Discover the strategic insights of Gretchen O'Hara, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Channels and Alliances, as she unravels the transformative journey of Splunk Cisco post-acquisition by Cisco. Recognized as one of the CRN 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs for 2025, Gretchen shares her unique perspective on steering major tech organizations like Splunk, Cisco, and Microsoft with a focus on ecosystem collaboration, digital resilience, and a purpose-driven mindset. This episode promises to equip you with strategies for navigating complex organizations and insights into the necessity of agility and authenticity in today’s fast-paced tech world.
Join us as we uncover the power of partner centricity and how adopting a partner-first culture leads to success. With compelling anecdotes from her leadership journey, Gretchen delves into the importance of understanding customer needs, fostering empathy, and maintaining authenticity to build strong partnerships and trust. You'll also hear her thoughts on flexible work environments, the emphasis on outcomes over rigid schedules, and how these approaches contribute to both personal and professional success. Dive into Gretchen's inspiring journey through major companies and learn what it truly takes to lead with adaptability and authenticity in the dynamic tech landscape.
#Splunk #Ideagen #GLS2025
Gretchen's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchen-ohara/
Learn more about Splunk here: https://www.splunk.com/
View the entire 2024 Global Leadership Summit here: https://www.ideagenglobal.com/2025globalleadershipsummit
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to IdeaGen TV live from Washington DC here
today with the Senior VicePresident of Worldwide Channels
and Alliances at Splunk Cisco,gretchen O'Hara.
Gretchen welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you so much.
It's so great to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We have the dream team back together here in
Washington to talk about all ofthe incredible work that's
happening at Splunk Cisco, nowthat Splunk has been acquired by
Cisco.
So I want to make sure we stateit properly.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Perfect.
No, that's great.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
And so, gretchen, I want to first start by saying
congratulations.
Congratulations on being namedamong the crn 50 most
influential channel chiefs for2025, which was recently
announced.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
What an incredible accomplishment thank you, george
, thank you so much.
No, I'm really proud of thatand it's it's really based on
the team.
Yeah, obviously it's.
You know, you can only be asgood as the team that you have
built around me, and I have afabulous organization and I feel
very lucky about that.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yes, you do, and it's also important to note that you
were named last year as well,which is quite remarkable and is
a testament to your incredibleleadership.
And, that said, there's such afast-paced evolution in the
channel.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'd love to hear, for our global audience, what it is
that you are seeing from yourleadership vantage point in this
area yeah, so I think that, um,there is, there is a lot going
on, and when you think abouttechnology channels, you're
talking really about lots ofdifferent partners with
(01:52):
different business models thatare part of an ecosystem, and I
think that one of the thingsthat is really significant
significant is we are shifting,as a technology sector, out of a
particular channel to realizethat in the world of cloud and
the world of AI and the world ofdigital resilience which every
(02:16):
customer, every partner has tounderstand, which is how do they
make sure that theirorganization, customers are
secure from threats, threatactors, bad actors, et cetera.
And that takes an ecosystem,takes a village.
We talk about cross-sectorpartnerships and the important
thing in the tech sector and thething that I've been really
(02:39):
pushing on is it takes a village.
It's not one particular personthat is going to create and help
and build digital resilience ofthe customer.
It is going to be a lot ofpeople across a lot of different
areas and they work differently.
They have different businessmodels on how they approach
things, but it's those crosspartnerships in the ecosystem
(03:00):
that gets us across the line,and you're going to see more and
more companies like Splunk andCisco really change to.
We're going to go and approachcustomer centricity first and
we're going to surround thatcustomer with lots of different
partners and we're going toembrace that and I am very
excited about that because it'ssomething that I think in my
(03:23):
business has been very focusedon a particular type of partner
and a particular type of howyou'll go to market and the
realization in the cloud is youneed that village, you need that
ecosystem.
So lots of change.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, there's no smarter or more effective leader
than you in this industry.
