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Disrupt or Be Disrupted: Insights w/Gordon Galzerano
32 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, Brian Dietmeyer talks with Gordon Galzerano, President and CEO of SAMA, about the imperative of business disruption in today's fast-paced market. They explore the concept of "disrupt or be disrupted," discussing how companies must adapt to maintain competitive advantage in an era of rapid technological change. Gordon shares insights from his extensive experience in the IT industry, emphasizing the importance of innovation, agility, and strategic foresight in staying ahead of market transitions.
Timestamps:
00:25 Introduction of Gordon Galzerano and the episode's theme.
01:38 Discussion on why companies need to disrupt or be disrupted.
06:19 Gordon explains the three key aspects of why disruption is happening today.
11:08 Examples of companies that have successfully embraced disruption.
14:48 Gordon discusses the importance of small and transformative ideas in business.
17:00 How companies can enable their teams to think strategically and adapt to changes.
19:44 Closing remarks and appreciation for the guest's contributions.
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Closed Mode Podcast
00:00:05
brian
Welcome
Guest Introduction: Gordon Galzerano
00:00:05
brian
to another episode of Close Mode, the Enterprise Sales Show. I'm Brian Dietmeyer CEO of Close Strong. And today I'm super lucky to be here with Gordon Galzerano, who's the president and CEO of SAMA
00:00:17
brian
Prior to that, Gordon was out here with the rest of us as an independent consultant for a while and spent time as a senior director with Cisco. Gordon, welcome to the show.
00:00:28
Gordon Galzerano
right, thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
Main Topic: Disruption in Business
00:00:30
brian
So today's topic is ah ah disrupt or be disrupted. Sounds like an idle threat of some sort, but it is actually, having looked at some of your writing on this, it it is.
00:00:42
brian
So yeah, we were, Gordon, you and I were chatting last week about, about and it's it always sounds cliche to me, but the speed of change right now, right? like what How quickly everything's happening. and And one one of my favorite books that that our watchers listeners know about is a book written by Rita Hunter McGrath called The End of Competitive Advantage. and And Professor McGrath says, we we have to now learn to compete on a series of short term transient advantages. And to me, that one quote out of the whole book sort of makes it makes it come alive. But so let's let's start with this.
Inevitability of Disruption
00:01:16
brian
Why do companies need to disrupt or be disrupted? Aren't aren't there some that it sort of chug along and keep doing the same old thing forever?
00:01:26
Gordon Galzerano
Well, that was probably true several years back. But I think because of a lot of what's gone on over the last 10 to 15 years in particular, no company nor any industry is exempt from the risk of disruption.
00:01:41
Gordon Galzerano
and And they have a choice. they They can be disruptors or they can be disrupted. And we'll talk, I'm sure, about some of the companies that have experienced that disruption in the past.
00:01:52
brian
Yes.
00:01:53
Gordon Galzerano
I think for context, Brian, if I could, just to kind of set the stage on, because you outlined my background, the best way to think about who I've become is an individual that's always sat at the the intersection between business and
Gordon's Background
00:02:08
Gordon Galzerano
technology.
00:02:08
Gordon Galzerano
And it's why this topic is so important is because having grown up in the IT industry, although I'm not a technologist,
00:02:11
brian
yeah
00:02:16
Gordon Galzerano
I was always curious about how companies across industries and geography could use technology in a purposeful way to achieve outcomes that they wanted to achieve.
00:02:26
Gordon Galzerano
So inherently, I got caught up in the tornado, if you will, of disruption and was part of an industry that was incredibly disruptive, the IT industry.
00:02:37
Gordon Galzerano
So I think it's a good context for how we landed on this topic today and a little bit about kind of the the why behind the what as we get into the discussion. So i just wanted to share that.
00:02:46
brian
Yeah. Yeah, no, that that makes that makes complete sense.
00:02:49
Gordon Galzerano
yeah
00:02:50
brian
Yeah, keep going.
