it's about being able to cover all types of buyers and service all the different generations, if you will, in the industry that we have, but it's about using the right methodology for the right type of transaction.
00:20:45.096 --> 00:20:49.269
Yes, and I know you're passionate about business and process improvement.
00:20:49.269 --> 00:20:53.097
Is that kind of done at a more global level or at a local level?
00:20:53.097 --> 00:20:57.948
Like yourself, from a director point of view, really have big input on how we deliver that for customers.
00:20:58.789 --> 00:21:09.894
The execution is local, but the strategy, the development of it, is definitely global right, and that makes sense, because the last thing that you want is to have a different process in place for every single country.
00:21:09.894 --> 00:21:28.286
And I think where we can start to differentiate further against our competition as a specialized ISTE is by taking that global powerhouse that we have and that global intelligence across things that work well in all sorts of different markets and find that consistent approach that allows us to scale on behalf of our vendors.
00:21:28.385 --> 00:21:54.556
All vendors want to be able to scale right and all partners want to be able to consume in a predictable fashion, right, of course of course, if we pivot a little bit more towards leadership and I know you've touched on quite a bit of leadership, which I appreciate on but what advice would you give aspiring IT leaders or even ones wanting to get into the distribution channel, considering it's continuing to grow and continuing to be very important fundamentally, and you've obviously got some team members who are probably wanting to become leaders in the space.
00:21:54.556 --> 00:22:02.339
Would you give them any advice around strategic planning, business development, any other leadership pointers for them in our industry and development, any other leadership?
00:22:02.380 --> 00:22:02.820
pointers for them.
00:22:02.820 --> 00:22:03.301
In our industry.
00:22:03.301 --> 00:22:06.212
I think one of the things that's helped me best is definitely working on the different sides of the fence.
00:22:06.212 --> 00:22:14.775
Right, because then you get the different perspectives around what each person expects as a customer of one another right, and then you can start to really craft.
00:22:14.775 --> 00:22:17.830
Well, what is it that's going to make the biggest difference to a partner?
00:22:17.830 --> 00:22:19.471
Oh wait, I've been a partner before.
00:22:25.365 --> 00:22:27.895
These are the things that I always didn't get, that I never got from distribution, or that I wish that I had from distribution.
00:22:27.895 --> 00:22:32.035
Or this is what I got from one distributor that I wish the others might've actually come to market, or how great would it be if they applied that to that vendor.
00:22:32.035 --> 00:22:34.626
And same thing when you're sitting on the vendor side of the spend.
00:22:34.626 --> 00:22:36.171
It's like what do you need out of a distributor?
00:22:36.171 --> 00:22:47.227
And once you actually know that, you can push it forwards.
00:22:47.247 --> 00:22:48.711
What else for aspiring leaders in this?
00:22:48.711 --> 00:22:49.752
That you get good at numbers right.
00:22:49.752 --> 00:22:51.016
At the end of the day, it's a numbers game.
00:22:51.016 --> 00:22:52.317
Distribution there's no hiding that fact.
00:22:52.317 --> 00:22:53.621
Get good at developing strong relationships.
00:22:53.621 --> 00:22:54.784
Right and understanding you know you really got.
00:22:54.784 --> 00:23:06.761
It sounds so basic, but I don't think a lot of people necessarily do it, which is listen to what your customer is saying and deliver on it, yes, and be tailed in terms of how you're actually going to engage your customer.
00:23:06.761 --> 00:23:24.739
And I probably didn't mention that earlier, but one of the biggest things that's helped me in my career and it definitely helps us and all my sales guys and pre-sales guys, et cetera, in their current roles is we pride ourselves on having tailored engagements with all of our key customers and that makes all the difference.
00:23:24.739 --> 00:23:30.332
So how I engage with Auro is completely different to how I engage with any other customers.
00:23:30.573 --> 00:23:32.351
Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.
00:23:32.351 --> 00:23:50.461
And if I was to then ask you about your career a little bit further and, reflecting on your career, what have been some of the most rewarding achievements that you've seen or had, as well as what keeps you motivated to do what you're doing and continue to drive improvement and customer engagement?
00:23:51.565 --> 00:23:52.691
Rewarding achievements.
00:23:52.691 --> 00:24:00.328
I think a big part of the rewarding achievement has been in my current role.
00:24:00.509 --> 00:24:09.654
I think actually A big part of the rewarding achievement has been in my current role, I think, actually, and that has been building the team that I've got at the moment and seeing the success that that team has driven over the years.