You spent many years I'll saymany years at Microsoft.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You're trying to date me.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
No, but you were at Microsoft at one of the most
transformative moments.
Yes, you had the privilege ofworking with so many and they
had the privilege as well ofworking with you.
So many CEOs and leaders there,yes, and now channel chief at
cisco splunk.
How, gretchen, do you navigatethese companies?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
how, what?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
does that look like?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
yeah, I think one of the things that you know, I have
found, is that companies ofthat size, you know, bring a lot
of natural complexity.
Everyone has an individualagenda.
Every particular group mighthave what they believe is their
priority, and so how do you thennavigate through all the
(04:35):
complexity to get anything doneRight?
That's bureaucracy, you know.
You see it in everything.
As you get bigger and bigger,more people, more process, you
know the agility and beingnimble starts to become more
challenging.
And I think one of the thingsthat both Splunk and Microsoft
(04:56):
have done really well is how dowe cut through this complexity
and this bureaucracy so that wecan be agile in the market?
Because the reality is intechnology, it's always changing
.
It's always changing right.
So you've got to be very nimbleto respond to market conditions
, to different things that arehappening, and if you're stuck
in the muck, you know you neverget there and you lose that
(05:20):
first mover advantage.
And so back to your question,george, on like, like.
Then how do I do it?
I think the very first thingthat I always look at is okay,
what is our purpose?
What are we trying to docollectively?
And then I really set a high barand essentially bring everyone
to the table aligned to really ayou, really a mission driven
(05:46):
purpose, and we get really clearon what ultimately everyone's
sort of component in that bigflywheel, the cog that you play.
And when we get alignment likethat, you can go really fast.
And I think Microsoft's a greatexample of that.
And turning to you know thework on AI Splunk has been
(06:07):
incredible on that andrecognizing that you know it was
a software company and neededto move to the cloud.
So when you can all align whatthe biggest, biggest purpose is,
we can all sort of walk and flyin formation, not quilting any
great ideas, but now you'recoming to the table all aligned
on something bigger thanyourselves, and I think that is
(06:29):
really the key that I have foundto success is don't lose your
authenticity, don't lose yourperspective and point of view,
but think bigger than yourself,think bigger than what your
mission is and be clear on,ultimately, what we're trying to
do holistically in the company,and then people move much
faster around that well andyou've navigated that so
(06:52):
incredibly well.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And I recall when you were at microsoft not so long
ago there was something calledthe growth mindset that satya
and everybody in the companysort of espoused, and I think
that's what you're talking aboutright yeah, that's the growth
mindset.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Continue to grow, and so Splunk was recently acquired
, as we said, by Cisco for $2billion, third largest software
deal 32 billion.
Yeah, 32 billion, I'm corrected32 billion, not 2 billion.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
32 billion, that's a slightly different number A
little bit of a different number.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
The yes.
What is the leadership stylethat you're now employing to
help you navigate the transition, because it's never easy?
I mean, you're transitioning anentire company into another
company, so what does that look?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
like.
Yeah, I would say a lot ofacquisitions will fail.
Being at Microsoft and workingon acquisitions the other
direction now I have theprivilege to be the one that's
being acquired and a lot fail.
And there's a couple of reasonswhy.
First can be culture, and ifyou have very different sort of
(08:03):
set of culture, that peoplereject the culture and you know,
you start to go there.
So the first thing that becomesreally important is okay, what
again are we trying to aspire to?
Be holistically at Cisco?
What does that look like?
And then, if that means, look,we acquired Splunk because it is
going to be the growth enginefor the future, then let's look
(08:26):
at what is the culture that weneed to have, what is the growth
mindset we need to demonstrateto go after the biggest goal and
not be afraid of what is thatgoing to look like to you in
your organization or even as anindividual?