00:02:52
Gordon Galzerano
No, so I was going to say, you know, as you and I were talking last week, organizations have a choice, really. they They can be disruptors or they can become disrupted.
00:03:04
Gordon Galzerano
and And I also work with this bold premise that every company is becoming a technology company.
Technology as Core to Business
00:03:12
Gordon Galzerano
I'm not suggesting that they're becoming an IT company, but what I am saying is technology is a core company arrow in the quiver of being able to really transform and at the pace of change, be able to adapt and be flexible because organizations
00:03:21
brian
Yeah.
Past and Future Challenges
00:03:30
Gordon Galzerano
have to do that.
00:03:31
Gordon Galzerano
And so no company is exempt, like I said earlier, in any industry. And and you know There's been so many examples through time of how disruption happened five years ago with COVID.
00:03:44
Gordon Galzerano
And that have a global impact on supply chain, us as consumers, educators, and so forth. And now I think we're seeing it again in 2025 with the headwinds related to global and and economic and political headwinds that are causing a lot of organizations today
00:03:53
brian
Yeah.
00:04:04
Gordon Galzerano
so pause So I think the conditions, again, are presenting themselves where organizations have to think about how do they adapt, become flexible, and most importantly, become resilient during times of uncertainty.
00:04:05
brian
Yeah. yes
00:04:18
brian
It's sure what comes to mind and you talk about every company is a technology company.
AI in Business: A Case Study
00:04:23
brian
I was listening to NPR last week and they they were they were interviewing a guy who runs a track a tractor driving school.
00:04:31
brian
So I had this notion in my head, Gordon, You know, what we might all have, you know, the old tractor. I live near Wisconsin and I see them out there in the fields and and I have a vision of the human driving that tractor.
00:04:44
brian
The whole discussion was about technology and AI. These tractors are now full of ai And and it's it's really cool, actually, because they're they're looking at the plants. and and they're projecting crop yield.
00:04:57
brian
And so ah this this whole story about a tractor driving school was was so heavily tied to technology. So that I completely agree with you. So ah ah let' we'll talk about the good news in a moment, but let's what are some examples of of companies who who didn't and sort of maybe why why they didn't evolve, why they didn't disrupt and they got disrupted?
00:05:20
Gordon Galzerano
so there There are so many, I think, examples that we would know.
00:05:21
brian
Yeah.
00:05:24
Gordon Galzerano
And I'll and i'll use some of those examples because i think it speaks truth to use cases of companies that had choice.
00:05:27
brian
Thank
00:05:34
Gordon Galzerano
They they could have been disruptors, but they allowed themselves to become disrupted. based on seven characteristics, and I'll talk about those briefly. But first, I think there are three key aspects of why disruption is happening today and
Technological Advancements Driving Disruption
00:05:49
Gordon Galzerano
has happened over time. First, the proliferation of technology.
00:05:54
Gordon Galzerano
For years, companies have been looking to digitize their business from analog to digital.
00:05:55
brian
Yeah.
00:06:01
Gordon Galzerano
And as a result, that has yielded a tremendous amount of data and information About their organizations, about their markets, about their customers, partners, etc. the The sticking point was, okay, we've got all of this information. what do we do with it?
00:06:17
Gordon Galzerano
How do we put it to work?
00:06:18
brian
yeah
00:06:19
Gordon Galzerano
And up until AI, it has been predominantly a play of using that data to inform our decision-making, where now the pivot and the proliferation around AI is now about how can it help us do decision-making and predictive modeling based on where our customers, our partners, our ecosystem are.
00:06:26
brian
going be able to do
00:06:39
brian
that.
00:06:40
Gordon Galzerano
relationships are trying to go.
00:06:41
Gordon Galzerano
So that first disruptor around the proliferation of technology is what's really causing that to be an accelerated motion.
00:06:42
brian
I'm to be able to that. I'm going to be able do
00:06:50
Gordon Galzerano
The second key contributor is that we know to be true that customer decision-making is shifting. Expectations are shifting because they're becoming more informed. They've had to adapt.