00:24:09.654 --> 00:24:13.037
So our revenue is from when we started six years ago.
00:24:13.037 --> 00:24:20.843
Has, for our Cisco two-tier partners, it's probably gone up fourfold Wow, I think thereabouts, which is quite substantial.
00:24:20.843 --> 00:24:23.952
I'm one of these people personally that struggles to sit still.
00:24:23.972 --> 00:24:25.480
So I like change right, I like to learn new things.
00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:26.625
You do a lot for the last 40 minutes.
00:24:26.625 --> 00:24:27.465
Yeah, exactly.
00:24:27.487 --> 00:24:30.905
It's starting to get edgy, but no so I always like the new challenge, right?
00:24:30.905 --> 00:24:36.416
I think it comes back to one of the first questions you asked, which is you know you had that fork in the road finance versus IT.
00:24:36.416 --> 00:24:52.432
I'm glad I ended up in IT, because what I love and hate about IT is I love the fact that it changes every six months or two a year, and I also hate that fact because, just as you get kind of comfortable and you're just moving with something and the strategy is really starting to stick, all of a sudden you've got to uproot yourself and redefine yourself.
00:24:52.432 --> 00:25:06.655
But I think that's what keeps you sharp and I think getting better at using tools like AI et cetera is only going to accelerate that need right and make you probably sharper at, you know, changing yourself or redefining yourself on a regular basis.
00:25:06.655 --> 00:25:09.490
So that's kind of what drives me, and the team drives me as well.
00:25:09.490 --> 00:25:13.951
They bring their A game every day to work and that makes me, you know, want to reciprocate as well.
00:25:14.030 --> 00:25:20.768
Yeah, Look, and off the back of that, around you know, reflecting a career and helping the team develop and grow and seeing the reward of that.
00:25:20.768 --> 00:25:25.392
Are there other tips you could give in relation to helping develop as a leader or an individual?
00:25:25.892 --> 00:25:27.053
To develop as a leader.
00:25:27.053 --> 00:25:40.843
One of the best things that I can recommend anyone do is actually get a leadership coach, and I don't mean just one of the random ones that you can see on LinkedIn, no offense, but a proper coaching psychologist, a proper executive coach, makes all the difference.
00:25:40.843 --> 00:25:47.276
Right, because they go into the science behind people, leadership, the way people act, why they act a certain way.
00:25:47.276 --> 00:25:54.530
How do you actually get the best out of them for the betterment of that individual and the company and society as a whole, if you will, right?
00:25:54.530 --> 00:25:59.732
And the other thing, too, is to make sure that you're throwing yourself into different tasks, right.
00:25:59.772 --> 00:26:05.932
I like to roll up my sleeves and sit down with the solution architects and actually understand why they think the way they do.
00:26:05.932 --> 00:26:06.295
Right.
00:26:06.295 --> 00:26:10.653
Get involved with my architecture leads in terms of planning out what the strategy is going to be.
00:26:10.653 --> 00:26:15.594
Get involved with you know, my business development managers and account managers.
00:26:15.594 --> 00:26:26.446
I love doing a sales visit right and getting out in front of the customers right and hearing and keeping my finger on the pulse, talking directly to people like yourself to say what's happening in your business.
00:26:26.446 --> 00:26:27.913
You know what keeps you up at night.
00:26:27.913 --> 00:26:29.722
Where are you trying to take your company.
00:26:29.722 --> 00:26:32.030
I don't want to hear that third hand, I want to hear it firsthand.
00:26:32.211 --> 00:26:34.726
So, being actively involved, I think is still important.
00:26:34.885 --> 00:26:37.569
Yeah, it's super important and well said.
00:26:37.569 --> 00:26:56.276
As we come close to the end of the conversation here, which I appreciate, I have one question that I ask all participants in the podcast, and that is tell me about the most significant technology change or shift you've seen or been involved with during your career, and that doesn't have to be around distribution and doesn't have to necessarily be in your field.
00:26:56.276 --> 00:27:00.314
What is the most impactful thing you've seen in our industry?
00:27:00.314 --> 00:27:02.438
That's, you know, developing directly to you.
00:27:04.026 --> 00:27:10.200
Yeah, I guess, given my age, I've experienced a shift from analog to digital thereabouts.
00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:17.210
So I was a good five, six years into the workforce before I got my first BlackBerry right when I can get email on my phone.