If you lead and lead the teamthrough with a broader purpose,
(08:48):
uh, listening becomes absolutelykey and active listening
becomes key and collaborating,as you know, and the whole one
of the purpose of idea gen iscollaboration and I think when
people have fear, when peoplearen't clear on, you know what
they're trying to do as a bigger, uh sort of bigger than
(09:09):
themselves.
Um, you drive a fear-basedculture in those acquisitions
and two things normally happen.
Either the company that'sgetting acquired just says, mea
culpa, I'll just do what we needto do at this point.
Or you see massive attrition ofvery incredible talent and both
of those situations are notgood.
(09:30):
So that becomes like activelistening, coaching my
organization to meet in themiddle, understand that there's
going to be things we have towork through, but not really
killing everyone's idea of whatthat growth looks like, but
(09:50):
having a growth mindset of like,okay, what does one plus one
equal three?
Like how do we be bigger thanourselves coming together to
really get after what is the biggoal?
Not an individual team or anorganization or even a cross
organization, and so that's kindof really the key.
It's really, it's sounds simple,it's really hard.
(10:11):
It's really hard and it alwayshas been, because it's.
Unless a company is acquiringjust for the technology, the ip
of the technology, you havepeople, and people are what make
that organization uh amazing.
It's the talent, the developers, it's the marketing that
explains what you do.
(10:31):
It's the channel that I run, um, you, it's the channel that I
run.
You know it's the operations,it's finance.
Again, you know the idea behindit is sounds very simple, but
you've got to break through thefear.
You've got to have courage tobelieve in what we're trying to
do and you've got to talk toeach other.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
And you've got to talk to each other.
I think what I've picked upfrom everything you just said is
that it's all about people inthe end, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
it is.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
It's all about people whether you're talking about
government or you're talkingabout the private sector or
you're talking about ngoswithout people, nothing's
happening, and the fact thatyou're helping to drive the
integration of Splunk into Ciscois why it will be successful,
because you understand theculture, you understand the
(11:19):
process and you understand thepeople.
Yeah, so that's a big part ofwhy I'm so excited that you're
there and you're helping tointegrate this company into
Cisco, and why it will be and issuccessful.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah it's.
It's a very exciting time, lotsof change, but the other just
tip just from leadership, oryour leadership is.
I just encourage everyone toembrace change, because change
is the only thing that'sconstant and people that resist
change and resist changeultimately uh you know sort of
(11:54):
lose out on the opportunityahead.
So you know and I think that'sa life, it goes beyond business
about, beyond acquisitions it'slike there will be change in
your life.
There will be change in yourlife every day.
Do you fight it or do youembrace it to make yourself
better?
And you got to make yourselfbetter and you got to get over
the fear.
And it's hard again, easy tosay, hard to do, and I recognize
(12:16):
that.
I work on myself every day onthat.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Make yourself better.
I love that.
That's sort of my personalmantra Make yourself better.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And so you've been a channel leader blank 20
something years.
So I won't get into thatbecause of you know noting
numbers here.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, I started when I was 10.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
That's exactly right.
That's what's remarkable A longcareer.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
What did it feel?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
like at 10 years old, to be starting on this journey.
But what is your channelphilosophy, gretchen?
What is that philosophy?
We've heard a lot about it, butyou've brought it forth.
Now to this integration, this$32 billion acquisition.
That's just incredible.
But what is your philosophyaround that?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, I think there's a couple of things.
First of all, partnerships area force multiplier, and I think
we're going to hear across allof the different panelists, uh,
this week that, uh, when youcome together, you can only do
so much alone.
It becomes a force multiplierwhen you do that partnership and
in technology it's absolutelyno different you can't get and
(13:22):
continue to grow if you don'thave partnerships that are going
to help take you along the wayand ultimately get to new places
.
So that becomes reallyimportant, as partners are a
multiplier.
The second thing that I alwaysbring in is partner centricity,
and what I mean by that is wealways focus on the customer.
What the customer needs alwaysvery important.
