HP, Check Point, VMware Alum Frank Rauch Reveals Next Channel RoleHP, Check Point, VMware Alum Frank Rauch Reveals Next Channel Role

Just because channel veteran Frank Rauch has retired doesn’t mean he’s leaving the channel entirely.

Rauch was serving as Cato Networks’ global channel leader and joined the company more than two years ago. In addition to Cato Networks, he has been on senior executive teams at IBM, HPE, VMware and Check Point Software Technologies, leading channel, strategy and field sales teams. It was at HPE that he first got involved with the channel.

Rauch tells Channel Futures he’d been thinking about retirement over the last two to three years.

“In fact, when I joined Cato, the real choice that was on the board was, do I just retire then? Because I've been really fortunate,” he said. “I'm 63-and-a-half [years old]. I have great opportunities with boards and basically philanthropic activities that I'm involved in right now, and I had a good opportunity to be able to have a conversation with Cato’s senior leadership team. Cato has been absolutely fabulous to me and that's pretty much it. There's not a whole lot more to the story.”

Frank Rauch Ready to Help Future Channel Leaders 

In the meantime, there are a lot of companies that need help in the channel, Rauch said.

“I’m willing to give,” he said. “I chair ClubNext and it’s one of the greatest things I do. It's 35 bright people that are mid-stage career that want to be channel chiefs, and they're probably the No. 2 people in their company right now. I really enjoy doing that. I am helping a number of companies get into the channel as an advisor to their boards, and I very much enjoy that. I'm going to continue to keep doing it. And I'm also on the advisory board of Drexel's Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship. In fact, I’m going down to Philadelphia to judge a couple of contests for startups, and to be able to meet the students and to guide the students along. It sounds like my day won't be that full, but I think I'm filling it up by the hour.”

Related:Cato Networks' Frank Rauch Retires After 20+ Years in Channel

Rauch said he’s fielding offers to return to the channel, but he’s not yet ready to change his mind about retirement.

“I don't think it's about the offer I can't refuse,” he said. “It's basically whether I can settle into retirement or not. I think if somebody came to me today with an offer that was absolutely outstanding, I would say no. If somebody comes to me a month from now, who knows, maybe I'll consider it. Right now I'm saying no to any operational role.”

Channel Futures: What do you consider your biggest accomplishment as a channel leader?

Frank Rauch: When I go back and I look through the people that have been part of my teams, 23 of them have risen to run channels to some degree. My biggest accomplishment was to be able to develop those people and help them along the way. Not that they needed a lot of help, they were just some of the most talented people I ever met. And you look at people like Kevin Rooney, Dan Monahan, Rima Olinger and John Schwan, these are people that have just taken the opportunity and really risen as a result of that opportunity. That's what I'm most proud of.

Related:Cato Networks' New Global Channel Leader to Build On 'Strong Foundation'

CF: What are some other accomplishments that you're most proud of?

FR: If you want to look at accomplishments in the channel, it was being able to take an HP channel that was very narrow and making it something broader than that, to more than triple the revenue in the seven years, and to be able to recruit a lot of partners that were not traditional HP partners. And when I had the opportunity to be able to go to VMware, we had an opportunity to, again, triple the revenue within seven years, but more importantly, to be able to recreate VMware together.

I then had an opportunity, through VMware’s acquisition of Nicira, to be able to start to understand the world of security a little bit better. Obviously, being involved in the Carbon Black acquisition as well, I thought I would get into the world of security. Well, not only did I get into the world of security, but I also got into Israeli culture when I joined Check Point Software Technologies. That was a great experience and I thank Gil Shwed for that opportunity. In four years, we were able to accomplish a lot. We were able to get some of the large GSIs on our side and started to do work far beyond just the firewall piece of Check Point. That was a great accomplishment as well.

Related:Channel People on the Move: HP, Kaseya, BCN, Avant, 8x8, More

After those four years, the decision was on the table whether to continue to work again and the recruiters came to me and said, "Hey, would you be interested in taking another run? "I said it would have to be a really special run, and they said Cato Networks. I said, "Now you've said a name that I'm really interested in because of the reputation of Cato in the market," and again, it was a really good two years.

CF: During your time in the channel, were there lessons learned?

FR: The channel has changed certainly over the 20 years that I’ve been a part of it, and before that in strategy planning, and before that, direct sales. I think it's about building a foundational team and building a foundational partner network. What I mean by that is it's not always about the largest partners, but  the partners that are really committed and being able to understand the next two or three years with them, and how that aligns with your company goals and what you need them to do. The more you can get them out in front of the plan, I think the better off you are. There are some pundits that basically say the channel is totally quantitative, it's run by analytics — and I agree with that. Analytics dashboards are really important and I think the bar has been set higher in that area, but don't forget about the relationships.

CF: What would be your advice for someone new to channel leadership?

FW: I give advice all the time. Sometimes it’s wanted and sometimes it’s not! The advice I would give to somebody is it's really important to be able to balance the alignment between the partner interest and the company interest. That sounds pretty basic, but it's changed dramatically over 20 years. It's a good give-and-take type of relationship.

We have things that we're looking at in the channels right now, like the CSP marketplaces, the private equity types of investments, the consolidation and new types of partners, partners that used to be a telco and now they're in the game as well. Distribution has changed so much. My point is you need to be able to do things in context, and the context has to be that balance between what opportunities the market is providing you right now and then the relationship you have with your C-suite to be able to balance the interests, put those interests in a plan, invest in the analytics, invest in the dashboards and to be able to manage it maniacally.

But it can't be the only North Star. Partners still have to have confidence in you and they still have to have confidence in your company, regardless of how big the margins are. So it changed a little bit. Relationships probably haven't changed a lot; partner types have changed a lot and I think the way we measure success has changed a lot. The other thing I would tell people that want to get into the channel leadership game is continue to be authentic. Don't believe your own headlines. It's important that when you define success, that your success is defined internally and externally. The worst thing that a channel leader can do these days is ... in the midst of a tough quarter for the company, just say. "But look at how great the channel did." It has to be that balance. It has to be that alignment of the scorecard, and it has to be that alignment with not only the C-suite in that company, but even at times, the board interaction, which I certainly had at Check Point and Cato.

CF: Has the role of a channel leader changed?

FR: It's changing year over year. I know AI is totally overplayed to an extent right now, but if you don't get in front of it, it's going to get in front of you. The same thing could have been said about the CSP marketplaces last year. The same thing could have been said about the transition that some of the GSIs and some of the telcos have made as well. Channel is not a category that's defined the way it was defined even a year ago.

CF: Do you feel positive about where the channel is heading?

FR: Absolutely. The leadership is such a blend of talents. You have some people like [me] that have been doing it for a long time, and then you have some of the new people that have come at it from a totally different direction. They're so intelligent and they're so bright. It's not like the channel is this finite pool of people to pull from anymore. So if somebody wants to hire a channel leader, my advice is: Understand what you need from a business perspective, and then either bring in somebody that understands the channel or bring in somebody that worked beside the channel or in some other capacity, but don't limit that talent pool.