Milestone Gets Outsider Exec - Good Or Bad?

John Honovich

•Nov 04, 2014

IPVM

With Milestone's previous CSMO becoming Vicon's CEO, Milestone has gotten their replacement - an industry outsider.

Milestone's new CSMO is Kenneth Petersen, previously head of sales for a financial management software provider, SimCorp.

The clear connection / upside is that Petersen is Scandanavian, speaks Danish and will work at Milestone's Copenhagen HQ.

Outsiders Running Sales and Marketing?

The challenge is the lack of connections and industry knowledge. Regardless of how smart or talented one is, sales and marketing depends heavily on both personal connections and understanding of the peculiar competitive dynamics of each industry. Likewise, a top notch surveillance executive going to a financial management firm would have similar adaptation challenges.

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What do you think?

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John Honovich

•Nov 04, 2014

IPVM

I deleted all the comments relating to sports as it's off topic / distracting.

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Jon Dillabaugh

•Nov 04, 2014

Pro Focus LLC

In reply to John's previous question, I guess I don't have a strong objection to outside hires as long as it makes sense. Objecting a hire on face value seems short sighted. The hire, regardless of insider/outsider status should be evaluated individually. I don't know anything about the guy hired to run the marketing dept. I'm pretty sure you don't need to know ANYTHING about cameras in order to write deceptive ads.

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John Honovich

•Nov 04, 2014

IPVM

In reply to Jon Dillabaugh

"I don't know anything about the guy hired to run the marketing dept."

It's sales and marketing. For sales, I believe it's quite important to have relationships with and understanding of people in the space (distributors, key customers, etc.).

I think there's value in marketers having domain experience but don't think that it as critical as sales.

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John Honovich

•Nov 04, 2014

IPVM

In reply to Jon Dillabaugh

"Objecting a hire on face value seems short sighted."

There are many requirements common for jobs that are deal breakers. The only question is whether or not domain expertise and relationships are critical, i.e. a requirement.

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