Video: Channel Chief Stalwart Frank Rauch On Retirement, Legacy, And The Future Of Channel Partnerships

I think I've I've gotten a moniker of a channel guy and by the way I'm very proud to be a channel guy but it wasn't always like that people ask me what am I most proud of in my career they right now it's the 23 24 people that have worked with me that are now running their own channels and people that just come up and they're just going to dust off this Playbook that they've used for 10 or 15 years if I was a partner sitting on the other side of the table it would be insulant and he said you can buy a lot of things but you can't buy time hey Channel insiders welcome back to channel Insider partner POV I'm your host Katie boso and my guest today has been working in the channel for about as long as it's existed I'm talking about Frank Roush the story Channel chief laed for his ability to build valuable and Lasting Partnerships and part part programs Frank announced his retirement in January 2025 but he's not slowing down in this interview Frank shares with me his foundation for a great partner program and what he says others often get wrong plus he also gives his thoughts on the evolving Channel Chief role and the Legacy he's leaving behind I'm now joined by a man who goes by many names most recently he was known as the global Channel Chief at Ko Network Works he's also been called a channel Visionary a legend and the Goat of the channel That is Frank Rous hi Frank thank you so much for joining me hey Katie thank you so much for having me it is awesome to see you I so appreciate the time because what I hear is that you've been busier than ever you've retired I think by this week like just about a month ago you announced your retirement and you've told me that more people have wanted to talk to you than ever before more people have blowing up your phone than ever before you've been so busy so what has it just been like in the month since officially retiring or announcing that retirement you know I think people are curious I mean you know basically I've been running hard for 40 years since 1984 okay and I think many many people don't believe I can do it they think I'm gonna get sucked back in to this channel to this channel world and I am holding on with my fingertips to be able to stay retired why is that do you think that's because the channel needs you or because you're you're addicted to the to the game what is that now you know what you know what the channel does not need me the the channel really doesn't need me I mean people ask me what am I most proud of in my career tell right now it's the 23 24 people that have worked for me I worked for me worked with me that are now running their own channels so hopefully you know hopefully hopefully we all feel that we have somewhat of an obligation because as you can tell by the new child Chief listings and whatever you want to read there there's a lot more gray Air than there is black brown air yeah I've heard that I have heard there's a certain generation that is retiring right now and with it is going a lot of knowledge and a lot of expertise and that's both from from what I've heard from the technical side of it all the way through the sales relationships so yeah it's it's interesting how that's going to shift in the future no and you know it is interesting I talked that as the Press are going to be talking to Cheryl cook uh tomorrow uh Peter Lorac and all people that have made the decision to be able to retire over the last 12 months I think we all feel the same way did you all call each other did you all call and say like this is going to be the year we're now we're just wagering when we get sucked back in first by the way sir congratulations on your Philadelphia Eagles winning the Super Bowl I meant to kick this off with that congratulations are you still riding that high I am still riding that high I was at the parade with literally a million other philadelphians so cool I got to be there in 2018 against the game against the Patriots I thought it wouldn't get any better than that do I regret not go to New Orleans maybe a little maybe a little bit I don't did I'm on this retirement budget now by the way Massachusetts fan here we all got to get to a dynasty at some point just remember you only have to remember two numbers 41 to 33 that's a good point that's a good point I'll be thinking about that when I cry myself to sleep tonight but I digress so so Frank why don't we start off with giving you an introduction for the folks that maybe are new to the channel space or have been living under a rock and don't quite recognize you or know why we're here today as I mentioned in the beginning you were most recently the global Channel Chief over at Ko networks it's a a sassy network security vendor out of Israel but you you like you said have had a decade a four decade long career within the channel you have been at checkpoint VMware HP compact you have been across the board many of those positions have been Channel related and of course as you've grown in your career it's become much more the defining point I I first have to ask you with all of that said when did you realize that your career was going to be steeped in the it Channel specifically and what Drew you in and made you stay ah it's a very good question so so you get known for what you've done in the industry I think I've I've gotten a moniker of a channel guy and by the way I'm very proud to be a channel guy but it wasn't always like that it was selling selling Mainframe mini computers to the casinos in Atlantic City it was running half of the country um at one point for HP for HP what was HP then HP now and it was working in strategy and planning with people like Mark herd Mari H Etc and after that Jack noia said to me he said I felt so bad about that strategy planning thing I'll give you any job I can give you said well this J sounds unbel believable I mean come on