Ultimate Partner®

For this 67th episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering, I was joined by Sharan Hildebrand, the Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Hitachi Solutions North America, for an engaging discussion on her partner business, her leadership in women in technology and her career journey.

Sharan is a 25-year veteran in the technology industry, with a successful track record of leading global sales and growth initiatives for the past two decades. One of the things I like so much about Sharan is that she is a sales leader first.

I was excited to feature Sharan as she is one of the partners that "gets it right", working with Microsoft's tech giant. In addition to managing Hitachi's Award-Winning relationship with Microsoft, she has built and nurtured an alliance ecosystem. She has built best practices around successful partner to partner or P2P sales motions. 

Sharan s extremely passionate about empowering women in technology and fueling leadership opportunities for women in STEM roles both inside and outside of Hitachi.

In addition to serving in a Women's Leadership Role within Hitachi, her other responsibilities include contributing to the Chicago Women in Technology (WIT) community (Chicago WIT Chapter President Emeritus), serving as the Central Region WIT Chair and board member of the US IAMCP community and US Membership Chair Emeritus. She is also the Vice President of the Women's Executive Channel Advisory Board, founded by our mutual friend and podcast guest Lani Phillips.

As founder of MSHEmpowers, LLC. (www.mshempowers.com) Sharan focuses on helping women looking to re-enter the workforce, connect with positions in technology. 

I so enjoyed this discussion and the broad range of topics, including:

* Hitachi Solutions' Go to Market Strategy.* Hitachi's success as a Partner of the Year Award Winner* Sharan's best practices in building a partner ecosystem and coordinating P2P or Partner to Partner motions.* How she vets partners based on a 19-category scoring model.* Her professional journey and the work she does to empower and mentor women in technology.

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to Partnering and where they can find us. I'd love your feedback. Please like the podcast and provide comments or reach out to me at @vincemenzione on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also like and follow Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook page or drop me a line at [email protected].

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Find Sharan Hildebrand on LinkedIn and Twitter.* Email - [email protected]* MSHEmpowers, LLC* Book she has gifted often -

I am so pleased and excited to welcome a friend and former colleague from Microsoft, Rodney Clark, Vice President of Microsoft’s Worldwide Internet of Things (IoT)* and Mixed Reality Sales team. Rodney is responsible for building Intelligent Systems and Mixed Reality capability through sales and go-to-market execution – from edge to cloud – with Microsoft partners and customers.

*The Internet of things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

In this episode, Rodney and I have an extensive and far-reaching discussion on a number of topics:

* His business at Microsoft and how his team is helping customers solve challenges related to COVID.* The importance of partners and how they are trailblazing this technological transformation and embracing Partner to Partner motions. * What makes a great partner? * Commitment to the P&L* A deep commitment to people* Embracing technology* Understanding your value.* His career journey, lessons he learned from his father, and other role models.* His personal reflections as an African American leader during this time, his commitment, and how he is channeling his energy.

After finishing the episode I was struck by how much I enjoyed recording this discussion with Rodney. He is a thoughtful leader who can uniquely make a complex topic like IOT understandable to the average listeners. What also came through loud and clear to me was his commitment; to his people, his customers, his partners, and his family.

Rodney is a strong leader and I so enjoyed learning from him and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to Partnering and where they can find us. I'd love your feedback. Please like the podcast and provide comments or reach out to me at @vincemenzione on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also like and follow Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook page or drop me a line at [email protected].

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Find Rodney Clark on LinkedIn and Twitter.* Email - [email protected]* Link to Microsoft IOT Page* Satya's Blog on Racial Injustice* The transcript of our interview is available here.

Ultimate Guide to Partnering  is a rich compendium of what makes successful partnerships and is available on 

For this 65th Episode of the Podcast, I'm excited to welcome a friend, former colleague, and someone I partnered with at Microsoft; Lani Phillips, the Vice President of Microsoft's US One Commercial Channel Sales Organization. In this episode, we have an authentic and wide-ranging conversation focused on Microsoft's partner co-selling business, the impact of social injustice on society, and Microsoft's response.

Lani and her team are responsible for driving digital transformation across customers in Commercial, Mid-Market, and Regulated Industries in the United States with Microsoft's partner ecosystem, driving a $30B+ business. She and her organization are responsible for accelerating the Co-Selling partnership, which enables partners and Microsoft to drive joint sales pursuits, revenue, and ultimately customer success.

Lani, her husband James and son, Brayden, reside in the Chicago/Naperville area. In her spare time, she enjoys spending quality time with her boys, cooking, and writing her first leadership book, which she hopes to publish.

