New Cisco US, Canada Channel Chief: Not Just A Caretaker

Cisco's new U.S. and Canada channel chief, Jim Sherriff, will spend a lot of time over the next two months meeting with Cisco partners. Above all, Sheriff says, he'll be listening.

"The next 45 days I'll be starting to test some of my theses with partners -- some of the operating principles I have and the change agendas I'll be driving," Sherriff said in an interview with CRN Thursday. "I'm not coming in with the assumption that I need to make radical changes, but I think Keith [Goodwin] brought me in under the assumption that it wouldn't be just caretaking."

What might those theses be?

"Three to four days into this new role, I'm a little reluctant to go on the record because I might end up embarrassing myself," he said. "But there are a number of things to do in any kind of business, and I'll be looking at addressing partners needs, problem solving around resource constraints and looking at how I can free up resources."

Sherriff became Cisco's senior vice president, U.S. and Canada partner organization this week and his appointment was announced earlier Thursday by Keith Goodwin, senior vice president, worldwide partner organization. He succeeds Wendy Bahr, now senior vice president of global and transformational partnerships, who had headed U.S. and Canada channels since January 2008.

Before joining Cisco in 2001, Sherriff spent 19 years at HP and then two years as CEO of Stonebridge Technologies, a 700-person, Dallas-based solution provider. At Cisco, he was senior vice president of the company's enterprise segment, and for the past two years has been chairman and CEO of Cisco China, in charge of Cisco's business strategy in the country.

He described leaving China as "bittersweet" and described his experience there as most intellectually stimulating of his career.

"It's like golf: just when you think you've gotten good at golf, you have a bad game," he said. "Just when you thought you'd figured it out, you realize you still had a lot to learn."

According to Sherriff, he had been planning a return to the U.S. within the year for family reasons, and taking over the U.S. and Canada channel role presented a good opportunity. U.S. and Canada channels represent about 50 percent of Cisco's overall global channel community, and a lot's changed about Cisco and the breadth of its technology focus -- as well as its competitors -- in the past two years.

"I'd put what we're doing around virtualization and infrastructure as the most dramatic. But even in the collaborative market space, with video becoming so much more a part of a solution, there's so much there," he said when asked about what he saw as some of the the biggest differences from two years earlier.

NEXT: Sherriff's Team And Partner Reaction

Sherriff said there would be a few changes to Cisco's U.S. and Canada channel team over the next 30 to 45 days, but he declined to elaborate.

"I personally inherited a very strong team, and have had some strong meetings over the last few days," he said. "There are people making some transitions, so we will have some opportunities to bring in some new blood."

One of Sherriff's most immediate challenges will be keeping partners up to date on Cisco's supply chain recovery, especially those partners who found Cisco's communication lacking when they sought answers during the past year about product shortages and lengthening lead times.

Asked about supply chain progress, Sherriff said he would defer comment until after Aug. 11, when Cisco's quiet period ends and the company announces its fiscal fourth quarter earnings.

"We refer to it as an anatomy of a recovery," Sherriff said. "As you know it's extraordinarily sensitive, not only in financial impact but in the sheer productivity drain for partners."

Several Cisco partners interviewed by CRN Thursday said they had known Sherriff from his days with Cisco's enterprise segment and welcome his arrival to one of the Cisco's channel's most visible executive roles.

"Jim is an extremely bright and thoughtful executive," said Bob Cagnazzi, CEO of BlueWater Communications Group, a New York-based Cisco Gold partner. "I always found him creative, innovative and partner-centric. We're excited to have the chance to work with him again."

Cagnazzi said channel engagement and continuing to promote partner profitability should be high on Sherriff's list of channel priorities, as should driving partner-led service offerings with Cisco.

Shawn Tsetsilas, director of business development, WLAN, at CSI Wireless, a Manchester, N.H.-based solution provider and Cisco partner, urged Sherriff to focus on involving more and different types of partners in more deals, especially as Cisco expands its presence in different markets.

"We get cut out of a lot of projects because we don't cover the entire portfolio, but the customer in some cases is not getting a well developed wireless LAN, they're just getting equipment delivered," Tsetsilas said. "Some of the bigger guys can't do it all."

Tsetsilas said he's started to see greater willingness by Cisco's sales team to involve more partners and cover more ground.

"I'm planning on it and I'm counting on it," he said. "Really, I think it would be a great benefit to both Cisco and to customers."