The secrets of our success

The channel is a great place to work and while success does not come easy, it is rewarding and something that drives our A-Listers to keep striving for more. Simon Meredith reports

Winning really matters in this business and many of the people in the CRN A-List 2006 would say it is the thing that matters most. They never forget their successes and when they do win, it gives them a hunger and a drive to taste it again and again.

Triumphs can take many forms – winning new business, establishing a company as a real player or turning a struggling firm into a real player are all mentioned among the foremost achievements of individuals who have, by and large, enjoyed highly successful careers in the industry.

The one that everyone enjoys is winning business and it can also help you to make real progress on the career ladder, notes UK country manager of Fortinet, Phil Keeling.

“I have had several major accounts wins that have been significant, some multi-million dollar projects, which have propelled me to where I am now,” he says.

It is especially rewarding if the odds are stacked against you, says Clive Sawkins, director of unified communications at Cisco, who cites “winning two very large deals when the other vendors should have walked all over us” as his greatest moment. He advises anyone faced with a similar challenge to “never give up and never let size get in the way of doing good business. Always listen to the customer and act on what you are being told.”

Starting and making a business work is what many A-Listers see as their greatest achievement.

“Using my snooker table as a work bench and turning an initial investment of £5,000 into a £20m turnover company in just nine years [was my biggest achievement],” says Alastair Bell, managing director at Bell Microsystems.

Echoing this, Martin St Quinton, chief execuitve of Azzurri, says: “Creating a business that grew from a blank sheet of paper in 2000 to one that was valued at £180m by 2006.”

However, you can never see the job as being finished, says John Carter, managing director of distributor DMSL.

“So far, because I hope there will be many more successes in the future, taking the business from zero to where we are today in just over three years and building up a successful, well-established, innovative company that is not afraid to do things differently,” he says.

For Steve Lockie, managing director at Computer 2000, the most memorable achievement was taking a business that was struggling and making it work.

“The turnaround of our Middle East operations with the team back in 2000 brings back fond memories of passion for winning and great teamwork,” he says.

Anyone who has conducted a successful management buy-out certainly feels a sense of real achievement – and by success that means still being here some years later and having a stable and hopefully profitable business as well. Several of this year’s A-Listers see a buy-out as their greatest achievement so far, perhaps none more so than Nick Gorringe, who managed the buy-out of Basilica four years ago and has since helped to establish the firm as one of the UK’s leading resellers. The business has doubled in size since the buy-out.

Other A-Listers talk about the overall contribution that they feel they make to the business, to its people, and the enjoyment they get from what they go.

Gary Duke, managing director of VAR LAN2LAN says that success to him is that “after 12 years of growing LAN2LAN, to still love going to the office and to know that I have the best people around working with me and still having fun”.

Most of the people in the A-List are, of course, at the top of their game right now and getting there has not been easy for most of them. Ask 10 of these people for the single most important piece of advice they can give you and you will get 10 different answers – but all of it very sound and worth taking on board.

Focusing in on what you really want is important, says Graeme Allan, enterprise vice president Northern Europe at Alcatel.

“Find what you love doing – and don’t just chase the money,” he says.

Joint managing director at Eurodata Systems, Simon Aron, agrees. “Pick a subj ect and specialise in it,” he says.

At the same time, it is important to understand the different parts of the game.

“Try to get exposed to as many aspects of the business as possible” says Keith Bird, European managing director of SonicWall. “A good foundation of knowledge will make it easier for you to go on to develop a deeper specialisation. Most important of all, try to get as much customer interaction as possible as this will ensure you are focused on developing and delivering solutions that the market really wants.”

Identifying where you believe you belong, but then not being too rigid about your path forward, is the advice of Telamon Systems’ managing director Steve Derbyshire.

“Find the niche that suits you and get on and enjoy it,” he says. “There are so many things you can do in this wonderful industry and so much choice that it’s difficult to know where to start, so start with the nearest opportunity and explore from there. Don’t be afraid of change.”

Once you are on the path to success, you will also need to keep everything in perspective and keep on working hard and showing your own worth, says Terry O’Loughlin, director of channel sales at CA.

“Set your sights high, be determined, take the rough with the smooth and have fun,” she says. “There is no other industry like this one for working hard and playing hard.”

You will certainly encounter challenges and aspects of the business you do not like very much along the way, but in the end, it will be worthwhile and working in the IT business is rewarding, says Ian Cook, managing director at Logicalis.

“It’s a great industry,” he says. “It still has issues with sexism and ageism, but once you get over that it’s genuinely meritocratic and one where the rewards of hard work and talent can be very great indeed. But don’t focus on the technology alone and always think hard about what you can do with it for your customer’s benefit.”

In the end, it is all about looking after the customer and doing what is r ight by them says Ramsac’s managing director, Robert May.

“Strive to understand your client’s business, what hurts them and what’s most important to their own success,” he says. “If you can then apply technology based on that agenda rather than selling IT for the sake of it, your client will be grateful, loyal and with you for a very long time.”