Bird, Keith
A-List 2006
Job title Managing director for Europe.
Company SonicWall.
Year of birth 1967.
Place of birth Cheam, Surrey.
Career outline: I have enjoyed more than 20 years in the IT industry. The past 12 of those have been in international roles. In the first half of my career I founded and sold my own companies. The second half has been spent leading channel-orientated vendors. I’ve been very fortunate to hold senior roles at four excellent companies: EDS, Orchestream/Metasolve, Extreme Networks and for the past year at SonicWall.
What motivates you every morning to get up and work in the channel? You have to enjoy what you do and it has to be a passion. I’ve always been motivated by working with great people to make things happen. When you can turn something around or achieve very challenging goals with others, there is no feeling like it. The channel is as vibrant and professional as it has ever been and that makes it a great and fun place to work.
What has been the most over-hyped technology in the past five years? I’m not sure about over hyped, but I think everyone would agree that voice over IP [VoIP] has had a big build up and perhaps taken longer than everyone imagined to get the kind of adoption that was predicted. Having said that, VoIP is now a reality for all businesses. I use it in both my office and my home and it is that kind of dual adoption that will drive its growth.
What will be the most underrated technology in the next five years? Through a customer’s eyes, backup is still not taken seriously enough, particularly in the SME sector. Although backup is always rated very highly in most business surveys, there are still hundreds of thousands of companies in the UK with no or very poor backup. This is a massive opportunity for resellers.
Which technology would you most like to have invented? The internet, so that I could charge 1p a year for every user around the world. That’s a lot of pennies. Any technology that creates annuity revenues, creates huge wealth-creation opportunities.
Do you have any regrets from your time in the industry? I know it is an old cliche, but I don’t believe in regrets. This industry has given me a very good standard of living, so why would I?
What is the biggest hurdle you have faced in your career? At Orchestream Software I was brought in to convert the company from a direct-sales organisation to an indirect one. We doubled sales in a year, which shows the power of a completely indirect model.
What is the biggest success of your career? At SonicWall we are breaking all previous company revenue and growth records.
What piece of technology could you not live without? My mobile phone, unfortunately.
What would be your advice to anyone starting a career in IT? Try to get exposed to as many aspects of the business as possible and ensure you develop an appreciation for as many of the technology segments as possible. A good foundation knowledge will make it easier to go on to develop deeper specialisation. Most important of all, try to get as much customer interaction as possible because this will ensure you are focused on developing and delivery solutions that the market really wants.
What is your favorite computer game? Surprisingly, I am not into them and would rather spend time time with my children.
What would you like for Christmas if you could have anything? For it not to be our company year end.
What is your favorite karaoke song? Mac The Knife, by Frank Sinatra I have seen a few varieties of that song.
What would be the title of your autobiography? Just One More Deal.
Do you have any phobias? No.
How many beers before you fall over? 99.
Number of staff you manage? 60.
What is your golf handicap? Me.
What car do you drive? Mercedes.
Number of air miles you have? 250,000.