great dinners Super Bowls golf why would I want to do that that's how it all started I am curious to know because of because of how far your career spans you did go from selling Hardware to kind of switching up and going with the virtualization route and the software route and The Sassy rout what was that like for you when you think back to that midpoint about that midpoint in your career where you had to switch up the the channel relationships and the Partnerships that you were building from the hardware to something a little less tangible was that difficult for you or was it a challenge at the time that you kind of found the secret key to no it wasn't it wasn't really difficult at all so you have to you have to imagine you go a family weddings family reunions sometimes family funerals so people used to people used to ask me what do you who do you work for I used to say HP they said they make great printers I'm like yeah that's exact that's exactly that's exactly what I do then fast forward into working for VMware now you're going to the same events you do what we virtualize things we make things go away oh you're like it's like magic not quite but something something like that no it really it really wasn't because if you think about it you know when I was uh when I was with HP I mean a lot of the people that were mentioned a few articles that were published Joe kenck uh being being a great example the president in the wwt I mean you know we we went the whole gamut we went everything from servers to storage to you know just anything you could think of devices to virtualization to security Etc so people like wwt people I knew from CDW we've all been along that same Trail my point is as I was transitioning as the company I worked for was transitioning from Hardware to software to sess Etc so were the partners I mean you you dropped in Joe from wwt there having told uh an outlet having told crn um he he had wonderful things to say about you he said I don't know I don't know why but they caught him they caught him on a good day they caught him on a good day I mean but for real Frank he talked about you being able to grow their company worldwide techn technology over a billion dollars through the channel That is no small potatoes so I want to talk about what your formula is when it comes to building a great partner program a great partner Network and being a true Global Channel Chief when you look at the the layout today of what other companies are doing is are you do you kind of redirect them in your head and go they should be doing this just talk to me what that formula looks like well I think the uh I think wwt example is a good example so what you what Jo didn't say in that article is that sitting on the left of me was Carl ashbach and sitting on the right of me was Pat Ginger when we're having that meeting with him and Jim Kavanaugh and others to be able to discuss this hypergrowth plan for wwt my point my point saying that is not the name drop it's really to be able to say it takes that type of support from your organization to be able to move mountains which is exactly what we did in that case and so important that I love that since the top of this interview you've been Shifting the direction of saying there were these folks that had to be involved to help this there were these folks that I trained that then took off in their own right to be able to do this and I think that says a lot about you and the career that you've had in which you always redirect to the your success to other people which is incredible going off of that you know I think about the win-win partnership sort of uh approach that you always took to your Partnerships would you mind breaking that down for me if if you wouldn't mind mind and talking about what that looks like and how you were able to do that because in my opinion it sounds incredibly simple right it sounds like if somebody gets something that they want everybody is happy but when you talk about a win-win partnership what does that look like yeah it's so it's a great question and it's one that I get asked a yeah I think a win-win partnership starts way way behind the partnership I think it becomes a mutual understanding of what you need to accomplish as a manufacturer or whatever the case may be and what they need to be able to accomplish because the big mistake that I think many people make including myself because I made it early in my career is to be able to categorize Partners look at them through the same lens and not understand the detail the detail of exactly what what's motivating them now it's a little bit simpler now you you know basically have people that are saying Hey I want to get out of the business I want to sell to somebody it's going to be private Equity or you know we want to do rollups or we want to expand internationally and it's a little bit more explicit back then it was a little bit tougher and the more you the more you listen the more you customize your strategy the more you you you follow those OS syncrasy that are different two things happen one your strategy becomes much more effective and two the buyin is much faster because the partner actually feels like they've been heard you've taken a time to really understand what makes one partner different than the other even though there's this I want to use the political term but I will there's this word salad for a CH sheet that says wwt CD we plus Presidio you know what whatever those names are and all of a sudden it's this common grouping of these large partners with the assumption that they're all those saying they're not I think that's really important to make sure that you're simplifying it like that and really looking at them separately I I want to put you on the spot for a minute is there an instance in your career that you can point to in which you say I really say this is the moment where you saw the success of that model is there one that comes to mind that