Today’s IIAR> Around in 10 questions interview is with Michael Rennett / Director of Analyst Relations / SUSE
(@MichaelRennett on LinkedIn)
1. What’s been your career path to becoming an AR pro?
I came out of university having studied English Literature and, honestly, not really knowing what on earth I wanted to do. I needed a job, so I joined a PR agency.
At the time, the agency was pitching for some Samsung business, and part of that included both PR and AR support. I got roped into helping with the AR side and went along to the press and analyst pre-briefings for the Samsung Galaxy S3 launch.
What struck me immediately was the difference between the analysts and journalists in the room. The analysts were pulling the phone apart, looking at every specification and asking question after question of the spokespeople. Meanwhile, a lot of the journalists mainly wanted pictures of the device from different angles for their articles.
Seeing the analysts’ depth of knowledge, how inquisitive they were, and how much you could learn from working with them immediately showed me why AR was such an interesting career. You get to learn every single day. So I jumped headfirst into analyst relations and have pretty much done it ever since. That was almost 15 years ago now.
2. What are your opinions of the IT Analyst Marketplace and where do you see it
going?
I think the proclaimed death of Gartner that you sometimes see on LinkedIn is massively overblown.
Right now, if you’re a CIO or an IT infrastructure leader, you’re probably not going to place a multimillion-pound bet, or tell your CEO you’ve placed that bet, because ChatGPT recommended a vendor to you.
That may change over time, but one of the unique things analysts still provide is trust and that person-to-person relationship. For major IT decisions, I think that remains hugely important.
That said, I absolutely think more analyst content is going to be ingested by LLMs, and that LLMs will increasingly become the way end users build long lists and short lists during a buying process.
So I can see analysts influencing buyers in two places: indirectly at the top of the funnel because their research is being surfaced through LLMs, and directly at the end when buyers are making the final vendor decision.
The research I see from IT decision makers suggests analysts remain very important. I just think the way much of that influence reaches buyers is going to change.
3. Now, c’mon, tell me an Analyst horror story (no names mentioned)?
There are many I could tell!
One that springs to mind involved an analyst flying over to Europe for a full-day consulting session. They’d already taken a red-eye flight, and then unfortunately had an allergic reaction to the pillows in their hotel room and ended up having to go to the doctor rather than sleeping.
They still tried to carry on with the consulting day the following morning. The problem was that, having missed two nights of sleep, they were absolutely exhausted. The company had paid
thousands of dollars for the session, and at various points the analyst was falling asleep in it.
Nobody’s fault, obviously, but definitely not quite the consulting experience anyone had planned.
4. In your experience, what’s the best way to get more engagement with the
executives that you support?
I like to have conversations with executives almost as a business consultant, and initially take analysts out of the equation completely. I want them thinking about their biggest challenges and what they need to achieve over the next 12 months. It’s then my job as the AR professional to translate those business problems into areas where analysts can help.
If you go into a conversation trying to explain why analysts matter, which analysts they should work with and all the mechanics of analyst engagement, I think you’ve somewhat missed the point.
The outcome isn’t greater analyst engagement for the sake of it. The outcome is helping that business leader overcome their challenges and be successful.
Analyst insight and feedback are tools to help achieve that. So understand the business problem first, and bring the analysts into the equation afterwards.
5. Tell us about one good experience you have had with an analyst or analyst firm?
I’ve had so many good experiences over the years that it’s difficult to pick just one. Does playing beach volleyball with analysts vs executives at a vendor event count?
In all seriousness though, earlier in my career I was always impressed by Ben Wood’s detailed knowledge of the smartphone industry at CCS Insight. As someone new to the industry, I also found him approachable and supportive of professionals in the first few years of their careers, which could not be said for every analyst.
More recently, as I’ve focused increasingly on enterprise technology, I’ve always come away from conversations with Brent Ellis at IDC knowing considerably more than I did when I went in.