00:27:17.230 --> 00:27:17.932
It was addictive, wasn't it?
00:27:18.325 --> 00:27:21.454
How great I thought it was getting email on my phone, yeah.
00:27:22.204 --> 00:27:22.625
Super addictive.
00:27:22.646 --> 00:27:24.250
I don't know the curse that was going to turn into.
00:27:24.751 --> 00:27:45.759
But I think transitioning from, I guess, analog world into a digital world where it's really just information at your fingertips was a big shift in terms of how you can actually cultivate all of that information, that data that you're getting to, and turning it into some cohesive go-to-market strategy or where you wanted to shift your career and whatever else.
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.490
And that probably was kind of when would that have been?
00:27:48.490 --> 00:27:54.332
Kind of like the mid-2000s to early teens thereabouts that really took off.
00:27:54.332 --> 00:28:00.970
And obviously the next shift I think is upon us now, which is how AI is going to transition.
00:28:00.970 --> 00:28:01.810
I think it'll be okay.
00:28:01.810 --> 00:28:05.598
I think as long as you embrace it and you actually learn how to use it, it'll be a benefit.
00:28:05.598 --> 00:28:06.327
I wouldn't resist.
00:28:06.327 --> 00:28:08.034
It is my recommendation to anyone.
00:28:08.034 --> 00:28:15.038
But the transformation that I personally am really looking forward to is when quantum computing goes mainstream.
00:28:15.586 --> 00:28:21.384
That, I think, is going to be a game changer that no one really comprehends at this point in time.
00:28:21.625 --> 00:28:22.509
I completely agree with you.
00:28:23.345 --> 00:28:28.196
That's one that's super fascinating and I think it's going to be on us sooner than we think.
00:28:28.196 --> 00:28:33.977
If not, you know, some may have already developed it but kept it under a skunkworks.
00:28:33.977 --> 00:28:37.776
And you talked about Gartner, and I'm happy to refer to them because it's public what they say.
00:28:37.776 --> 00:28:54.349
But at the Gartner Symp recently, on on the back of quantum, they were talking about the ability for it to, you know, decrypt uh people, uh, you know all sorts of encryption standards today and that the, you know, threat actors are really hoovering up this data and then being able to decrypt it later on.
00:28:54.349 --> 00:29:02.484
But also even how we're going to have another y2k problem, which is a lot of infrastructure is going to need to be replaced because it'll be decrypted today, right.
00:29:02.484 --> 00:29:18.645
So it's a fascinating change that's going to come along with quantum uh and and replication, which means uh distribution is going to be super busy because there'll be more stuff to to ship and fix, as as we always do in this ongoing life cycle of uh technology yeah, I look forward to that, I think yeah.
00:29:18.685 --> 00:29:20.990
Well, I hope it is sooner than what, than what I what I think.
00:29:20.990 --> 00:29:31.017
So I think it's going to be one hell of a shift in people's mindsets and what we do, and everything from how software is written through to how the technology is used.
00:29:31.017 --> 00:29:39.305
Right, and I think we touched on a couple of the negative consequences there which is around breaking down very secure encryptions by today's standard.
00:29:39.305 --> 00:29:50.153
But I also look forward to just some of the amazing things that quantum computing can bring around research, whether it be in medical fields or engineering fields and so on and so forth.
00:29:50.153 --> 00:29:51.757
So it's going to be interesting.
00:29:52.144 --> 00:29:53.432
Yeah, that's a very good point.
00:29:53.432 --> 00:29:55.041
People are getting used to the AI thing.
00:29:55.041 --> 00:29:58.191
Now we're 18 months into it and quantum is just another tick up.
00:29:58.191 --> 00:30:00.758
Look, john, I really appreciate the time today.
00:30:00.758 --> 00:30:03.855
Thanks for those great insights around distribution and leadership.
00:30:03.855 --> 00:30:06.431
I think it's a really important discussion, thanks.
00:30:07.011 --> 00:30:08.035
No worries, thanks for having me.
00:30:08.255 --> 00:30:08.776
I enjoyed it.
00:30:09.057 --> 00:30:09.357
Thank you.
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إخلاء المسؤولية: البودكاست والأعمال الفنية المضمنة في هذه الصفحة مأخوذة من Michael van Rooyen، وهي مملوكة لمالكها وليست تابعة لشركة Listen Notes, Inc أو معتمدة منها.
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