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To get a sense of the challenge, last March Atkins invited me to shadow him at IBM's PartnerWorld, the largest gathering of IBM solution providers. To say Atkins had a busy schedule is an understatement.
When I met up with Atkins and his entourage backstage at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, it was barely 7 a.m. Since arriving in Las Vegas a day before, Atkins had already stomped 14 miles on his feet, and this day--the busiest on the schedule--was going to add many more miles.
As we walked through the labyrinth behind the "big tent," Atkins jovially greeted every person who crossed his path. He instantly recalled names of delegates, partners and IBM employees. But this was a carefully choreographed event; nothing was left to chance, and his assistant, Terri Gerber, deftly moved Atkins by the minute. Atkins was incredibly compliant; he knew the importance of the event.
"Schedule integrity is critical because if I'm off, it throws the entire organization off," he said.
Gerber controlled the schedule, but Atkins was like an orchestra conductor who reviews and modifies every aspect of the day. As we stood in the cavernous arena where he would later deliver the keynote address, he watched the introduction videos, the dry-runs of other executives' speeches and the pace of the morning's agenda.
"This is my chance to talk directly to the partners," he told me as we headed from the stage to the green room. "They want to hear what's important, and you have to do that incredibly judiciously."
Atkins had enlisted the help of a Broadway producer to improve his delivery. In the green room, Atkins stood before flat-panel monitors that displayed his address. It wasn't the full text of his speech, but rather notes that guided him, ensuring that he hit all of the key points he wanted partners to hear. Getting the message out was important, but Atkins was looking for partners' feedback when he got off stage.
"The feedback I get here sets my agenda for the entire year," he said. "This is honest, unfiltered feedback that hasn't been analyzed."
Feedback was the order of the morning. Following the morning presentations, Atkins and his team went to a partitioned meeting room in the exhibition hall for private meetings with key vendors, distributors and solution providers. During the course of two hours, Atkins probed expanding a relationship between IBM, Oracle and Avnet; while open to suggestions, he adroitly buffered a call to action with a moderate tone to study the issues more. His private roundtable with solution providers gave him key insights into how IBM is serving its partners and what they need from Big Blue.
As one partner in the room said, "We're all 'Blue,' but it has its lumps. Here, we have the opportunity to talk these issues through."
Through all the discussions, Atkins bristled with energy. His eyes opened with each new inspiration he gleaned from his partner discussions. His team hung on his every word, making a list of action items to follow up.
"You start with the vision, and then you have a lot of ways to operationalize it," he said.
Atkins' day didn't end until well into the evening, following the IBM Beacon Awards that reward Big Blue's solution providers for their individual successes and contributions to IBM. It was a busy day, but that wasn't unusual for Atkins, who was a bit of a globetrotter, traveling around the world to meet and enable IBM partners' business. The one thing I noted during my day with Atkins and in every interaction with him was pride; he's proud of his company, his team and his partners.
"The IBM approach with our partners has been one that followed through and stayed steadfast," Atkins said in an interview yesterday announcing his retirement. "We're approaching our partners across the whole IBM with a value proposition of consolidation and simplification; if we look at the way we've brought the PartnerWorld programs together, we have loyalty with our partners that we earn every day, and we'll continue to do so."
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