00:07:02
Gordon Galzerano
They've had to be more agile and flexible, and therefore they have to look at suppliers and strategic partners that can keep up with that pace of change and help them understand what's next.
00:07:14
Gordon Galzerano
And then third, agile competitors, either existing competitors that have been willing to disrupt themselves or new entrants into a marketplace where they don't have all the legacy baggage and they can leapfrog over legacy competitors.
00:07:18
brian
Yeah.
00:07:21
brian
Yep.
00:07:29
Gordon Galzerano
So those are three
00:07:30
brian
yeah
00:07:31
Gordon Galzerano
distinct
Kodak: A Cautionary Tale
00:07:32
Gordon Galzerano
examples. Now, if we look at examples, let's talk about Kodak. It's a very, very well-known documented use case going back in time. And if you think about Eastman Kodak, they had 90% market share in the 80s.
00:07:46
Gordon Galzerano
Think about that. That is like unheard of. And in 1996, their revenue peaked at about $16 billion.
00:07:51
brian
me
00:07:55
Gordon Galzerano
But then what happened was early in the late 70s, they actually designed the first digital camera and they had the patent on that camera and they had an opportunity to bring that to market.
00:08:08
Gordon Galzerano
But they chose to not do that. Why? Because their cash cow was in film. and film production and and imaging. So they made a conscious decision to not move to digital because it it would it would have disrupted their cash-heavy film and film developing business.
00:08:28
Gordon Galzerano
But what happened? Competitors started to bring digital technology to market.
00:08:31
brian
yeah
00:08:33
Gordon Galzerano
And in 2001, they saw a dramatic decline in film sales. And 2011, they ultimately ended up filing for chapter 11, Xerox.
00:08:42
brian
Well, it's, it's, yeah.
00:08:43
Gordon Galzerano
mean, there's so many companies. go ahead, Brian.
00:08:45
brian
Well, no, Gordon, what what comes to mind is is you were quoting a past CEO of Cisco that you you need courage to disrupt. And so as you're talking about Xerox and and and Kodak, like, I'm wondering if if that's, there's a connection. Cause I wanted to ask you, I mean, I think we kind of generally get what that means, but as it relates, did that, did that come into play for those guys?
00:09:10
Gordon Galzerano
it It
Courage to Self-Disrupt
00:09:10
Gordon Galzerano
did. it and and what I was going to el lead to, because the the the the the quote you're thinking of is from John Chambers, and it's a great one, because one of the things he said, Brian, was that one of the most important lessons that he learned was that you have to have the courage to disrupt yourself.
00:09:17
brian
Yes.
00:09:26
brian
Yes.
00:09:26
Gordon Galzerano
This means anticipating and capturing
00:09:30
Gordon Galzerano
market transitions transitions before they occur, and having the the courage to be out in front of your peers. But to do that, I was referring to why there are seven characteristics of why organizations struggle is because they're risk averse.
00:09:48
brian
yeah
00:09:48
Gordon Galzerano
may be cultural barriers, lack of vision and leadership, short-term focus.
00:09:53
Gordon Galzerano
I think the Kodak example is one where Why do we need to change? We're doing great. We're profitable. Well, that obviously that landscape changed very quickly. other things like they're siloed organizationally. So their ability to adapt and change is encumbered by their ineffectual ability to to move fast enough.
00:10:14
Gordon Galzerano
And then market realignment, right? Or misalignment, I should say, where they miss those market transitions. They weren't listening to their customers. And ultimately, they ended up getting left behind.
00:10:24
brian
Yeah. So let let's talk about sort of the good news, the companies that have done it well. Have they just overcome? I think you said seven things. Have they overcome? What do they do? Who are those companies and what did they do to to to change the world?
Successful Disruption Examples
00:10:41
Gordon Galzerano
Sure. sure There are three examples I'll give you. Microsoft Azure, AWS, which as you know is part of Amazon, and Salesforce.