you might be able to speak to there's a number of them I think wwt and we're not going to dwell on that one is I is a great example I think uh when e+ was transitioning between Phil Norton uh Phil Norton Senor and Mark Maron that was another one because that business was changing it was it it was changing a lot I think the uh various iterations of CDW because I mean you get you can look at it and you can look at five different companies that that were in that CDW CDW mix and and again there's some there's some very very large Partners but if you look at um you know if you look at the companies uh that that came together to form an Optive for example two very very different worlds uh coming together uh same thing with fishnet Etc so it it happens in Boutique Partners security Partners large Partners small Partners but you just can't assume that they're motivated by the same thing that the same approach is going to work and people that just come up and they're just GNA dust off this Playbook that they've used for 10 or 15 years I mean it's first of all it's in genous and second of all I guess if I was a partner sitting on the other side of the table it would be insulting you don't have to name drop in this case at all but when you look at other partner programs out there is there anything you could point to where you say that's The Playbook that is the dusty Playbook and you should definitely try to innovate from there can you give me an example yeah um there's there's unfortunately many examples yeah B you basically it's a traditional bronze silver gold program the tearing there a pro yeah there's a program there's a program that basically has five different things you can do with MDF and you better fit into you better fit into one of them and then there's the opposite side of it there's you totally overly engineered overly complex programs that honestly when you run it through an analytic model it sounds great when you try to explain it to somebody in the field they're totally lost I think that's probably the litest test for that is when you're in the field at an event and somebody says why should I consider this partner program and if you can't explain it in a way that knocks their socks off right there you probably missed missed the goal I wouldn't want to walk away confused from a meeting or having somebody walk away from a meeting confused by me I don't think that helps anybody it's bizarre it's bizarre some of my peers who I love dearly think that truly think that their companies are the center of the universe and when they come in they feel it's how can you not understand why we're doing this and uh you know the partner sitting is sitting there with uh you know 10 different Security Solutions 20 different Hardware Solutions he knows what they have on the software side or they have on a device side and it's not their obligation to be able to figure out what your program's about and you know it really does need to be simple and it does need to be somewhat flexible to be able to appeal to the different models let's talk about the evolving role of the channel Chief which is is what you've done for the better part of your career being known as the channel Chief even though that position kind of runs by a bunch of names these days for you yeah when you look at where we are right now as an industry and honestly as as a human people we're talking we have ai involved in almost everything right now where people are trying to push it into that we have consolidation we have budget cuts and we also have a world of marketplaces Cloud marketplaces and evolving business models when it comes to the channel where does the channel Chief sit in all that and what is the value that they still bring to the table in today's industry well you know as you correctly pointed out the roles evolved there's no doubt about that I mean basically basically you are a manager of chaos and entertainment uh you know in the early in the early days of the channel uh things were going to happen whether you wanted them to happen or not some of them good some bad some of them we will never talk about again and you you know you were kind of a budget manager and you were a resource manager there there wasn't anything really that strategic about being a child Chief um back and back in the ear did well you know the world the world evolves and it became much more operational much more analytical therefore it was an entirely different skill set that was needed to be able to to be able to approach that then the Technologies I mean I'm not going to say a server or storage or Microsoft Microsoft product or whatever wasn't that complicated but it's not nearly as complicated as it as it is today you know with AI is AI is a great example certainly you mentioned sassy when you menic KO that's that's a totally different example too you imagine marketplaces and what somebody like Ruba is dealing with with AWS that's uh that that's a world under itself you know you look you look at a product like red hat when I thought VMware was hard to explain yeah yeah so there's a there's a lot of interesting examples out there so talk to me about what is one thing or or a series of things that you're noticing impacting the channel Chief role the most right now is there anything you can point to and saying this is having the biggest impact on what you did I'll go back to the statement I made a little while ago I think it's you know I think it's all about context I really do um you you know you can you can walk into you can walk into various uh companies and many be you know many people it looks like I've been through a lot of organizations but a lot of those organizations have been acquired by other organizations and that's how they come of but there are people that have had eight or nine child jobs with eight or nine totally discreet companies right now I I I don't think you can walk in a door and you can basically say this this is