With Thanksgiving upon us, we polled staff here at NinjaOne to find about whose ideas they draw upon at work. We wanted to make the list useful to partners, so rather than mentioning mentors, teachers, or clients, we limited ourselves to “thought leaders” whose messages are broadly applicable to anyone in the MSP channel.
Karl Palachuk
Karl Palachuk has been thinking about how to make life easier for IT consulting companies since the days of Windows Small Business Server. And he has a way with words that makes his lessons easy to digest. His now-classic book Managed Services in a Month, already in its third edition, offers a concise, engaging guide to starting an MSP.
“Karl Palachuk is one of the founding fathers of our industry,” says VP Sales Eric Herrera. “Here at Ninja, we assign Managed Services In A Month to new hires. It’s a great way for people who may be new to the industry, learn more about service providers – and how successful players build thriving businesses today.”
Richard Tubb
Richard Tubb touts himself as the “The IT Business Growth Expert,” who wants to imbue IT with the same level of professionalism as accounting or the law.
To that end, he offers no-nonsense approaches to the nuts and bolts of business, such as operations, sales, and marketing. He also offers practical tips on the softer but still critical skills of building relationships.
“Richard’s analysis and insights on the UK MSP market are second to none,” says Francois Daumard, Chief Revenue Officer at NinjaOne. “I always learn something new from him”.
David Walter & Johannes Beekman
Curated by David Walter and Johannes Beekman, the MSP blog at The MSP SEO Factory offers a wealth of practical, jargon-free advice on the actual problems that MSPs face day to day. Written by a rotating cast of real-life IT professionals, the blog offers thoughtful takes on thorny topics like how to make an IT marketing pitch effectively, or when it’s necessary to fire an argumentative employee.
“The MSP SEO Factory helps me better understand the real-world problems faced by MSPs when it comes to sales and marketing,” says Marketing Coordinator, Lisa Harshman. “To create relevant marketing materials, I need to fully grasp the challenges they face and the content they need.”
Robert Sutton
Stanford business professor Robert Sutton turned a common workplace irritant — the office bully — into a best-selling rumination on how companies can be happier and more efficient. The secret? Purge toxic personalities.
In The No-Asshole Rule, Sutton offers the technical definition of an “asshole” as someone who constantly demeans others, particularly those lower on the company totem pole. Since these nasty individuals cause burnout and high turnover, the downsides of keeping these folks on staff outweigh the positives, even if the person has considerable talent.
“ NinjaOne has a strict no-asshole policy,” says Marketing Director, Rachel Spatz. “Sutton shows you can have high standards in the office without making everyone miserable.”
Joe Panettieri
Joe Panettieri is the co-founder and content czar for MSSP Alert and Channel E2E, which means he oversees the production of dozens of new articles about the managed services channel every week. It’s no exaggeration to say that he has a better minute-to-minute sense of what’s happening in the MSP channel than any other person on the planet.
“I admire Joe for his insights into the industry and frank discussions about it,” says CEO Sal Sferlazza. “He also has a balanced approach to living on and offline.”
A few more things NinjaOne’s CEO Sal Sferlazza is grateful for:
Early Access Partners.
I continue to be thankful for the partners that give us valuable feedback and have grown their businesses as we have grown over the years. Great to see!
Partners who canceled and came back!
Cancellations never feel good, but they made us move faster, kept us on our toes, and helped us calibrate our roadmap. Winning the partner back — for life, we can only assume — is gold!
The Team at NinjaOne
I have been blessed with the best collection of “A” players a CEO could hope for in my life. Relentless innovation. We are taking the product, support, and experience to the next level in 2019.
