Goodbye 2012, Welcome 2013–Happy New Year!

(Jan 2nd, 9:05am ET: edited after break)

Dear readers – thank you for all your contributions through 2012, and I wish you a happy New Year for your family!

In the spirit of transparency to the world – if you’re interested – read on past the break for my message to my team internally to EMC (with only tiny bits of editing to keep customer names confidential).

Again – thank you, and see you in 2013!   First post will be the new home lab build….

The New Year is always an exciting fresh start for me.  As I close out 2012 with my family, I want to take a moment and say one thing to all of you – my extended EMC family.

THANK YOU!

It was your collective dedication and focus that enabled EMC to achieve major accomplishments in 2012.  

In the fury of battle and our day to day efforts – sometimes we can't pause to breathe, pause to reflect, and pause for perspective. 

Here are some of the things that stand out to me as I look back on an amazing year!

• The EMC Presales team living by the principles in our Manifesto means there is CLEAR and STRONG Presales identity and career path from Associate to Sr. EMC Executive here at EMC.  
• We adjusted the Presales structure to be aligned with our Sales brothers and Sisters.  This represents org changes that affected thousands – and we did it without missing a beat.  
• I'm happy to announce the latest steps to maintain that alignment in EMEA.   Effective Jan 1, Bertrand Lalanne now leads EMEA Europe South (typo on my part… also  worth noting alignment with Jacques Boschung as the sales leader for the region), Bernhard Grubelnig now leads TEEAM (also worth noting alignment with Mohammed Amin as the sales leader for the region and partner of Wael Nadi as the GSL for the region).   UKI continues to be lead by Mike Pilbeam, Germany by Rolf Polner, France by Philippe Berruyer, Erik Sloof for EMEA Europe North, and Igor Kornetov for Russia.  I want to thank each of these EMEA leaders for what they have accomplished in 2012, and continue to drive at EMC in 2013!
• Education became more field driven and self-selected.   We reclaimed hundreds of thousands of work hours by focusing accreditation on the "must know" that we reinvested in bootcamps to help with the "need to know".
• We are now able to quickly and tightly align specialties to both local and global leaders.   This is a big deal – and simplifies our structure.  As a bonus we reduced the number of managers in the overall org by 5% and got to a better 10:1 management ratio.  While great managers are important, the most important people are all our front-line presales talent, and any time we can invest there, we will.
• Huge increase in SCALE and LEVERAGE.  Did you know we did more than 300,000 quotes via shared services in 2012?  That we added 170 associates in the back half of 2012?  That's the largest addition of new blood to EMC Presales ever!   That we do more than 200 vLabs every week?  That we do more than 8000 WPAs every quarter?  That through all that – the rep:presales resource ratios went up globally, we drove  top line success, and reduced our expenses – literally adding a penny per share to EMC's earnings per share (EPS).  That matters – and sets us up for even more success in 2013.
• Our culture started a slow, but fundamental and persistent shift to being OPEN.  As we opened up our training, our Presales Advisory Council, and our tools like vLab and WPA to partners – not  only do they deepen their partnership with EMC, but we also learn from them.
• We started the Presales Advisory Council (PAC), which is a vehicle for all folks to have a voice into how EMC operates regardless of their role or seniority – and we opened it to our partners.   The PAC will always be a small set, selected to represent a diverse cross section of EMC Presales and our partners - and we will rotate people through the PAC based on how they stand out.
• Tools improvements – I feel like we made progress around WPA, SFDC, Learning tools, EMC Support, the install Base tools and more – but but have much, much more to do.  
• Every week, one of my favourite tasks approving  Excellence@EMC for heroic acts above and beyond the call of duty.  Through 2012, I did more than 200 of these – representing more than $500,000 of rewards and recognition!
• We had fun – together.   Not only did we learn at the Presales Conference, but I laughed so hard I cried in judging the videos you folks submitted… I can't WAIT to see what 2013 has in store!
• Wins, wins, and more wins!   So many through 2012 – the big ones like ______, the ones where we drove new technologies and solutions like _______, the transformational ones like _______, and the ones where we displaced our competition like ________.   These number in the hundreds of thousands.  They come in every shape, every size.  They come in different languages, and from each part of the world.  Each victory one is a unique story with many heroes.   I love them all equally - and I take my hat off to all of you for making them happen! 

Entering 2012, we set out to build a Presales organization filled with people who wake-up everyday thinking about how to make this the best SE organization possible. 

I’m thrilled to say we achieved that goal and as we entering 2013 our Global Presales Team is made up of a mix of long time passionate EMC veterans, fanatical technologists we’ve hired from the industry, amazing folks we received through acquisitions, and a great set of new talent recruited through our associate program. 

I'm humbled to be your leader, and your teammate.  I hope you all feel the same way I do.  I look back on 2012 with pride, and look forward to 2013 with anticipation.   Please enjoy happy and safe New Year…  and cheers to YOU!

Chad

Comments

[Dominic Cody]

I only joined in August 2012 from HP but I feel that EMC really do have a great PreSales Organisation and its going places and it has a great bunch of people working in it and running it.
I feel full of energy and enthusiasm for the year ahead something which I am not sure I could day before August!
Great post and Happy New Year to you also Chad!