INTERVIEW: Cadman Chui, VP Marketing and Channels, PlateSpin
By Scott Valentine on January 28, 2008 - Comments (View)Cadman Chui talks about his path to PlateSpin and how the company has kept its breakneck growth from turning into neck-breaking change.
|
It is fair to say that at least part of PlateSpin’s staggering success can be attributed to the creative and polished marketing team lead by Cadman Chui, who joined the company in 2004.
A 10-year veteran of business and technology, Chui’s resume includes high-powered organizations both in and out of the tech sector (Cybermation, Nortel, Royal Bank Financial), and a solid foundation as an entrepreneur. Chui holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business and a B.A. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
|
Cadman ChuiChui talked to Red Canary about leadership, team-building, the greening of data centres, and why he thinks PlateSpin’s phenomenal growth will continue.
What was the path that led you to your current role?
“From a personal perspective, I really started off on the web side of things. A business partner and I went and did a few ventures together . . . a marketing services company for one. There were a couple that didn’t work out so well, of course, but we managed to build out our experience.
That led to success with Crispads (a blog advertising network). I think the years of working at companies like Nortel and DataMirror, which was acquired by IBM in September 2007, were good experiences too.”
How do you define your leadership style?
“You cannot be afraid to get your hands dirty. And I like people who aren’t afraid to voice their viewpoint. I’m not a Yes man and I don’t expect it from others. I manage a team of 20 here – a lot are people that I’ve worked with in the past at DataMirror and Cybermation – and it’s the best marketing group I’ve ever worked with.
The people I look for are absolute experts in their field. We do a wide variety of things in our marketing group – product launches, web site stuff, brochures, events – I could manage each of those things but then I’m not leading. So, I hire specialists – top-notch creative people. I think by combining that kind of skill with a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude lets us get the job done.”
How do you explain what you do to people outside of the tech world?
“Depending on the type of person, I say we’re a data centre software company. I tell them we’re able to drag and drop servers across the internet, or that we can beam a server around like they do on Star Trek. It’s a very simplistic way to explain things but people get it.”
What’s the key value proposition for organizations looking at PlateSpin’s technology?
“It boils down to labour costs. Without our software, companies have to migrate servers on a manual basis; that’s going to take from five to eight hours per server. So, imagine a data centre with thousands of servers and what that would take. With our software it’s 45 to 90 minutes of automation and minutes of set up time. There’s your value.”
The PlateSpin web site has something called a Power and Cooling Savings Calculator. Is environmental friendliness a big part of your marketing message?
“The calculator is a pared-down tool that’s built on the much more complex algorithms of our PowerRecon product. Basically, we’re trying to give people an idea of the kinds of savings they could realize based on different virtualization scenarios. I’d say that, for our customers, green is a major factor, but cost savings is the number one priority.
It’s kind of that opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Green thinking is part of the equation, but from my perspective it will always be the number two benefit for our clients.”
PlateSpin has grown 21,519 per cent in the last five years and increased staff ten-fold. How does all that growth affect a company?
“There’s a natural course towards specialization. When I first started with PlateSpin, I was both Director of Product Management and Director of Marketing. As the company has grown, a lot of different departments have been formed, and people can become a bit more isolated in terms of functions and practises. It’s not quite as fluid as it once was but we still function in an agile manner.”
Culturally, it’s very much as it was. Our founder, Stephen Pollack, is our leader and he has his employees at the top of mind all the time. I think that bleeds through the organization. The fact that the founders are still here and running the show helps us keep that entrepreneurial feeling.
Growing too fast can be dangerous but the market is way ahead of us . . . our problem is meeting demand, not generating it. If we can solve that problem, we’ll keep growing at the rate we have.”
Comments
jan 28 2008 12:05
10 Reputation Points
I have a question or two for you Cadman.
You started at Platespin as VP of Product Management as well as Marketing, was there a transition from a technology-focused Product Management strategy (building the product) to a market-focused one?
Can you talk about how you think growing tech companies should approach this issue?
Also, where does product management sit at PlateSpin now?
Edit (for another )feb 04 2008 11:19
1 Reputation Point
Hi Trevor,
I would say that there has been an equal weighting between product management and product marketing since I joined, at least from a philosophical perspective. This was mostly likely because as a product management guy, I was also the guy in charge of marketing at the time.
Growing tech companies can usually achieve more efficient cost of sales by putting appropriate investments in marketing, rather than investing in cold-calling to bring in leads and prospects. In fact my philosophy is that if marketing is doing its job effectively, sales should never have to cold call at all to uncover opportunities. This, of course depends on the industry and the market, but I find that it is usually easier and cheaper to get prospects pounding at your door, than to have to go out and get them through brute-force methods like cold-calling. This is true of PlateSpin today, as sales have plenty of leads to work on as a result of demand generation campaigns.
From a product management perspective, I am an advocate of always asking: “If we build it, will they come?” – If product management consistently asks itself this simple question, it will lead to analysis and research that will lead to a higher probability of success when the product is launched. That, of course, requires input directly from the market, in the form of customer, prospect feedback in addition to ‘gut’ feel and intuition.
I believe Product Management should reside neither in Marketing, or Development. If a product manager falls under marketing, they end up being biased into doing a lot of communications style work. If a product manager falls under development, many times they end up project managing release schedules at too much of a tactical level.
Regards,
Edit (for another )Cadman.