How Channel Futures' Channel Influencers Made It to the Top
Here's how our Channel Influencers define influence and how you can apply it to your business.
March 16, 2023
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Anurag Agrawal
Founder & Chief Global Analyst
Techaisle
“I think the dictionary definition of ‘influence’ is about changing character or behavior. The way I see it, influence is about informing the channel partner community and the vendor partner community as to how technology is reshaping their business models. I look at myself as more of an informer or advisor changing the behavior and the character of an organization of the technology landscape.”
Ricky Cooper
Head of Worldwide Channel & Commercial Organization
VMware
“It’s the capacity to have an effect on the character, development or behavior of somebody or something to affect itself. When you translate that into what we do, getting towards a lot of experience under my belt … and you’re at the other side of 50 now, [it’s about] what we can leave as influencers. … There are so many new characters coming into the industry, a great push on diversity, so being an influencer now really is at the pinnacle of understanding IT and having the history under your belt. … To have that history and to have seen everything we’ve seen over the years … and to now be able to give something back in a meaningful way.”
Nicole Dezen
Chief Partner Officer & Corporate Vice President Global Partner Sales
Microsoft
“I absolutely love the partner business: specifically, the opportunity to work at incredible scale, to solve problems, and create new growth and new businesses with the most innovative, strategic and largest partner ecosystem in the world. I have a huge sense of responsibility to Microsoft’s partners. In my role as chief partner officer, I feel accountable to ensure that partners get the best from Microsoft, so that they in turn can provide the best to customers. My job at Microsoft provides the opportunity to drive meaningful impact for partners every day. To me, being an influencer is about leading by example through authenticity, empathy and empowerment.”
Lynne Doherty
President, Worldwide Field Operations
Sumo Logic
“To me a channel influencer is someone who believes in doing business in a partner-first model. It’s someone who is willing to make bets on strategic partners that you know will benefit you both. It’s someone who will require their team to act in a certain manner to live a partner-first sales motion. It’s someone who wants to spend the time, effort and energy investing in the channel because it’s what’s good for business.”
Jim Glackin
Executive Vice President, Channel Sales
Nitel
“There are many different ways to influence the channel. First and foremost is internally with the company you work for. You’ve got to be an advocate for the channel and be able to drive focus, energy and commitment to the channel. In different companies I’ve worked for, that could be incredibly difficult because they were very much direct sales focused. There were some days I felt like I was losing the battle. But Nitel is channel-only. So, influence there is around collaboration and consultation within the company on how to grow and scale and build an even bigger and better channel. It’s driving the message, collaborating with the partners and sometimes collaborating with other vendors.
“One of the things that keeps me up at night is that even as wildly successful as we’ve been in this channel, in the telecommunication space, most of the business goes directly to the carrier, it’s not even through the channel. So, how do we drive more adoption and more channel awareness in the marketplace? There are customers out there desperately needing the support of our channel partners; they just don’t realize they’re there. So we have to influence the marketplace, the vendors and our peers. Drive that channel adoption. Tell our story.”
Courtney Humphrey
CEO
Opex Technologies
“A leader who is not afraid to take risks, goes against the norm while striving for success for those around them, in a manner that others want to emulate.”