Q&A: Alex Thurber On McAfee's New Channel Strategy

McAfee's Alex Thurber

What are some of the first tasks at hand in your new role?

Just getting out talking to partners and talking to the channel and just getting a grip on what's really going on out there. It's pretty exciting. It's a great team. We have wonderful products, certainly best-of-breed products, and some of the different areas that are tied together so well with the management console, and we have wonderful partners. And what I'm excited about is that I think with a few tweaks and a few adjustments, a little bit of this and that, we can pull everything together and really put together a dynamite opportunity for the channel.

What are some of those tweaks and adjustments you were talking about?

[President and CEO] Dave DeWalt has really taken the company to that next level. He's very focused on, I hate to use the Cisco term, 'an end,' really that idea of a complete interlock between network security, endpoint security and server security.

Some of that's been done in research and development, and some of that's been done through acquisitions. And so, when I look at the McAfee channel program today, I'm very open and honest about this stuff. It's a combination of three or four different programs that never were very well integrated. And so where we look to do repair is putting together a comprehensive channel program for our partners worldwide that will not only handle today's technology, but tomorrow's technology. We'll certainly continue to grow and certainly continue to move into these strategic areas.

How can McAfee really dig into the Cisco security/network strategy?

I love Cisco. I still love the company. They're still incredibly well-rounded in every area but security. One thing McAfee has is a purely focused security company. That's all we do. That's a wonderful focus. It makes sure that our account managers, our channel account managers and obviously our channel, are very aware of what's important. I was asked, 'What made you make that jump from Cisco to McAfee?' and certainly Cisco has the culture and that idea of changing the way we work with and learn that. That's been the Cisco paradigm for a long time.

McAfee has a very similar idea of making the Internet safe. That's a very broad generalization because there will always be challenges out on the network. But it is a real belief in McAfee that with our technology from the endpoint to the server we can really help that online experience be a safer one, and one that enables the Internet to continue to grow and to do those great things that we know it can do. I think it's that's single-minded focus on security that really was intriguing.

You had to say the networking side of security was the way to go and now you have to see the other side, knowing you're going to have to go up against your old colleagues. How are you making that shift?

I don't think it's actually a huge shift. Certainly, the networks out there are Cisco's, certainly the routing and the switching. Cisco is great in so many different areas but I think if we could combine McAfee security on top of that Cisco infrastructure, that's a real win-win. And I think that they're pretty complementary. Cisco is outstanding in so many of the different areas and I think that McAfee has got the story when it comes to security.

McAfee has had a slew of channel people coming in and out and it's been kind of a revolving door. What do we say to make people think you're going to stick around and actually follow through on the changes?

First, I'll say trust me. I have 17 years or 20 years of channel experience. Channel is in my blood. I wouldn't have made the switch to McAfee if I didn't get a very direct commitment from both Dave DeWalt, the CEO, and Mike DeCesare, my boss, that they were in it for the long haul. They were in it to the channel for the long haul and they were committed. I think the exact same message went to Fernando [Quintero, vice president of channel operations for the Americas]. McAfee has always been a channel company, they just haven't executed necessarily very well on an overall channel strategy. So the strong account managers, the great partners in the strong business we have and by adding the right strategy and the programs and all the other things that we know, I think will really take them to that next level. I wouldn't have made the jump from Cisco to McAfee without a very strong commitment that they are here for the long haul.

What's been the problem up to this point? What's been going on if McAfee has been in it for the long haul? Has it been the wrong people?

I hate to bash my predecessor and part of the confusion has been a little bit on messaging. So there have certainly been some changes in the Americas and the U.S. channel leadership, and of course there have been some changes in the worldwide leadership. Of course I think McAfee was struggling to find the right people who were really devoted to the channel. I think with Fernando and myself, they've done that. We certainly are devoted to the channel and that's something we're going to drive forward with.

It seems like there is also very high turnover down the line in the channel. How is McAfee addressing that?

We're doing a combination of things. I think part of why there's been some turnover all the way down to the channel account manager level is because there hasn't been a focus from the leadership on the channel. There hasn't been an overall strategy. People get frustrated, they're not sure what it is they're supposed to be doing and so as we start rolling these issues out, and start rolling out our solutions, that's going to help a lot.

Nobody wants to be a channel account manager one month and then an end-user account manager the next month and then a channel account manager a month after that. I'm not going to sugarcoat the fact that there have been challenges out in the field making all of this work. But even more to the point I know that there have been a lot of comprehensive plans discussed. We'll start with some concrete changes and put some time into that and we'll ask you to audit us. If we say that we're going to do this by January 1 and that by June 1, and we don't -- we'll expect you to call us on it.

What are some of those changes and what does this particular plan look like?

I think what you can expect is an overall channel strategy laying out how exactly we're going to combine the disparate channel programs we have today. How are we going to deal with MDF? How are we going to deal with rebates in a comprehensive way and with some commitment so those members are not going to be at the whim of the market, and at the whim of the economy?

We've obviously always had to take the overall business into account. We're going to carve aside financial incentives for the channel. They're going to be set aside separately, and we're going to commit to them. That's going to be committed all the way up to Dave DeWalt.

We're also going to roll out some very specific issues around deal protection, so ensuring that if you're a partner and you bring us a deal or we engage you in a deal early on in the cycle, you're going to be protected all the way through the cycle in ways that allow you to profitably do business and develop the relationship with the end user. One of the key areas I've heard loud and clear already is ease of doing business. Certainly that's something that I heard a lot of at Cisco as well, and those are not easy fixes. But we are in the process of making some pretty radical infrastructure changes in the company that started almost a year ago. Some of that will go live in January, some of that will go live throughout 2010. And our partners will actually see the differences in that. I'll put stakes in the ground and I will commit to those.

Next: Reaching Out To the Channel Base