(13:44):
But then how do we actually makethese partnerships successful?
What is the experience that theyare having?
How do they do business easierwith a company like Splunk and
Cisco?
And then, ultimately, how do weensure that they are betting on
us and profitable in thebusiness they're driving?
So they pick on Splunk.
(14:05):
They said you know what?
I'm going to invest people, I'mgoing to invest time, I'm going
to invest education, I'm goingto be the best to the customer,
but if I'm losing money, then atsome point I kind of have to
give up on that partnership.
So part of profitabilitybecomes an absolute pillar for
me when I think about that,because again in life if you're
(14:28):
not doing well, if you're notactually in business side being
profitable, then ultimatelythey're going to abandon you.
And so those are the thingsthat I try and drive.
And then we talked about culture, george, the last thing I
always bring, and it justdepends on the company, but I
(14:48):
also bring what's called apartner first culture, not
necessarily partner led, which alot of companies have, which
means like I ultimately fulfillmy stuff through a channel
partner.
When I say partner first, thatmeans when we think about
anything in the company, whetherwe think about what the
technology looks like, how theyinteract with us, how we price
(15:12):
and pricing strategy with thenegotiation with the customer
looks like, we're thinking aboutthe partner all through the
life cycle, not just at the endwhen it's time to actually do a
transaction.
So it's one of the things thatI brought to Splunk, it's one of
the things that you know Ibrought to Splunk, it's one of
the things that you know I'mworking really well with Cisco
(15:32):
and how they're thinking abouttheir own channel transformation
, and I think it's a reallyimportant thing on the culture
for the company.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And you've heard the global audience that will watch
this program just heardleadership lessons around having
the partner be first, and soI'd like to end this incredible
interview.
We can go on for days, for sure.
Gretchen, what are some of yourlife lessons?
We've heard elements of thelife lessons throughout this
(16:02):
interview, but what are thosekey life lessons that you would
like to share with our globalaudience today?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, I think you know I started as a leader,
george, and I thought that youknow, the harder you were on
people, the more you drovepeople, you know, the better you
would be, and that was such aflaw in that.
And I think the biggest lifelesson for me has been as I
(16:31):
matured as a leader over time.
I was a leader very early in mycareer Again, you mentioned
this, George, and it's my veryfirst pillar and it's a life
lesson, which is it's about thepeople.
If I don't have the people onboard, trusting each other,
building a culture of trust,building a culture that we can
(16:52):
be vulnerable together, buildinga culture where we support
everyone to be better,ultimately, if you don't think
about the people, you will notbe successful.
So, in any organization I lead,I always start with the people
and my life lesson has been thatit has to be with empathy and
(17:13):
that's my biggest life lesson.
You know I evaluate a lot of my, I would say, maturity as a
leader and I evaluate a lot ofleaders today and one of the
things that you know for me hasbeen I need to reach out to the
people.
I need to understand howthey're feeling, I need to know
what the challenges they mightbe taking.
(17:35):
It could be home, it could bewith family, it could be with
friends, it could be with work,it could be with another
colleague.
Whatever that is, I have tostep in their shoes and help,
support, navigate ultimatelywhere they go.
And so I think, to wrap thisall in a bow, george, I think my
biggest life lesson is reallychanging my leadership style to
one of empathetic leadership andnot feeling as a female leader
(18:00):
in a very large organization, asan executive, that I have to be
a certain persona that I haveto sort of cover on.
You know being really hard or,you know, being really driven,
because otherwise, you know, noone will take me seriously.
And I really had to change thatto be my authentic self.
And I bring my authentic selfevery day to every meeting,
(18:21):
every partner, customerengagement, and I lead with
empathy.
And I think that works withpartners, it works with our
customers, customers and, mostimportantly, it works in the
organization that I lead,because people want to want to
work together if they know thatyour leader understands you and
(18:41):
understands those situations,because the work will get done.
How you get to the work beingdone, everyone has natural sort
of routes.
