General Consultant Discussion

Interesting article about Stephen Kelly. Scroll down towards the end: Kelly told 2,000 partners at the event that Sage was reaffirming its commitment to them as a public face of the company and wants their support as it strives to be ""one of the greatest technology companies on the planet."" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/08/27/stephen-kelly-interview-i-want-sage-to-be-about-everything-to-do/

Interesting guy, anyway. I think he's talking about the right stuff for the public. Execution is the question.

I understand his point about ""everything to do with moving money"", but many of us are working with customer requirements that are a whole lot more than that, and I'm afraid that many of those other functions will not be given enough priority.

Like how he talks about the ""long haul"" but he can't even get the NA management team to stick around for more than a year..... He want to be cool and hip, appeal to the younger generation while forgetting his ""old hipsters"" who supply the ""c

That article is also very telling when he says ""but the people behind most UK private companies think about when is the best point to exit. They don't think about the long game."" That explains a lot about recent strategies

In reading this again, I feel that Stephen is out of touch with the average customer in the US. First, because they are US customers, they tend not to trust a foreign company, and second, his initiatives are ""foreign"" to most of the objectives US companies have. He has established himself as the ""global CEO"" of Sage, but he needs to leave the communication with the channel and the US customers to NA management, whose positions should be strengthened by giving more authority, which it appears from the outside they do not have. It's possible this was a major reason Paige left the company.

Good point, John. Whether UK pulls the strings or not, they still need a NA leader to act as a believable front man. SAP gets away without one, but it's selling to US companies with international business.