Lani and I worked together at Microsoft, and I had the opportunity to work with her team while I was leading the Partner Business for Microsoft's Top U.S. Co-Sell partner across three industries. I so enjoyed this conversation, and we could have easily continued for two hours had it not been for our schedules. We discussed her business and priorities for Microsoft FY21 and what makes a great co-sell partner.

I also wanted to ensure we spent a fair amount of time discussing her personal and professional journey as an African American Woman rising to the ranks of Vice President at Microsoft. In our conversation, we touch on how the incidents surrounding Geoge Floyd personally impacted her and her family. We also discuss Microsoft's response toward racial injustice.

We could have easily continued this discussion for hours. I've invited Lani to join me for a second episode later in the year to continue our conversation.

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to Partnering and where they can find us. I'd love your feedback. Please like the podcast and provide comments or reach out to me at @vincemenzione on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also like and follow Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook page or drop me a line at [email protected].

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Find Lani Phillips on LinkedIn and Twitter* Satya's Blog on Racial Injustice* Your Black Coworkers Are Still Not Okay—Here’s How to Support Them.* White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism* Transcript of our interview is below.

For this 64th episode of the podcast, I am excited to welcome a friend and a fan favorite, Tony Safoian the CEO of SADA Systems.

Tony and I go back many years from our engagement at Microsoft. I interviewed Tony as one of my very first guests, Episode 3 of the podcast. We later did a live interview at a CRN event in Tony's home city of Los Angeles, Episode 37 - Skating to Where the Puck is Going.

Subsequently, Tony and his family - both his parents Anne and Hovig were founders of the business - sold the Microsoft portion of their business in 2018. Tony has since doubled down in partnership with Google.

Tony is one of the most engaging and business-minded people I know. I respect him because he exhibits so many of the traits I coach my clients on what makes great partnerships.

In the last year, Tony started a podcast, "Cloud n Clear," where he interviews leaders in the technology sectors focused on the Google ecosystem. We will provide links to Cloud n Clear in our show notes.  

Tony and I pick up the conversation where we left off after a hiatus. We discuss his company's pivot and top partner status with Google and compare offerings among the tech giants. We also discuss how he shapes the culture at SADA and applies lessons learned from family.

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to Partnering and where they can find us. I'd love your feedback. Please like the podcast and provide comments or reach out to me at @vincemenzione on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also like and follow Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook page or drop me a line at [email protected].

Tony and I have much ground to make up after a two-year hiatus - so I hope you enjoy this episode.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Find Tony Safoian on LinkedIn and Twitter* National Response Portal* Cloud N Clear Podcast* Episode 3 - Journey to Premier Status * Episode 37 - Skating to where the puck is going* Madhive Story

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The previous 63 episodes are a rich compendium of what makes successful partnerships, and I encourage you to listen*

For this 63rd Episode of the podcast, I sit down for an interview with Jay McBain Principal Analyst - Channels, Partnerships & Ecosystems at Forrester for a conversation of the channel, living in a time like no other.

Jay is a thought leader in the channel. We discuss the work he does in support of the channel, his predictions both before COVID, and how he sees the impact on organizations today. We also discuss how he sees the channel evolving in what he calls the "trifurcated channel model" as the landscape of partner vendors changes. The need and the role of the channel is evolving.  

It was good to have Jay on the podcast as I always enjoy our conversations. He is a wealth of knowledge and a walking encyclopedia of the channel. His perspective on the transformation is insightful because of the work he does across a broad sampling of the technology giants. I also enjoyed Jay's perspective on career and life. I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I enjoyed learning from Jay.

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to Partnering and where they can find us. I'd love your feedback. Please like the podcast and provide comments or reach out to me at @vincemenzione on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also like and follow Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook page or drop me a line at [email protected].

Thank you for following along, and I hope you enjoy this new episode.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Find Jay McBain on LinkedIn and Twitter* Jay's Personal Blog* Follow Jay's Forrester Blog* Predictions for 2020 Blogpost* COVID Predictions Blogpost * Channel Vendor Tech Stack Post

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The existing 62 episodes are also a rich compendium, and I encourage you to listen*

Ultimate Guide to Partnering is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google 

I've spoken about this topic numerous times since the Coronavirus became our reality in March. For the first new interview episode of the podcast since the relaunch, I flip seats with a friend and channel pro, Rob Spee, host of the Channel Journeys Podcast, for an interview and discussion of the role of partnerships in today's times.

We recorded this interview a month ago, but the fundamentals have not changed. The genesis was my April blog post, "Leading Partnerships Through Uncertain Times." I make a case for why successful partnerships can be a key accelerant to growth and survival during these uncertain times.

We are seeing an acceleration in the transformation like no other time. Satya Nadella himself said, "we are seeing two years of digital transformation in two months."

Partnerships, now more than ever, can be the key to achieving successful business outcomes and helping organizations achieve more. I've witnessed organizations apply the principles of successful partnering to add new feature sets, enter new or adjacent markets, and accelerate the transformation. Its a topic area near and dear to my heart!

Rob and I discuss core principles, observations, and what we see in the channel and with technology organizations. We also discuss Principles of Successful Partnerships, based on my experience driving multiple successful business transformations and my many interviews with leaders.

At this time, leaders need to elevate their voices, and my thoughts turn to Sir Winston Churchill. This charismatic and transformational leader was exactly what England needed to inspire and lead during its darkest hours.

I like what I'm witnessing from leaders in the tech community, but we can all do more. Expect future episodes of the podcast to feature leaders elevating their voices to inform and to lead.

I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to Partnering and where they can find us. I'd love your feedback. Please feel free to reach out to me at @vincemenzione on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram or on email at [email protected].

Thank you for following along, and I hope you enjoy this new episode.

LINKS & RESOURCES

* Find Rob on LinkedIn and Twitter* Listen to the Channel Journeys Podcast

After a 2-year hiatus, I am excited to welcome you back to Ultimate Guide to Partnering! It's so good to be back - especially now during these turbulent and uncertain times. I can't think of a better time to be back in this seat to share an intimate conversation and hopefully help each of us during these times. People are craving certainty and direction during these incredibly uncertain and turbulent times. Today we see massive changes in our lifestyles, businesses, and society. I that as leaders, we must elevate our voices and drive clarity. I also believe that Organizations that embrace fundamentals and principles will have the best chance of success, and ultimately survival.

Many of you following and joining me on the journey know I've made it my life's work to help organizations achieve exceptional business outcomes through successful partnering to achieve more significant results. I didn't start as a partner guy, but as a business leader, I quickly learned that building successful partnering can be a pivotal accelerant to getting the results I needed. I've also been passionate about overcoming adversity.

I've described my career as consisting of three successful professional transformations. After nine years leading a significant channel strategy, I understood that partners often struggled to understand the tech giants. Partner Friends who ran successful practices with Microsoft, Google, and Amazon shared frustrations connecting and staying in lockstep with the technology giants during this time of massive change.

My friends at the tech giants were equally frustrated, scaling their limited resources to reach and enable their ecosystems. At the time, most of the outreach by the technology giants consisted of in-person events, blog posts, and an occasional video. What I saw was an unfulfilled need to help these organizations better stay in lockstep and thrive by sharing product and organizational information, best practices, and lessons learned to achieve successful business outcomes.

I took a page from the podcasts I enjoyed when I started. I decided on a long format to allow each episode to accomplish my three goals: 1. Help business organizations tell their relevant story and value proposition to help my listeners connect. 2. Ask each of these partner experts, "what makes great partnerships," and why they often fail. 3. Peel back on the personal and professional journey to mentor my listeners. After 60 episodes, over 25,000 downloads, and more than 1,900 unique listeners worldwide, the work represents a vast compendium of "what makes successful partnering." I have interviewed many leaders from Microsoft, leaders from Amazon, Google, and Salesforce, and many "Partners that Got it Right," working with the tech giants. From this body of work, I have synthesized fundamental principles to help other organizations avoid the pitfalls.

A remarkable outcome has been the body of inspiration and learnings shared by my guests on overcoming adversity to achieve personal and professional success. I love sharing these examples of the grit, persistence, and determination needed, and each is a source of inspiration. Perhaps the most incredible outcome is that the podcast helped me to learn and grow personally and professionally. I learned so much through my incredible guests and have developed deep personal relationships through the process.

We're at a different point in time now - not only is the world changed, it is calling out to each of us to be and to do more. The messages and the medium of podcasting are more critical now than ever.

On a deeply personal level, with all that has happened in our world in this last month and the need to finally address racial injustice in this country, I am hoping this podcast can serve as a beacon to thos...

For this episode of the podcast leading up to Microsoft Inspire, I spotlight a Microsoft partner introducing and showcasing their new innovative solution at the event.

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Vadim Vladimirskiy. Vadim is the CEO and Founder of Nerdio. a Microsoft partner with a long tradition in delivering value-added managed services that have developed an innovative platform that reduces the risk, complexity, and cost for service providers delivering cloud services.

In this episode, Vadim and I discuss his experiences and insights as a managed service provider, the best practices his organization brings to this new innovative product offering, why other Microsoft partners should work with Nerdio and where partners can meet he and the team at Microsoft Inspire, July 15th to the 19th in Las Vegas Nevada.

And if you are coming to Inspire, please join me in the Commons Theater on Wednesday, July 18th at 2:30 for a special session where I’ll share “What they don’t teach working with Microsoft”.

You can listen to the podcast or view the transcript here or on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Player FM, other Android podcast players.

As with each of my interview and articles, I appreciate your feedback. You can reach out to me on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or on email at [email protected]. You can also review this podcast by going to iTunes and searching “Ultimate Guide to Partnering” and clicking on the album art and hitting the rating link. This helps others find the podcast.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW

Vince:                 Vadim, welcome to the podcast.

Vadim:                Thanks. It's great to be here.

Vince:                 I'm excited to have you as a guest on Ultimate Guide to Partnering. You and I have gotten to know each other pretty well over the last several months working on your Go-to-Market plan with Microsoft.  I'm glad you could join today to discuss your company, its value proposition, and your personal and professional journey. So, welcome.

Vadim:                Thanks so much. I'm really glad to be here, and thanks for having me on.

Vince:                 Can you begin by telling our listeners a little bit about Nerdio, and how you got started.

Vadim:                Absolutely. We started Nerdio back in 2005. Initially, we were an online backup company in the market that was pretty new back in those days and then quickly evolved into a managed services provider, an MSP,

For this special series of the podcast, leading up to Microsoft Inspire, I interview leaders from Microsoft's One Commercial Partner team to discuss the work that their teams are doing in this age of rapid digital transformation.

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Melissa Mulholland -  Melissa is the worldwide lead driving strategy and business development for how businesses can be profitable in the Cloud. Specifically, Melissa is focused on enabling partners and customers to accelerate their business transformation in the Cloud delivering increased profitability, efficiency, and scale across Microsoft's Cloud services.

In this episode Melissa and I discuss her work consulting with Microsoft Patners to transform their businesses – the amazing body of work she and the team have produced to help partner capitilze on the digital transformation opportunity - her career journey - and what’s in store for partners at Microsoft Inspire, July 15 to the 19th in Las Vegas, NV.

If you are coming to Inspire, please join me in the Commons Theater on Wednesday, July 18th at 2:30 for a special session where I’ll share “What they don’t teach working with Microsoft”.

You can listen to the podcast or view the transcript here or on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Player FM, other Android podcast players.

As with each of my interview and articles, I appreciate your feedback. You can reach out to me on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or on email at [email protected]. You can also review this podcast by going to iTunes and searching “Ultimate Guide to Partnering” and clicking on the album art and hitting the rating link. This helps others find the podcast.

Links to the content we discussed:

The Digital Transformation Opportunity eBook Series https://aka.ms/dtopportunity

Inspire Session: https://myinspire.microsoft.com/sessions/94a2be88-99be-4307-8a62-3347da7ef013?source=sessions

How to reach Melissa : https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-mulholland/

Transcript of the Interview

Vince:                 Melissa, welcome to the podcast.

Melissa M:         Thank you so you much, Vince.  It's a pleasure to be here today. I love getting the opportunity to connect with people like yourselves, and the partner community.

Vince:                 Well, thank you for taking the time from your compressed schedule to talk to our listeners about the amazing work you and the team have been doing to enable and empower our partners,

For this special series of the podcast, leading up to Microsoft Inspire, I interview leaders from Microsoft's One Commercial Partner team to discuss the work that their teams are doing in this age of rapid digital transformation.

My guest for this episode is Brent Combest, the general manager of the US One Commercial Partner organization responsible for Microsoft Value-added Service Partners to build profitable practices with and through Microsoft.

Brent and I discuss the work his team does to help partners transform their businesses and build profitable and sustainable business models, his journey from the channel to Microsoft, and what's in store for partners July 15 through the 19th in Las Vegas, Nevada. And if you're coming to Inspire, please join me in the commons theater on Wednesday, July 18th at 2:30 for a special session where I'll share what they don't teach working with Microsoft.

You can listen to the podcast or view the transcript here or on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Player FM, other Android podcast players.

As with each of my interview and articles, I appreciate your feedback. You can reach out to me on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or on email at [email protected]. You can also review this podcast by going to iTunes and searching “Ultimate Guide to Partnering” and clicking on the album art and hitting the rating link. This helps others find the podcast.

Links discussed on the interview:

* aka.ms/modernpartner

* Microsoft Partner Practice Development Playbooks https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/campaigns/cloud-practice-playbooks

* Automotive Book of Dreams v1

TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW

Brent, welcome to the podcast.

Brent:                 Thanks for having me.

Vince:                 It is great to have you here. Thank you for taking time from your compressed schedule. You are the general manager in the One Commercial Partner team focused on helping value added service providers scale their business with and through Microsoft. I'm excited to hear from you about your organization's role and focus, how partners can maximize the results of their practice with Microsoft, your view on this amazing transformation, and what's in store for partners in Microsoft Inspire. So welcome.

Brent:                 Thank you very much. I'm happy to have this conversation. Some great topics there.

Vince:                 So first off, can you explain to our listeners, in simple terms,