You know and I'm less about.
You know you have to work acertain amount of hours or be in
the office a certain amount ofhours, or what that is, and
recognize that life is there andpeople are navigating
challenges every day.
(19:02):
Let's focus on the end game,let's focus on getting through
to what we want to accomplishand so, um, I have found that I
have thrived as I've embracedthat life lesson and you know,
as you just mentioned, you knowit's been very rewarding around
recognition in the industry asone of the top 50 across the
(19:23):
globe.
So, yeah, Gretchen O'Hara.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Cisco, Splunk, Splunk , Cisco, leading the way
leadership defined my friend.
Thank you so very much.
Welcome to IdeaGen TV live from Washington DC here
today with the Senior VicePresident of Worldwide Channels
and Alliances at Splunk Cisco,gretchen O'Hara.
Gretchen welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you so much.
It's so great to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We have the dream team back together here in
Washington to talk about all ofthe incredible work that's
happening at Splunk Cisco, nowthat Splunk has been acquired by
Cisco.
So I want to make sure we stateit properly.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Perfect.
No, that's great.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
And so, gretchen, I want to first start by saying
congratulations.
Congratulations on being namedamong the crn 50 most
influential channel chiefs for2025, which was recently
announced.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
What an incredible accomplishment thank you, george
, thank you so much.
No, I'm really proud of thatand it's it's really based on
the team.
Yeah, obviously it's.
You know, you can only be asgood as the team that you have
built around me, and I have afabulous organization and I feel
very lucky about that.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yes, you do, and it's also important to note that you
were named last year as well,which is quite remarkable and is
a testament to your incredibleleadership.
And, that said, there's such afast-paced evolution in the
channel.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'd love to hear, for our global audience, what it is
that you are seeing from yourleadership vantage point in this
area yeah, so I think that, um,there is, there is a lot going
on, and when you think abouttechnology channels, you're
talking really about lots ofdifferent partners with
(01:52):
different business models thatare part of an ecosystem, and I
think that one of the thingsthat is really significant
significant is we are shifting,as a technology sector, out of a
particular channel to realizethat in the world of cloud and
the world of AI and the world ofdigital resilience which every
(02:16):
customer, every partner has tounderstand, which is how do they
make sure that theirorganization, customers are
secure from threats, threatactors, bad actors, et cetera.
And that takes an ecosystem,takes a village.
We talk about cross-sectorpartnerships and the important
thing in the tech sector and thething that I've been really
(02:39):
pushing on is it takes a village.
It's not one particular personthat is going to create and help
and build digital resilience ofthe customer.
It is going to be a lot ofpeople across a lot of different
areas and they work differently.
They have different businessmodels on how they approach
things, but it's those crosspartnerships in the ecosystem
(03:00):
that gets us across the line,and you're going to see more and
more companies like Splunk andCisco really change to.
We're going to go and approachcustomer centricity first and
we're going to surround thatcustomer with lots of different
partners and we're going toembrace that and I am very
excited about that because it'ssomething that I think in my
(03:23):
business has been very focusedon a particular type of partner
and a particular type of howyou'll go to market and the
realization in the cloud is youneed that village, you need that
ecosystem.
So lots of change.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, there's no smarter or more effective leader
than you in this industry.
You spent many years I'll saymany years at Microsoft.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You're trying to date me.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
No, but you were at Microsoft at one of the most
transformative moments.
Yes, you had the privilege ofworking with so many and they
had the privilege as well ofworking with you.
So many CEOs and leaders there,yes, and now channel chief at
cisco splunk.
How, gretchen, do you navigatethese companies?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
how, what?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
does that look like?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
yeah, I think one of the things that you know, I have
found, is that companies ofthat size, you know, bring a lot
of natural complexity.
Everyone has an individualagenda.
Every particular group mighthave what they believe is their
priority, and so how do you thennavigate through all the
(04:35):
complexity to get anything doneRight?
