Paul Amery

I’ve had a lot of comments from my last blog. And all credit to Skype - they move fast when they want to. It’s not for SDP to fix partner relations on their own, or any individual partner facing teams (Affiliate etc). It needs (1) Proper exec buy-in, not just lip service (2) Evangelism £££ (3) A co-ordinated partner vision (4) Real value and support for partners.

I hear they are working on the issues I raised and we’re all looking forward to seeing progress. An example they can look to is Orange, who manage to put their partner program centre stage, fully backed by the group CEO team.

When it comes to figuring out how to play with partners, I was given this advice a few years ago. It’s based on the idea of naval territories:

• Blue seas: Start by communicating clearly what is your competency, and where 3rd parties can complement. For example … we build the core product, 3rd parties do skins, plugins etc
• Red seas: (think Battle of Trafalgar - aka bloody water) Once partners know you might compete with them directly or even try to close them down, you are both free to move forward. That shouldn’t stop partners building similiar offerings - but you can “I told you so” when you start sending legalise.
• Grey seas: Honesty is the best policy. It’s ok so say “we might compete with you, you might fill a gap, but to be honest - we’ve no idea”.

There’s a classic scene in the Martin Scorsese film ‘Goodfellas’ when Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) is talking to Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). I bet some of you have almost memorised it. Here’s a snippet…

“Henry Hill: You’re a pistol, you’re really funny. You’re really funny.
Tommy DeVito: What do you mean I’m funny? (much further on…)

Henry Hill: Just… ya know… you’re funny.

Tommy DeVito: You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it’s me, I’m a little ****** up maybe, but I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I’m here to ******’ amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?”

It’s a brilliant piece of improvisation, the tension is only cut when Henry Hill realises it’s a joke.

But here’s the thing, jokes are a two way thing - meaning both parties get it. Otherwise it’s not funny.

In particular I ask what’s the joke for software partners? I checked https://developer.skype.com/ to clarify. Skype promised in 2007 a re-branded new web site, Skype web services, improved partner relations etc. And what do you see? 1 newsletter, a blab about Skype Find and nada. Hardly rock and roll.

Now - you will say it’s sour grapes considering my pre-Christmas kick as Director of SDP. But it’s not. I am a huge Skype technology and company fan - I am constantly evangelising it and showing friends how to install it.

And I don’t intend to break the terms of my ‘keep your mouth shut Amery’ agrement and get a visit from the eBay thought police. This is not a criticism of Skype people. BUT WAKE UP!!!! Skype’s leadership team has an extremely loyal base of thousands of small developers who helped it get where it is. If they were cranking out MySpace integration deals every month their lack of partnership focus would be excusable as they focus on the big guns. But they’re neither playing large or small. Time for some solid leadership. Skype are smart cookies, IF they want to fix this they will.

So what would I do? Here’s what.

1. Hire a former Microsoft, Intel or Salesforce partnerships thought leader to bring together all the partner facing teams (developers, hardware, retail etc) under 1 roof,with 1 vision.
2. Forget about Extras revenue share and allow a degree of advertising. You’ve got to get your money from either users or advertisers - and I doubt user-based revenues are going to crank up anytime soon
3. Learn to trust others: Part of the challenge any smart company has - is, well - they are too smart. With hardware it’s simple - it’s not a core competency. With software it’s tougher - much tougher in fact to trust others. Skype needs to clearly decide and communicate it’s core software competency, and then partner out the rest. Currently it’s not clear, and partners dance cautiously around Skype hoping to at least not get broken toes.

If I were a Skype Extras partner, I would be wondering if my Time ROI was worth it. Distributing to 250million users might sound good to your investors, but with no better client placement, and when you’re not generating enough revenue to pay the electric bill - it’s funny how?

Apologies for the delay. Been busy don’tcha know!

I am delighted to be starting work for my first client - Orange, focusing on New Product Delivery for Orange’s business customers. I left Orange in 2005 as Head of Strategic Partnerships to pursue other opportunities, but it’s nice to be back. Initially a 12 week full engagement, possibly longer. The future’s bright as they say in Orange.

Several other opportunities have come in, and I struggled with not taking them - but trying to juggle a couple of 1-2 day a week projects for different clients is just too much complexity and cashflow risk for a new consultant like me. Keep it simple was good advice - thanks Mary! I’m hoping after this project to build up a good client base in the following. Please contact me asap if you’d like my services starting May or September:

• New Product Management
• Startup Growth
• ISV Channels and Business Development
• Developer & Partner Program design/outsourcing
• Industry Research and Evangelism
• General consulting: Social Networking, 3rd party content, APIs, Mobile delivery