CHANNEL CHIEF
The channel has an increasingly important part to play in helping businesses
flourish as enterprises continue to adopt transformative technology.
AVINASH ADVANI , CEO of Spire Solutions, discusses the relationship
Spire has with its channel partners, outlines the responsibilities he has in
his new role as CEO and his management philosophy.
W
What does your position as CEO at
Spire Solutions entail?
As CEO at Spire Solutions, I work closely
with the company’s Founder and President
to make major corporate decisions, manage
overall operations and resources of the
company, while acting as the main point
of communication between the board of
directors and corporate operations. I was
brought on board to revamp the corporate
strategy and accelerate the company’s
growth through optimisation, portfolio
evolution and geographical expansion.
What was your previous role and
what did it involve?
Prior to Spire, I was at StarLink for seven
years. I started there as the Director of
Business Strategy in Dubai. Over the course
of my tenure I was promoted to VP of
Business Strategy, then to SVP of Business
Development and Alliances, and eventually
to CEO of North America, Europe and
Emerging Markets, based outside of London.
At StarLink I developed and executed the
channel, customer and portfolio strategies,
as well as spearheaded the geographical
expansion initiatives.
Can you explain how
Spire Solutions works with
channel partners?
Spire Solutions is a security-centric value-
added distributor that focuses on providing
real tangible value to channel partners. Spire
aligns with key partners across the region
and works closely with them across the sales
lifecycle, providing end-to-end value-added
services including marketing, business
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
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development, pre-sales, professional
services, support, training, renewals etc.
All of these services are optional and are
provided based on the channel partners’
requirements and on their individual go-to-
market strategies and capabilities. Channel
partners are managed both by product
managers as well as in-country teams. The
product managers ensure that for each
vendor the channel partners select, they get
the support they need, meet programme
requirements and have a channel plan in
place to enable them to achieve a focused,
differentiated, profitable and growing
business. The in-country teams align with
the channel partners on their business
development activities to ensure that the
customers get the best possible support
across the sales lifecycle in each opportunity.
Avinash Advani, CEO, Spire Solutions
What is your
management philosophy?
To lead by example and provide guidance,
direction and leadership through effective
listening and giving feedback. I also strive to
maintain productive employees by avoiding
office politics and bureaucracy, keeping the
morale high by encouraging low performers
and rewarding the strong performers. The
environment I thrive in personally and
therefore endeavour to preserve is a dynamic,
flexible and agile culture, founded on the key
values of integrity, loyalty and trust.
Do you work differently with
channel partners in the Middle East
compared to Africa?
Spire doesn’t actively work on the Africa
region currently, albeit we do have
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