That's bureaucracy, you know.
You see it in everything.
As you get bigger and bigger,more people, more process, you
know the agility and beingnimble starts to become more
challenging.
And I think one of the thingsthat both Splunk and Microsoft
(04:56):
have done really well is how dowe cut through this complexity
and this bureaucracy so that wecan be agile in the market?
Because the reality is intechnology, it's always changing
.
It's always changing right.
So you've got to be very nimbleto respond to market conditions
, to different things that arehappening, and if you're stuck
in the muck, you know you neverget there and you lose that
(05:20):
first mover advantage.
And so back to your question,george, on like, like.
Then how do I do it?
I think the very first thingthat I always look at is okay,
what is our purpose?
What are we trying to docollectively?
And then I really set a high barand essentially bring everyone
to the table aligned to really ayou, really a mission driven
(05:46):
purpose, and we get really clearon what ultimately everyone's
sort of component in that bigflywheel, the cog that you play.
And when we get alignment likethat, you can go really fast.
And I think Microsoft's a greatexample of that.
And turning to you know thework on AI Splunk has been
(06:07):
incredible on that andrecognizing that you know it was
a software company and neededto move to the cloud.
So when you can all align whatthe biggest, biggest purpose is,
we can all sort of walk and flyin formation, not quilting any
great ideas, but now you'recoming to the table all aligned
on something bigger thanyourselves, and I think that is
(06:29):
really the key that I have foundto success is don't lose your
authenticity, don't lose yourperspective and point of view,
but think bigger than yourself,think bigger than what your
mission is and be clear on,ultimately, what we're trying to
do holistically in the company,and then people move much
faster around that well andyou've navigated that so
(06:52):
incredibly well.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And I recall when you were at microsoft not so long
ago there was something calledthe growth mindset that satya
and everybody in the companysort of espoused, and I think
that's what you're talking aboutright yeah, that's the growth
mindset.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Continue to grow, and so Splunk was recently acquired
, as we said, by Cisco for $2billion, third largest software
deal 32 billion.
Yeah, 32 billion, I'm corrected32 billion, not 2 billion.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
32 billion, that's a slightly different number A
little bit of a different number.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
The yes.
What is the leadership stylethat you're now employing to
help you navigate the transition, because it's never easy?
I mean, you're transitioning anentire company into another
company, so what does that look?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
like.
Yeah, I would say a lot ofacquisitions will fail.
Being at Microsoft and workingon acquisitions the other
direction now I have theprivilege to be the one that's
being acquired and a lot fail.
And there's a couple of reasonswhy.
First can be culture, and ifyou have very different sort of
(08:03):
set of culture, that peoplereject the culture and you know,
you start to go there.
So the first thing that becomesreally important is okay, what
again are we trying to aspire to?
Be holistically at Cisco?
What does that look like?
And then, if that means, look,we acquired Splunk because it is
going to be the growth enginefor the future, then let's look
(08:26):
at what is the culture that weneed to have, what is the growth
mindset we need to demonstrateto go after the biggest goal and
not be afraid of what is thatgoing to look like to you in
your organization or even as anindividual?
If you lead and lead the teamthrough with a broader purpose,
(08:48):
uh, listening becomes absolutelykey and active listening
becomes key and collaborating,as you know, and the whole one
of the purpose of idea gen iscollaboration and I think when
people have fear, when peoplearen't clear on, you know what
they're trying to do as a bigger, uh sort of bigger than
(09:09):
themselves.
Um, you drive a fear-basedculture in those acquisitions
and two things normally happen.
Either the company that'sgetting acquired just says, mea
culpa, I'll just do what we needto do at this point.
Or you see massive attrition ofvery incredible talent and both
of those situations are notgood.
(09:30):
So that becomes like activelistening, coaching my
organization to meet in themiddle, understand that there's
going to be things we have towork through, but not really
killing everyone's idea of whatthat growth looks like, but
(09:50):
having a growth mindset of like,okay, what does one plus one
equal three?