That’s one of the best things about this industry. You get access to people with real expertise and you get to learn from them.
I’ve also seen firsthand how good analyst insight and feedback can genuinely change the companies they work with for the better.
6. How would you characterise the maturity level of your AR function and what’s the
roadmap ahead?
This was a fun one, because it was interesting taking the maturity survey and seeing where we netted out. I was very pleased that a lot of my answers were towards the mature end of the scale. We have a well-supported AR function and, importantly, the business understands why analyst relations can be a competitive differentiator.
Where I think we can go further is around tighter integration with sales.
We get some fantastic advocacy from the analyst community, and I want to make sure we’re using that to its maximum potential with the sales organisation. Where appropriate, that means bringing AR and analysts into live deals more often and using that influence to help close business.
It’s a tricky balance when you’re an AR team of one, but that’s definitely a priority for the year ahead.
7. What’s your best ever AR tactic and why?
This is an easy one: be responsive, both internally and externally. Even if you don’t have the answer immediately, simply showing an analyst that you’re on it and looking into something for them builds confidence very quickly. The same is true with internal stakeholders.
It shows people that you’re trustworthy, that you want to help and that you’re a reliable partner.
I have a zero-inbox policy. If an analyst emails me, my aim is to get back to them as quickly as possible. The same applies to messages from colleagues on Slack.
Ultimately, the clue is in the title: analyst relations is about relationships. And I think responsiveness is a critical part of building those relationships, both internally and externally.
8. What innovations have you seen from other AR teams or developed in your own AR
practice?
One of the fun things since joining SUSE has been trying to take some of the best practices we had at Dell and work out how to apply them in an organisation the size of SUSE. I’m very fortunate that my colleagues at SUSE are up for the challenge as well and are so open and collaborative around new ideas.
At Dell, we had a sizable AR team, which meant we could build some very sophisticated analyst engagement strategies, particularly around major events.
At SUSE, I’ve tried to distill that down. I want an analyst attending SUSECON to get the same quality of access and engagement they would expect from an event run by a much larger technology vendor.
Not everything is possible or practical with a smaller team, obviously, but I’ve really enjoyed seeing how far you can take a mature AR programme as a solo practitioner. What it’s taught me is that you can do a heck of a lot by building a community of support across the organisation.
Even as an AR team of one, you can operate beyond the apparent size of your function.
So I’d challenge other AR professionals not to let team size dictate the ambition of their programme. Think clearly about what you can say no to and what you can deprioritise, so you can focus resources on the things that will have the biggest impact on the business.
9. Is there another AR pro (a peer in your team or at other vendors) whose work you
rate highly?
There are lots, but two people immediately spring to mind.
The first is Erin Zehr, who led Dell’s analyst relations team for a number of years. She’s genuinely one of the smartest people I’ve ever worked with. She had a very strong understanding of both the business and the technology, which meant she could go toe-to-toe with analysts where necessary while also building excellent relationships with them. She also understood just how important the internal side of AR is. She built a network of stakeholders across the business who understood the value of AR and became advocates for the function well beyond marketing.
The second is Angela Schmidt, who currently leads analyst relations at Dell. Angela has a fantastic ability to think strategically and operationally at the same time. She has a detailed understanding of the technology and is highly trusted both by analysts and internal stakeholders. She was an absolute joy to work with!
10. What are your biggest challenges for the upcoming six months? And for the next 30
minutes?
The next six months are going to be very busy. We’re heading into autumn, which means event season, while at the same time planning is already well underway for our next SUSECON in 2027.
So the biggest challenge is going to be balancing all of the immediate priorities that come with a busy end to the year while still making sure we’re investing enough time in the longer-term priorities for the business.
For the next 30 minutes, as soon as I’ve finished answering these questions, I need to go and fact-check two Magic Quadrants.
It’s 4pm on a Friday afternoon, so obviously that’s exactly how I was hoping to end the week.
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