how we did it or this is how it this is how it works things like that I think you know the challenge is to be able to understand a business model to be able to understand a technology fit to be able to understand whether you're selling managed service whether you're selling a software offering a stat offering or something that Bridges the gaps between a number of different categories and then to be able to go back and say Okay let's listen to the partners why you know why do they want this product what's the you know what's the demand trigger what how does the buyer buy this product and how does the seller sell this product and how do we track along to be able to put together a program that motivates the various inflection points educates the partner educates the customer and drives the result that we need and then to be able to you know it used to be so much simpler because what you were doing is you were kind of you know you work for a VP normally that VP was the VP of sales now you're accountable as CFO you're accountable as coo Etc because everybody wants to understand how those gears churn how they get the optimized result and how they're not overspending in categories where they really don't have it's it don't I have to it's a it's a complicated job right now what's the next iteration of the channel Chief do you see it again we talked about this a couple days ago but I think you know you look like uh you look at somebody like um Stephanie Shira um who's who has a pitch dude over in red hat and that's that's that's a totally different background uh we I mentioned rubo Borno totally to totally totally different background great background so you're seeing this um you seeing this evolution this career Trail career path um just F you know just just coming from totally different areas right now and you're having totally different people and it's great because you know diversity is often thought of as gender and race uh whatever the case may be but it's also the way people think and it's the backgrounds that people come from so I think um it's going to continue to evolve it's going to continue to become more analytical it's going to continue to be a bigger part of the business um and a more relevant part of the business uh just simply because the world is more complex Partners have the ability to specialize no company is ever going to have enough headcount to be able to cover the market and they're going to need to channel they're going to be need somebody that can orchestrate all those different dimensions what can vendors do to enable their Channel Chief to be built into the next Frank Rous uh well thanks I don't think that should be their aspiration by the way but uh you know to it to be able to support um to be able to to to be able to support to child Chief first of all so so so you know what does that mean does it mean more MDF probably not you what what what it really means is do you you know do you have the right right operations people I do you have the right operational background to be successful do you have the do you have the right dashboards do you have do you have the ability to be able to hire the right people do you have the recruitment in place to be able to get those people Etc so that's you that's the big support thing the other thing is really transparency because the channel channel is a funny the Chanel is a funny place it gets praised more than it should and it gets criticized more than it should too mainly because sometimes the four tows move underneath the channel Chief and different people have different priorities and because it's this mystical funny expense item that nobody really understands um that transparency is so important it really is because somebody if is somebody understands exactly what the clear objectives are and by the way that's it's far from you need to grow 35% a year there I mean it's the next five levels of detail beyond that that's a great point a number is just a number if you don't know how to support it from from basic instructions I appreciate that a lot for sure a little bit back you mentioned the customer and I am curious to know is is there what role if any does the End customer play in the channel Chief position nowadays like how close would you sit to them and how much should other channel Chiefs watching even consider the End customer in their their every day a lot and you know I'll give you the obvious answer they're the source of the money yeah the you know basically the companies we talked about and the partners we talked about don't exist without the customer so so so it really is important but um it becomes it it it becomes much more important for channel Chief to be part of a customer advisory board um to be able to understand exactly the way the the customers are viewing the products the company the channel that the that the company has all that stuff is really really important and it's important for a couple different reasons one because because you can empathize with the partner in dealing with those customer demands two um as I mentioned this whole buyer Journey Concept in terms of why the why the customer becomes interested product why why an opportunity develops because of that how you move an opportunity along the opportunity cycle why you're winning why you're losing is all customer dependent it it's very has very little to do with the partner to be honest with you but if you can orchestrate program to step along that cycle you're going to be successful really good points there Frank and thank you for going over that um I do want to make sure that I ask a question that I'm sure you've been asked about 300,000 times but I'll be the 300,000 and one you worked at VMware for many years I'd love to hear your thoughts on its recently implemented invite only partner program do you see Slash agree with the vision there and is it is it a method that you think will catch on with other vendors it's it's a re it's