Like how do we be bigger thanourselves coming together to
really get after what is the biggoal?
Not an individual team or anorganization or even a cross
organization, and so that's kindof really the key.
It's really, it's sounds simple,it's really hard.
(10:11):
It's really hard and it alwayshas been, because it's.
Unless a company is acquiringjust for the technology, the ip
of the technology, you havepeople, and people are what make
that organization uh amazing.
It's the talent, the developers, it's the marketing that
explains what you do.
(10:31):
It's the channel that I run, um, you, it's the channel that I
run.
You know it's the operations,it's finance.
Again, you know the idea behindit is sounds very simple, but
you've got to break through thefear.
You've got to have courage tobelieve in what we're trying to
do and you've got to talk toeach other.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
And you've got to talk to each other.
I think what I've picked upfrom everything you just said is
that it's all about people inthe end, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
it is.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
It's all about people whether you're talking about
government or you're talkingabout the private sector or
you're talking about ngoswithout people, nothing's
happening, and the fact thatyou're helping to drive the
integration of Splunk into Ciscois why it will be successful,
because you understand theculture, you understand the
(11:19):
process and you understand thepeople.
Yeah, so that's a big part ofwhy I'm so excited that you're
there and you're helping tointegrate this company into
Cisco, and why it will be and issuccessful.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah it's.
It's a very exciting time, lotsof change, but the other just
tip just from leadership, oryour leadership is.
I just encourage everyone toembrace change, because change
is the only thing that'sconstant and people that resist
change and resist changeultimately uh you know sort of
(11:54):
lose out on the opportunityahead.
So you know and I think that'sa life, it goes beyond business
about, beyond acquisitions it'slike there will be change in
your life.
There will be change in yourlife every day.
Do you fight it or do youembrace it to make yourself
better?
And you got to make yourselfbetter and you got to get over
the fear.
And it's hard again, easy tosay, hard to do, and I recognize
(12:16):
that.
I work on myself every day onthat.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Make yourself better.
I love that.
That's sort of my personalmantra Make yourself better.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And so you've been a channel leader blank 20
something years.
So I won't get into thatbecause of you know noting
numbers here.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, I started when I was 10.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
That's exactly right.
That's what's remarkable A longcareer.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
What did it feel?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
like at 10 years old, to be starting on this journey.
But what is your channelphilosophy, gretchen?
What is that philosophy?
We've heard a lot about it, butyou've brought it forth.
Now to this integration, this$32 billion acquisition.
That's just incredible.
But what is your philosophyaround that?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, I think there's a couple of things.
First of all, partnerships area force multiplier, and I think
we're going to hear across allof the different panelists, uh,
this week that, uh, when youcome together, you can only do
so much alone.
It becomes a force multiplierwhen you do that partnership and
in technology it's absolutelyno different you can't get and
(13:22):
continue to grow if you don'thave partnerships that are going
to help take you along the wayand ultimately get to new places
.
So that becomes reallyimportant, as partners are a
multiplier.
The second thing that I alwaysbring in is partner centricity,
and what I mean by that is wealways focus on the customer.
What the customer needs alwaysvery important.
(13:44):
But then how do we actually makethese partnerships successful?
What is the experience that theyare having?
How do they do business easierwith a company like Splunk and
Cisco?
And then, ultimately, how do weensure that they are betting on
us and profitable in thebusiness they're driving?
So they pick on Splunk.
(14:05):
They said you know what?
I'm going to invest people, I'mgoing to invest time, I'm going
to invest education, I'm goingto be the best to the customer,
but if I'm losing money, then atsome point I kind of have to
give up on that partnership.
So part of profitabilitybecomes an absolute pillar for
me when I think about that,because again in life if you're
(14:28):
not doing well, if you're notactually in business side being
profitable, then ultimatelythey're going to abandon you.
