small medium-business

Introduction

The Small Medium Business Advisory Board (SMBAB), formerly known as the Small Business Executive Exchange (SBEE), was established to share and listen to Cisco partners focused on small/medium business (specifically the SMB Commercial segment), as a community.

The board provides a conduit for sharing and receiving business focused and technical information both strategic and operational.

Through SMBAB, partners can share timely feedback that helps influence key strategic direction, product roadmaps, business and operational aspects of their Cisco partnership.


SMBAB Operating Principles

� Provide an executive community for SMB channel partners to talk about strategic direction for Cisco.

� Provide a forum to strengthen their relationship with Cisco and executive peers.

� Share Cisco’s top SMB priorities for the fiscal year.

� Create an open, safe environment for partners to share candid and constructive feedback.

� Cultivate an atmosphere for on-going communications throughout the year.

� Drive Cisco action based on partner feedback to improve product roadmaps, technology integration, go-to-market strategies, and operational business models.


Capturing the Discussion to Drive Change

Our Process

� Feedback packaged for easy access by Cisco teams. � Each event produces strategic themes and tactical action items. � Themes and action items published within 30 days of event. � Action item updates within 45-90 days of event.

Structured Annual Plan for Each Geographic Region

Diverse Opportunities For Partner Engagement

Live Events

Onsite Documentation Raw Transcripts

Key Takeaway Slides

Post Event Theme Sheets

Executive Summary

Ongoing Action Items

Communities



SMBAB Leadership Team

Kerry Mcdonough Director, U.S. Commercial Sales Cisco

As Cisco’s U.S. Director for Commercial Territory Sales, Kerry McDonough leads a team of sales professionals supporting Cisco GTM who serve the SMB and Mid-Market segments . They are accountable to drive a “Partner Led” selling model that places even more focus on major routes to market, and a programmatic sales approach to winning with partners serving the SMB and Mid-Market segment. Kerry is responsible for growing Cisco’s revenues enabled through Cisco partners by building and sustaining a profitable SMB and Mid-Market practice with a wide breadth of products, programs, and services designed for those customers’ needs.

McDonough has held a number of leadership positions at Cisco including US Small Business sales, U.S. Channels Director of Strategy and Business Development, Director of U.S. Commercial Partner sales, Northwest Area Operations Director, and Manager of Channel Operations in the Midwest. Kerry began his career with Cisco in 1996 as one of the early partner account managers.

Gordon Mackintosh Director, SMB Sales Cisco - WW Partner Organization, Cisco Systems, Inc Gordon Joined Cisco just over twelve years ago. He completed a post-graduate diploma in Information Technology and an honors degree in International Marketing. A member of Cisco’s European Product Management Team, Gordon was responsible for managing the Catalyst Switching range across Europe, Middle East and Africa for the first five years of his career.

A successful two-year stint in the US saw Gordon working at Cisco’s Global Headquarters in San Jose, looking after the go-to-market for Catalyst Switching across Cisco’s Worldwide Channels division. Returning to the UK, Gordon became Head of SMB Marketing for two years, with specific focus on developing a new innovative SMB go-to-market strategy, before taking on the challenging role of head of sales for Small Business and Distribution. Despite the economic downturn, Gordon firmly established the sales team and delivered significant year over year growth.


Board Members

The Small Medium Business Advisory Board is a working board and participation requires an appropriate investment of time and thought. SMBAB Board Members are nominated and hand selected by the Cisco SMB Executive team.

expectations of Board Members � To communicate with candor, objectivity, and honesty during the deliberations of the board and in all interactions with Cisco.

� To invest sufficient time and effort to become fully knowledgeable of Cisco‘s, SMB programs, services, products and current business strategies.

� To commit best efforts to attend live board events (1 per year) and to be available to Cisco for any required debriefings subsequent to each meeting as required.

� To serve, when appropriate, on ad-hoc working groups that may be formed to investigate specific issues between the scheduled board meetings.

� To be available for direct counsel with key Cisco executives via telephone, WebEx meetings or e-mail on an ongoing basis.

who Should be a Board Member?

Typical board members have titles such as President, Owner, CEO, VP, SVP, EVP, and job responsibilities might include:

� Responsibility for P&L within the business.

� Short and long term technology investment and direction.

� Sales, Operations, solution, or go-to-market accountability.

� Responsibility for a geography, region, or global business.

Length of Term and Participation

Minimum term of service is 24 months; Participation is by invitation only and partners must be nominated by the Cisco SMB or Field Partner Organization.

Cisco Participants

The Small Medium Business Advisory Board is a working board and participation requires an appropriate investment of time and thought.

expectations of Cisco Participants

� To engage the members of the board with full candor and intellectual honesty, and accept criticism in a constructive, non-defensive manner.

� To provide the board with appropriate briefing materials in advance of each meeting, and engage with the board members in constructing meeting agendas designed to deliver value to both Cisco and the board.

� To ensure that clear lines of regular communication exist between Cisco and each member of the board.

� To provide a thorough review of current issues facing Cisco, strategic and tactical plans designed to address those issues, and the results of execution against plans and programs.

� To fully communicate to the board members any significant events that have impact upon plans or strategies that have been developed with their input.


Event Format

Live events typically include two to three full days of meetings. Agendas often include welcome reception/dinner, general sessions, discussion sessions, breakout sessions, and networking activities. Networking activities provide an opportunity for Partners to build relationships with each other and Cisco.

Cisco executives meet with partners to discuss key operational issues and improve the partner experience.

Partner executives attend to drive operational excellence within their companies and to influence Cisco decisions.


What are SMBAB Partners saying?

“Great stuff! Lots of interaction and ideas from other partners. SMBAB has been a great business driver for us. I come away with fantastic ideas every event. Our Cisco business is exploding and much of it’s from the ideas we glean from SMBAB.”

“The presentation about Jabber explained what was a confusing subject in a straightforward manner. I’m really excited about selling collaboration around Jabber.”

“Getting a closer [insider] look at Cisco’s SMB marketing plans is very valuable to me…”

“You continue to offer excellent content & react to our feedback. Thanks for bringing Cisco executives to the table to be part of our conversations.”

“A really great experience. Cisco is my only partner that does anything like this. Thank you.”


SMBAB Schedule

The Small Medium Business Advisory Board will typically meet in-person annually and meet virtually throughout the year, as business requires.


Connect With Us

To contact the SMBAB core team with questions or to recommend topics for upcoming meetings, please email us at: [email protected]

Mark Maslach - East/South Area RM [email protected] | +1 954 535 5014 Todd Swikle - Central/West Area RM [email protected] | +1 847 678 5747 Greg Landers - US Partner Organization SSEM [email protected] | +1 408 895 2797 Linda Fassig-Knauer - Manager, US Partner Org Marketing [email protected] | +1 408 526 4125 Holly Crilly - Director, US Partner Org Marketing [email protected] | +1 773 490 4893 Paige Crutcher Powers - Director, US Distribution Sales [email protected] | +1 408 839 0796

Jim decarlo - Regional Manager, US Distribution Sales [email protected] | +1 408 839 0796


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mailto:jidecarl%40cisco.com

SMBAB Community

The SMBAB Community can be found on Partner Central Community. This restricted access forum allows SMBAB partner members to come together to learn, share, and collaborate. This is the ideal place for Partners to access specific SMBAB event related details, presentations, follow up information and recordings. Partners are encouraged to engage in online discussion forums, ask questions of Cisco experts and other board members, and share ideas and insights.

Visit the SMBAB Community today to see what partners are talking about. Please be sure to click on the email notification link in your specific theater community to be alerted to the latest SMBAB updates.