a really interesting and difficult question at the same time so you know first first of all I applaud hton and you know the work the the work that he and his team has done um for for for a number of different reasons I mean the uh the market valuation the numbers the cause and effect of what they've been able to do in terms of driving efficiency through that company is is pretty um is pretty remarkable uh I think you you need to I think you need to be careful though and it's uh I'm gonna draw the same analogy that I drew a few minutes ago the child chief that comes in and St off the Playbook and you know here we here Here We Go Again replay replay replay you know uh broadcom has acquired a lot of a lot of different company the mware is arguably on the more complex side of what they've Acquired and you know I I'm not going to argue with their strategy again because of the results but I would probably move a little bit more slowly um than you know to be able to understand the cause and effect of different types of Partners being L up because it's not just the numbers again you can't you know to me you can't just take that numerical bar and just said partner's doing less this and we're going to cut the partner um because that partner might have specialty especially you know if it's in some of the more complicated um V VMware uh VMware technology maybe they came from one of one of the companies that the end were acquired so there's there so there's unique knowledge there's unique skill sets and it's not just as fine as a cutline to be able to determine that so I don't know I don't know whether that makes sense I know a lot of people that are still over there I wish them all the luck in the world they seem to be doing great right now and uh I hope they continue it to a question as we start to wrap up here that is going through my mind is you recently worked for KO networks as we've mentioned several times they're an Israeli based company now that we're seeing uh movement over in Israel right now uh there the geopolitical positions are shifting we won't get into that this is not that kind of podcast uh but with all that said are we going to see in your prediction any sort of new technology new announcements coming out of those Israeli companies over the next year do you think that it's going to be a big year for those companies based over there yeah I think it's I think it's going to be a really big year for the for the companies um you basically the people you I have the ultimate respect for the people of Israel I've got to know them uh I've got to know them I've got to know their families I've got to know their geography over the last six or seven years a lot of the companies I'm talking to now that might need a little bit of help are Israeli based so um you know I hope the I hope the political environment continues to get better it continues to stabilize and it looks like it's going to do that but getting back to technology if you look at not only KO um by the way incredible results uh I had off to scho Kramer and and his team uh you know for you know over 250 million right now 40 some percentage growth year-over-year that is absolutely incredible and I'm proud to have been a part of that um but if you look at sneak if you look at whiz as some of the other companies I mean you know I I don't know where I saw the graphic but I think literally out of the five most likely IPOs for them are Israeli right now that are that are going to come sooner sooner than later so it's it's just a it's a nation of smart people it's a nation of hardworking people and it's a nation more importantly of people that know how to build things who are your rising stars in the channel Chief role Frank when you think about the people that I should be talking to who do you think about this is this is hard so you know it's interesting I when when you when you asked me that question in the prep uh you know I thought of Y you know people earlier in career people that have been do haven't been doing this for a long time and then I then I said to myself well maybe it's more the people that I haven't been doing this for a long time let me let me explain what I mean by that so you know if you look at um you know I mentioned I mentioned Stephanie uh as an example if you look at Craig Weinstein if you look at somebody like Denise Mard who has a long I mean just so accomplished career with MC andell but relatively new to being that child Chief so I would say you know I would look at Denise I'd say she's absolutely a rising star then I look at people that are the next you know the Next Generation already very very accomplished one of them used to work for me Addie Finch um I think she she's got the world in front of her and I would put another one that used to work for me who works for the company we just talked about broadcom to find and exactly the same category so there's so many people there's so many people with bright eyes and they have bright eyes because they're anticipating the future either because they're in a new role and they're excited about being in a new role or they're poised to be able to take the next step we'll be watching them now everybody that's hearing this is like oh my goodness I have to make sure I live up to Frank yeah that creates another problem thank one that you don't need to worry about you're retired you're like hey my hands my hands are off this yeah it's true I'm not meddling as far as the wisdom or advice that you would impart on the next generation of Channel Chiefs is there anything that you would tell them to do the best they can operate with context operate with intent do everything with intent so regardless of what it is what channel activity understander needs to be a result you need to be pointed toward toward the result operate with uh uh operate with emotional intelligence and emotional awareness meaning meaning that don't expect everybody to understand what you what