And so those are the thingsthat I try and drive.
And then we talked about culture, george, the last thing I
always bring, and it justdepends on the company, but I
(14:48):
also bring what's called apartner first culture, not
necessarily partner led, which alot of companies have, which
means like I ultimately fulfillmy stuff through a channel
partner.
When I say partner first, thatmeans when we think about
anything in the company, whetherwe think about what the
technology looks like, how theyinteract with us, how we price
(15:12):
and pricing strategy with thenegotiation with the customer
looks like, we're thinking aboutthe partner all through the
life cycle, not just at the endwhen it's time to actually do a
transaction.
So it's one of the things thatI brought to Splunk, it's one of
the things that you know Ibrought to Splunk, it's one of
the things that you know I'mworking really well with Cisco
(15:32):
and how they're thinking abouttheir own channel transformation
, and I think it's a reallyimportant thing on the culture
for the company.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And you've heard the global audience that will watch
this program just heardleadership lessons around having
the partner be first, and soI'd like to end this incredible
interview.
We can go on for days, for sure.
Gretchen, what are some of yourlife lessons?
We've heard elements of thelife lessons throughout this
(16:02):
interview, but what are thosekey life lessons that you would
like to share with our globalaudience today?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, I think you know I started as a leader,
george, and I thought that youknow, the harder you were on
people, the more you drovepeople, you know, the better you
would be, and that was such aflaw in that.
And I think the biggest lifelesson for me has been as I
(16:31):
matured as a leader over time.
I was a leader very early in mycareer Again, you mentioned
this, George, and it's my veryfirst pillar and it's a life
lesson, which is it's about thepeople.
If I don't have the people onboard, trusting each other,
building a culture of trust,building a culture that we can
(16:52):
be vulnerable together, buildinga culture where we support
everyone to be better,ultimately, if you don't think
about the people, you will notbe successful.
So, in any organization I lead,I always start with the people
and my life lesson has been thatit has to be with empathy and
(17:13):
that's my biggest life lesson.
You know I evaluate a lot of my, I would say, maturity as a
leader and I evaluate a lot ofleaders today and one of the
things that you know for me hasbeen I need to reach out to the
people.
I need to understand howthey're feeling, I need to know
what the challenges they mightbe taking.
(17:35):
It could be home, it could bewith family, it could be with
friends, it could be with work,it could be with another
colleague.
Whatever that is, I have tostep in their shoes and help,
support, navigate ultimatelywhere they go.
And so I think, to wrap thisall in a bow, george, I think my
biggest life lesson is reallychanging my leadership style to
one of empathetic leadership andnot feeling as a female leader
(18:00):
in a very large organization, asan executive, that I have to be
a certain persona that I haveto sort of cover on.
You know being really hard or,you know, being really driven,
because otherwise, you know, noone will take me seriously.
And I really had to change thatto be my authentic self.
And I bring my authentic selfevery day to every meeting,
(18:21):
every partner, customerengagement, and I lead with
empathy.
And I think that works withpartners, it works with our
customers, customers and, mostimportantly, it works in the
organization that I lead,because people want to want to
work together if they know thatyour leader understands you and
(18:41):
understands those situations,because the work will get done.
How you get to the work beingdone, everyone has natural sort
of routes.
You know and I'm less about.
You know you have to work acertain amount of hours or be in
the office a certain amount ofhours, or what that is, and
recognize that life is there andpeople are navigating
challenges every day.
(19:02):
Let's focus on the end game,let's focus on getting through
to what we want to accomplishand so, um, I have found that I
have thrived as I've embracedthat life lesson and you know,
as you just mentioned, you knowit's been very rewarding around
recognition in the industry asone of the top 50 across the
(19:23):
globe.
So, yeah, Gretchen O'Hara.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Cisco, Splunk, Splunk , Cisco, leading the way
leadership defined my friend.
Thank you so very much.
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