Our Top 25 most influential executives list for 2005 certainly includes many of the usual suspects. But it also reflects the disruptive new forces that continue to energize this industry.
Our selection of John Thompson as No. 1 represents both ends of the spectrum. While his impact has primarily come from building Symantec (NSDQ:SYMC) into a market-leading security vendor, he is also engineering a potentially ground-shifting combination with Veritas Software, bringing security and storage management under one synergistic enterprise.
Disruptive synergy also tops the agenda of other Top 25 Executives, including Adobe (NSDQ:ADBE)’s Bruce Chizen and EMC (NYSE:EMC)’s Joe Tucci, who are likewise using mergers in pursuit of creative new technology combinations.
Other leaders are pursuing synergy by pushing into new customer segments and markets. The rising influence of Asian manufacturers, as they push branded products into the U.S. channel, is represented by Acer’s J.T. Wang and Lenovo’s Yuanqing Yang. Another disruptive force, Google (NSDQ:GOOG)’s Eric Schmidt, is advancing into commercial channels and influencing the strategy of mighty Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT). And Apple (NSDQ:AAPL)’s Steve Jobs is upending the music industry. Meanwhile, Oracle (NSDQ:ORCL)’s Charles Phillips and SAP (NYSE:SAP)’s Henning Kagermann are moving downmarket and deeper into the channel.
The one solution provider on this year’s list, Scott Goemmel of PMV Technologies, puts a face on the managed services model, a development that rivals all others in its impact on the channel and the industry over the past year.
All the industry leaders profiled on the following pages, in one way or another, are searching for creative synergies to galvanize their companies’ growth.
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Four years ago, Scott Goemmel was snorkeling with his wife when he looked down and saw scuba divers enjoying deeper waters some 30 feet below. Surfacing, Goemmel turned to his wife and said, “What are we doing up here? We need to be down there with those guys.”
A pair of scuba certifications soon followed.
Goemmel’s desire to go further and dive deeper parallels his business career. A year earlier, Goemmel had taken a dive into managed services, turning PMV Technologies, Troy, Mich., into an early pioneer of a business model that has emerged over the past year as perhaps the single most important trend in the channel.
Those that haven’t made the jump are considering it. Many others are testing the waters. And still others, such as PMV, are beginning to reap the benefits of early investments. Today, PMV derives about 85 percent of its nearly $10 million in annual revenue from services—and three-quarters of that is recurring revenue from managed services contracts. The company says its MSP revenue mushroomed by more than 300 percent last year.
Goemmel now also is playing a leadership role in helping other solution providers make the transition. In September, Ingram Micro (NYSE:IM) appointed Goemmel president of the distributor’s 400-member VentureTech Network. His mandate: Spread the managed services message.
“He has a big-time services show and can help migrate [VentureTech Network members] to more of a services- and solutions-oriented model,” says Justin Crotty, vice president of North American channel marketing at Ingram Micro, Santa Ana, Calif. “I want services to be a critical part of what we do, and Scott is a great sounding board for that.”
A voracious reader of personal development books, Goemmel credits his success in managed services to a risk-taking entrepreneurial spirit. “To be an entrepreneur is to be able to accept and manage risk, and you accept a great deal of risk when you begin managing a customer’s network,” he says.
Another key factor in launching a successful MSP is understanding both IT and financial accounting processes. Goemmel, who started out as an accountant with Deloitte and Touche, understood the value of financial processes. His education in IT processes came in the late 1990s at global plastics company M.A. Hanna Co., where he helped manage a massive technology rollout. “I understood process, I understood customers, and then there was IT. It all came together,” he says.
Five years ago, Goemmel hitched up with business partner Sam Rozenberg and began building PMV. At first, they saw managed services as a clever way to more closely monitor their customers’ needs and sell them more products. But as time passed and hardware margins shrank, managed services moved to the forefront. Today, one-quarter of PMV’s 40 or so employees work in the MSP portion of the business.
Goemmel says the midmarket is the hot ticket for MSPs right now. But as his snorkeling excursion indicates, Goemmel doesn’t like to put limits on his business. He also counts two of the country’s top 10 banks among his managed services.
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Reprinted from CRN Magazine, November 2005.