Interview with James Governor, RedMonk

Originally published in my other blog - I thought the folks here at Sun might be interested in reading an interview I did with RedMonk founder James Governor, one of the more outspoken analysts in the industry.

About you and RedMonk…

How did you come to be an industry analyst?

I was working in a crappy customer service job at a major publishing company, taking a break smoking a cigarette, when out of the blue another smoker offered me a job as a tech reporter. That was in 1995. I ran with it. They gave me the IBM and mainframe beats – “because they are both dead… IBM used to be the senior reporter’s job but now we’ll give it to the junior.”

I was fairly young looking, I still am which is nice, I still can’t grow a really decent beard, and hated going into interviews with these grizzled vets from firms like IBM, Amdahl and HDS and looking like I didn’t know what I was talking about. So I tried to get under the surface of the industry and technology. I would start every interview by launching into technical details.

The approach brought me to the attention of Jonathan Eunice of Illuminata, whom I met at CA-World. We became good contacts. He eventually offered me a job in 1999. My first report…. was about mainframe pricing issues. Jonathan is a super bright guy, and he taught me a lot. But we eventually parted ways in late 2002. I made my final decision at an IBM Software Group conference. I thought of a name – RedMonk, which felt sticky, and included an entire worldview (Redmond, Armonk – we cover IBM and Microsoft and everything in between). So my role as company founder began.

Each firm has it's unique mix of offerings including whitepapers, end user services such as bid negotiation, vendor consultations, data/share reporting, etc. How would you describe RedMonk's mix and the importance of various focus areas?

We don’t really do much of that stuff. We don’t do whitepapers for hire. We don’t do numbers. We don’t do bid negotiation.

We do vendor consultancy. We blog a lot. Content is free, consulting isn’t. We talk to a lot of enterprises in order to make sure our analysis is accurate. They don’t need to be clients for us to be advocates for them. One really clear differentiator is our focus on developer communities as leading indicators of technology adoption. Technology always flies under the corporate purchasing radar before it becomes standardised and ‘enterprisey”. We keep a very close eye on grassroots developer issues.

Analyst firms, like other businesses, all have their own culture. How would you characterize RedMonk as a place to work and company with which to do business?

Free-wheeling, imaginative, fun, easy to do business with, not so great at administration, helpful, willing to share insights, supportive, casual, professional, ethical, driven by factors other than money. We’re a company that abhors barriers to entry and barriers to participation. Open, open, open. Declarative. If I didn’t work for RedMonk I would want to.

Analyst Relations 101…

What advice would you give to analyst relations professionals on how to successfully work with you and your colleagues?

We’re human. Be open with us, don’t act like you know us if you don’t. Expect and accept that sometimes we may flow around you. Its not that we’re bad people, we just like reaching out to people directly and building communities. READ OUR BLOGS, you’ll know what we’re thinking.

Without naming names, do you have any vendor-horror stories that would serve as an example of how not to work with analysts?

There are a few. Even if you think you’re far smarter than the analyst, don’t try and make it clear. There was the guy that wanted us to help them find partners on a commission only basis. That was pretty laughable. I also really don’t like vendors that claim there are errors of fact in a report you write, when in fact they are matters of opinion.

IBM historically was quite open to reports that include some criticism and context about other vendors, rather than insisting on puff pieces. Sadly that culture is changing a bit. Oops I named a name-but not the group! J

Most companies have yearly analyst events and the atmosphere varies widely. Taking into consideration variables such as amount of one-on-one time with execs, gifts, food, technical vs business content, venue, etc. What makes for a great analyst event?

Lots of one to ones. No presentations longer than 35 minutes. Plenty of time to network. How come we never get to go outside? Powerpoint is not intellectual brain food. I would like to go to analyst conference where we can go outside and breathe some fresh air in lovely surroundings.

Building on the last question, what makes for a bad event?

Ten hours of powerpoint, followed by a three hour dinner where you’re surround by execs you don’t know.

Misbehaving analysts and vendors…

The competitive climate in the high-tech industry is pretty tough and companies will try a lot of tactics in order to get an edge. Do vendors ever give you the impression that if you write negatively about them they will not purchase your services? If so, how do you handle it?

Happens all the time. Its ok we just treat them with respect, and take briefings if we’re offered. We don’t need to get paid by everyone – we wouldn’t really expect to. If vendors are so immature they expect constant smoke blown towards their posteriors they won’t enjoy working us. We’re too straightforward and honest for that.

On the other side, companies are tightening budgets and this inevitably effects the amount of money spent on analyst research. Because of this do you ever get the sense that analysts are trying to win business through strong-arming (writing negatively about nonpaying clients whilst praising those who do pay).

Some firms do that. We never would. That’s a side of the analyst business I hate, and have publicly and loudly criticised.

Where should analysts "draw the line" in terms of being unbiased when doing paid research?

Dunno.

About blogging…

A lot of analysts have tried blogging, but few have gained any traction. Your blog is arguably one of the most widely read analyst blogs out there (a simple Google or Technorati search will prove that). What drove you to start blogging and why do you feel your blog has been so successful?

I wanted to publish more, without putting everything through a ludicrous number of edits and revisions. We wanted to be more open with our content. I wanted analysis publishing to be fun, and self-directed. Stephen O’Grady, my business partner, is the real blogger at RedMonk. He doesn’t need to write formal reports to win clients.

Why the success? People are far more interesting than companies or technologies. Blogs are written by people.

We also write about many issues that are not completely enterprisey- Web 2.0 is an important context for the future in the enterprise. AJAx, RESt and so on are the same. These are issues the blogopshere cares about.

Do you believe (or know) that you have won business due to your blog and the awareness it has generated?

All the time. Its an increasingly powerful lead gen tool – again Stephen in particular is winning many startups and small firms as clients that would never have heard of us if it wasn’t for tecosystems, his blog.

In addition to industry commentary, you occasionally post about political issues. What has been the reaction to this?

I got warned off. I try and limit it, but if I ever get invited to give a White House correspondents dinner I am going to make Steven Colbert look like Scott Mclennan. Someone told me a lot of IBMers are conservative and won’t contribute comments or so on on my blog. Ho hum. At RedMonk we’re all fairly left-leaning so far, but I am the gonzo euro commie.

What do you think of "stealth sites" such as ARmageddon?

Armadgeddon excited me to start with, but I am increasingly surprised at how pro Gartner all their analysis is especially given they go under a nom de plumes. At least Duncan Chapple says who he is, even if I disagree with his analyses. I like Gartner watch, but again its psudenonymous. Shame really. how can you call for analyst transparency if you won’t state who you are?

What else?

Any other thoughts you'd like to share?

I am extremely proud that we’re now shaping vendor technology directions through our blogs. Developers that would never be able to afford a subscription to a firm read us and give us credibility. The fact that IBM has new products coming out that we inspired is a great feeling.

About James Governor

“James Governor is a Principal Analyst and founder of RedMonk. He leads coverage in the enterprise applications space, assisting clients with application development, integration middleware and systems management issues, as they relate to operational and business process optimization.

James has been an IBM and Microsoft corporate watcher for 8 years. He's regularly quoted in US and European press, and has served as an industry expert for television and radio segments with media outlets like the BBC.” (from the RedMonk analyst bio page)

Further reading:

RedMonk’s website

MonkChips – James’ Blog

Posted at 09:09PM Nov 06, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Interviews  |  Comments[3] Tag it: