CRN Interview: Anna McDermott, GE Access

Anna McDermott is proud to be a football coach's daughter. Her father, Jim McDermott, coached for more than four decades and passed on to her some essential coaching skills--among them, leadership, communication and energy. that background has helped the younger McDermott prepare for her new position as the CEO of GE Access, replacing John Paget, she said. Distribution Editor Scott Campbell recently spoke to McDermott about her promotion, the Sun business environment and what's up next for GE Access.

CRN: How will the Anna McDermott era differ from the John Paget era?

McDERMOTT: When John took over the position, the whole market was going through the big crash. He has a tremendous background in turnarounds, so it was really positive for us to have him. My background is much stronger as a growth leader. I see a little difference in style, but not in the direction. We set the direction as a team. We're still well in agreement on how we want to accomplish our goals.

CRN: How is your personality different from John's?

McDERMOTT: I have a tendency to communicate messages in a more informal way. I'm more of a coach. I was raised by a football coach, and I sort of have his style: 'Here's what we have to do. Here's how we'll make it happen.'

As you're aware, we went through some downsizing in the past year. We have a tighter team now with more energy. That fits my style.

CRN: Do you have any immediate plans for changes?

McDERMOTT: I was just announced [as CEO on] May 1, so I haven't taken any dramatic actions yet. John's relocating to Danbury, Conn., and I did take a three-year plan for GE Access to John and his staff. There are lots of changes going on right now as we look to establish a new identity,not a brand-new identity but how we want to grow. The environment is picking up.

CRN: When John was named CEO, he had to go through a lengthy interview process. Did you have to do the same?

McDERMOTT: I didn't end up going through an interview process. I think John's recommendation carried a lot of weight.

CRN: How is business in the Sun channel?

McDERMOTT: We had a really good first quarter. We just finalized all our April numbers, and [the month] was very strong. I feel very confident about the rest of the quarter. I feel like we're in an environment where we're stable. We're guarded, but we've been able to accurately forecast demand and revenue with less than a 1 percent swing. It hasn't been that way for a couple of years. We're seeing large opportunities pop up where we didn't see them in the past. Nobody's saying it's great, but they're saying it's a stable environment. There's not going to be dramatic growth, but being able to predict revenue is a big positive.

CRN: What is driving the more stable environment?

McDERMOTT: People are saying we have to make investments and stay ahead of the competition. They're cautious investments, but [people] are spending. The war had a little [bit of a negative] impact, but with the forward motion there,

I anticipate we'll see the better spending continue.

CRN: You mentioned a new identity for GE Access. Are you looking at new areas or new customers to drive sales?

McDERMOTT: We have three main practices: storage, networking and security. We want to round out the technologies in those practices where we have some gaps. The other thing we're looking to do is catch some of the new technology waves and start establishing solutions such as IP telephony.

CRN: What do you like about IP telephony, and what other technologies is GE Access looking at?

McDERMOTT: I use that as an example. There are some new waves of technology that don't have a lot of momentum in the two-tier distribution market but will over the course of the next year. I don't want to say too much because we're in the process of doing due diligence on some technology adoption analysis now. But we'll listen to the voice of customers to find out what they're looking for.