Where's 'Waldo' Palmisano Going To Be During IBM's PartnerWorld?
Sam Palmisano, IBM&'s chairman and CEO, has decided for the second year in a row that PartnerWorld, the once-a-year gathering of the company&'s best worldwide solution providers, is something he can take a pass on.
So let me get this right. IBM has asked thousands of solution providers from all over the world to fly to Las Vegas for four days. To take time away from their customers in order to hunker down and learn more about IBM&'s product lineup, marketing plans, strategic direction, etc., so that they can go back home and make more money for IBM.
But it&'s not important enough for the chief executive to summon the corporate jet, wing in for a 45-minute speech to charge up this channel and show IBM&'s commitment in kind? Sounds strange. There must be a reason.
So where&'s “Waldo” Palmisano going to be the week of March 13? Maybe he will be in China helping pull together a huge deal that will put IBM in every government building in the country. Or maybe he will be representing “The Other IBM” by helping Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin understand how to make Russia an efficient market system.
We don&'t know because IBM won&'t talk about Palmisano&'s schedule. So, allow me to make a few more points on this matter that once again will fall on deaf ears in Armonk, N.Y.
His decision to skip out for a second straight year is disheartening not only to the partners but to those inside the IBM channel organization who work extremely hard at making the IBM channel work. IBM spends millions of dollars pulling off the PartnerWorld event each year. If it&'s worth that kind of time, money and effort on the part of the organization to hold it, then it&'s worth a day of the CEO&'s time to fly to Las Vegas, give a speech and meet with some very important customers.
The official comment from IBM, by the way, is that it will use this venue to introduce a new marketing initiative and, as such, Bruce Harreld, IBM&'s senior vice president of marketing and strategy, is the best executive to deliver that message. No argument with that and no one would expect Palmisano to introduce that message, but is there nothing worthwhile for the chief executive of the largest high-tech company in the world to say?
The very same week Palmisano is avoiding his worldwide partner conference Cisco&'s John Chambers will headline his company&'s partner conference in San Diego. By the way, Chambers was also at his channel summit last year, the year before and in 2003 and 2002.
Now let&'s be clear, just because a CEO addresses his company&'s partners and pledges his love doesn&'t mean that love is true. We have seen some other CEOs do just that in the past while pushing their organization in another direction. That&'s not the case here. In fact, IBM&'s channel organization is one of the best both in commitment and consistency. At this week&'s CRN Channel Champions event, it will make an impressive showing. So its channel commitment is clear.
But in the end, Palmisano is missing an opportunity to show his support not just for the channel but for the thousands of his own employees worldwide that make that relationship with solution providers so profitable for the company.
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