00:10:53
Gordon Galzerano
And those three companies, just as examples, have three characteristics that they they share in common.
00:10:58
brian
Mm-hmm.
00:10:59
Gordon Galzerano
They have a culture rooted in innovation. Second, they possess true visionary leadership. In fact, Bezos was even quoted historically as saying, all of the leaders at Amazon think and live in the future.
00:11:18
Gordon Galzerano
They're encouraged to And they're always looking at ways to disrupt even their own existing models. And we we know lot is true about Amazon in that regard. And then third, they focus on partnerships and ecosystem collaboration and alliances. In other words, they don't try to go it alone.
00:11:36
Gordon Galzerano
They recognize that if they have critical partnerships and ecosystem relationships, that gives them exponential ability to move faster to leverage expertise in other parts of the business or with other partners, but it also helps them reduce their risk profile.
00:11:46
brian
you.
00:11:54
Gordon Galzerano
It helps them shield themselves from some of the disruption that happens in the marketplace. So those three companies in particular are ones that have cracked the code and they just happen to be in an industry of IT, but also in the consumer B2B and B2C consumer markets as well.
00:12:13
brian
So I wonder, Gordon, as you're talking about that, what came to mind is the best way I can think about it is like the scale of disruption. there As a company, you can do a series of small disruptions, right?
00:12:25
brian
To pieces of your value proposition or your go-to-market.
00:12:26
Gordon Galzerano
but
00:12:27
brian
And then there's that one massive disruption, right? We make a complete shift from this to digital. what What are your thoughts on and on on those? Just, uh, Yeah, it' are they they're both important, I assume.
00:12:39
Gordon Galzerano
yeah they are very They're both very important, Brian, and here's
Importance of Customer Engagement
00:12:43
Gordon Galzerano
why. so look, we're going through these times of uncertainty. And at SAMA, we just came off the heels of our annual conference in Orlando.
00:12:52
Gordon Galzerano
And our theme this year is the human network. Because during times of uncertainty, there's never a better time to get closer to your customers, to your partners, even if they're not buying today.
00:13:05
Gordon Galzerano
Because you have to look for other ways to to create mutual value and innovate. could be around an idea. It could be a new business model. It could be a transformative what's next idea.
00:13:16
brian
Thank you.
00:13:18
Gordon Galzerano
But all of those things apply. Those small ideas over time become big ideas. So getting closer to customers and partners, critically, critically important. And through those engagements, being able to look at opportunities to create value and co-create new ways of thinking and so forth.
00:13:37
Gordon Galzerano
I saw this firsthand when COVID happened. When COVID happened and supply chains were dramatically disrupted. At the time I was leading my practice around executive advisory boards.
00:13:46
brian
Right.
00:13:49
Gordon Galzerano
And in the consumer packaging space, as you can imagine, there's a lot to be said around supply chain. And what started to happen when we got customers in the room and ideating around what's next, they started to think about resiliency.
00:14:03
Gordon Galzerano
They started to think about how to leverage one another's capacity so that they can do things that they otherwise couldn't do. And some of those were simple, but not simplistic ideas, but they had a profound impact on customer experience in the bottom line.
00:14:13
brian
right
00:14:18
Gordon Galzerano
And then, of course, when we think about those transformative ideas, I think this this whole body of work around agentic AI and so forth, I think the proliferation of that is going to just completely create positive and adverse disruption the next five years in particular.
00:14:38
brian
Yeah, I want to i want to finish with with getting into the weeds a little bit. And this will lead into, as you well know, you you and I are going to do a podcast on your platform about ah ah my previous company I disrupted too to build my new one. And we're we're in the you know in the sales enablement field. but and So I don't want to get into that yet, but I'm just wondering...
00:15:00
brian
You know, with with account being a account management focused as you are even sales focused. What what needs to be disrupted from your perspective in terms of the way we prep our our reps, whether the account managers or AEs?