you do and don't think you've got it you absolutely got it because the minute you think you've got it you're you're going to get it let's put it that way take advantage of all the tools that're out there I mean if I if I look at the PRM systems if I look at the uh uh you know the Erp uh you know C customer customer data that's available partner that partner data that's available right now the claries of the world the evisos of the world you know the the tools that are that are available take advantage of it and you know I would also say take care take care of your people Jo because um you know five years ago seven years ago or more than that basically the hottest sales people were the people that were the most recruited I can guarantee you that the recruiters are focusing it as much or if not more on the channel right now so listen to them hug them and make sure you keep them wonderful words of wisdom and for you Frank what's next I know that you're operating a bit in a kind of a a contract role with KO at the moment but you've gotten a thousand calls so I'm sure so what's on your mind where what do you think is going to be next while still being in a pseudo retired role so I I don't think uh I don't think scho or Carl or anybody else needs a lot of help so I don't think I don't think I G I don't think I'm gonna be spending too many I don't think I'm gonna be spending too many hours on that um yeah so first of first of all I've always tried to be a give back individual so uh director H University School of Entrepreneurship Holy Ghost prep are passions mine and I spend a lot of time with the students in each uh in each School uh you mentioned about the Next Generation the rising stars um Club next is a wonderful organization to be able to to be able to unify that community of people that want to be the next uh Channel Chief and we try to we try to make sure that they understand why and try to equip them with the tools and the knowledge that we've learned to be able to do that and then you know on the less philanthropic side um there's a lot of private Equity companies there's a lot of venture capital companies that I've talked to over the years now um many of them have said now that you have more time and now that you're not committed to a certain company uh kind of the handcuffs are off and you can do what you want you can really help us so so so I'm looking I'm looking at that and you know I have uh I have two sons one's in the industry one's not the industry and I want to be able to help them and I have two uh beautiful granddaughters as well oh my goodness that's beautiful I I knew I I have to say I the last things that I read was that that second granddaughter was not here just yet is she was she a recent Edition uh she's a recent Edition she's uh probably about a month old now oh my gosh okay so you retired at the perfect time I understand now yeah it's uh it's good it's good to be able it's good to be able to do it and I would give uh I would give everybody the advice that many people gave me um including Jerry Brown so unfortunately Jerry is no longer with us but he did say to me he said you can buy a lot of things but you can't buy time very sobering it's a real thing I have to say congratulations on just an incredible four decades and for all the things that we've seen and haven't seen all the late nights and everything that you've done for the channel and the people here thank you never on the late nights no no no and that first first of all thank you for giving me giving me a platform to more or less thank a lot of the people that were involved in this in this journey and I you know I I know it just sounds Melancholy I know it sounds maybe unrealistic but it but if you wantan a if you want a legacy the people that follow you are the most important Legacy while you're on the platform is there anyone else that you would personally like to give a message to or anything you would like to say I think that's really important for me to be able to have you do that if there's anything else you would like to say any people you'd like to recognize all the people that have been on their teams that I've worked for I would start I would start with that and all the people that all the people that gave me opportunities um you know people like Dave boo Jack Novia um Carl Carl ashbach uh you know even even Mark herd that gave me opportunities and you know some of the some of the other people I had a pleasure to be able to work work for work with including Gil schwed including CH m gramer uh all good all good stuff and just that support group that's been around me for the last 40 years so I wished them continued success and want to tell them that my door is always open and I'll drop a call on anybody that wants a little bit of advice or a little bit of help Frank thank you for your time today congratulations and best of luck to you I hope that with all the work that you plan on doing in retirement you do get a few rounds of golf in too uh yes Edis and I are planning planning on doing a retiree tournament so we will absolutely we will absolutely do that I'm going to have a retirement party very shortly uh at my son's bar in New Hope and I will invite the community and hopefully I'll see a lot of people there I am so excited for you best of luck thank you so much Frank thank you ktie thank you so much to Frank for joining me today and thanks to you for joining us you can check out all epis episodes of channnel Insider partner POV on Channel insider.com or on youtube.com/ channel inssider unor news and Trends you can also listen to us as a podcast wherever you get your podcast from don't forget to like subscribe and follow to never miss an episode if you want to follow us on social media come connect with us on LinkedIn and X Channel Insider or with me at Katie boso once again I'm your host Katie boso and I'll see you next time

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