00:15:14
Gordon Galzerano
Yeah. Yeah. so So when I talk to when I talk to CEOs and C-suite executives, I try to tailor my initial conversations around three things.
00:15:27
Gordon Galzerano
Tell me about the culture of your company. Tell me about the purpose of why you exist and in service of who or whom. And then third, how is the customer embedded into the strategy of your company?
00:15:44
Gordon Galzerano
the customer centricity piece of this. When those three things line up, it then creates a culture and an environment for the customer facing teams, whether it's sales, marketing, executives, right?
00:15:55
brian
yeah
00:15:57
Gordon Galzerano
To really be able to get out there and and have meaningful conversations in the way we're talking about it
Adapting Sales Teams to Customer Needs
00:16:02
Gordon Galzerano
today, right? And so what organizations have to think about is how do we enable our customer facing teams, our sellers and sales teams with the opportunities to actually make a difference.
00:16:17
brian
Yes.
00:16:17
Gordon Galzerano
Because we can go out and talk to customers all day long, but if our organization can't adopt the ideas and implement them at scale in a repeatable monetizable way, it falls flat.
00:16:30
Gordon Galzerano
So part of what it's I would consider a two dimensional piece, one is How we get our sellers to think strategically, which is not easy. That's one of the characteristics, attributes, and skills that's hardest. People either have it or they don't, or it's much harder to teach how to be a strategic thinker.
00:16:50
Gordon Galzerano
But when our sellers do have that mindset and they can think about how they can drive the best of their organization and service of their customers, that's when the conditions are the best.
00:17:02
Gordon Galzerano
What I say to CEOs and executives is you have to create the internal conditions for that to happen. In other words, as I mentioned, one of the seven attributes where why organizations struggle is because they're very siloed.
00:17:16
Gordon Galzerano
So there has to be an integration or an alignment internally to get those cross-functional interdisciplinary teams created, aligned, measured towards helping our sellers be effective when they are out there having those strategic conversations with customers and partners.
00:17:25
brian
Yeah.
00:17:34
brian
Yep. I do agree on the sort of implement implementation and pull through thing. And that's what we'll we'll talk some about and on our next podcast, because we as I was building my new business, we interviewed 65 CROs, CSOs, heads of sales enablement.
Challenges in Changing Sales Team Behavior
00:17:50
brian
Everybody was frustrated. There's a lot of spending going on and a lot of levers being pulled and and stuff being pushed to frontline folks.
00:17:56
Gordon Galzerano
Thank you.
00:17:57
brian
But yeah, the the most common frustration I've heard is that It's not sticking. We're not having behavior change. So we'll talk more about that. And so just a quick aside for, I think most people are probably familiar with SAMA, Strategic Account Management Association. and And Gordon, you didn't know I was going to do this and you didn't ask, but many years ago, my my first VP job as a VP of National Account Sales for Marriott International.
00:18:24
brian
And I didn't know the first thing about account management. And it was back in the day when account management was still reasonably new. and And I joined SAMA.
00:18:31
Gordon Galzerano
Yes.
00:18:32
brian
It was NAMA at the time, and I just aged the hell out of myself.
00:18:37
Gordon Galzerano
Yes, you did.
00:18:37
brian
but You know, i i I sat on the board of SAMA. One of my co-founders has also sat on the board of SAMA and the amount, if if you're running an account management organization or you're an account manager, the the content, yeah the contacts, the conversations, it it helped me build my entire account management program. I had no clue where I was going. So, i you know, i I thank the community and anybody else who hasn't been there.
00:19:04
brian
And also, thank you. You've been super gracious with your time prepping for this. and generous with your ideas today. And ah ah really, really appreciate you being here.
00:19:14
Gordon Galzerano
Brian, it's been my pleasure and and I appreciate the partnership with you and the team. And thanks for having me on today. I really appreciate it.
00:19:20
brian
You're welcome.