Jay McBain Speculates… About His Post-Lenovo Future

Talk about the tail wagging the dog… Former Lenovo SMB Director Jay McBain is having plenty of tongue-in-cheek fun this week. Publicly, McBain has not said where he’s going. But privately a bunch of media folks under gag order apparently know the answer. Even better, McBain is re-tweeting media speculation about his career direction. Here’s the update.

First, let’s take a look at the media trail. On December 19, McBain wrote a blog entry disclosing his departure from Lenovo. By December 20, The VAR Guy was on the story but gagging (hush, hush, wink, wink) on a key detail — where is McBain going? By 8:00 p.m. eastern on Dec. 20, CRN was on the story. And late Dec. 20, SMBNation chipped in with speculation about McBain potentially going to Autotask.

Ahem, still no comment or prediction from The VAR Guy on McBain’s direction. But perhaps somebody should check the memory on The VAR Guy’s Flip video camera… Three questions, three answers, three minutes… with some well-dressed Canadian dude in a suit. Potential video publication date: Unknown.

Special Deliveries

Meanwhile, the virtual flowers and online gift cards have started rolling in…

• On Dec. 21, ChannelNomics declared McBain a “rising star of the SMB channel.”
• Later on Dec. 21, Channel Insider declared McBain a “futurist and channel star.”

Kidding aside, The VAR Guy can’t debate those descriptions. McBain is pretty sharp.

His smartest move of all: McBain’s personal FaceBook account is a central hub for all the coverage. He even re-posted the SMBNation report about potentially joining Autotask. The key twist: McBain still hasn’t confirmed where he’s going.

Memo to IT vendors: If you want to learn how to play the media and whip up a social media discussion… then follow McBain’s lead. Simply keep repeating what the media is saying without confirming (or denying) a thing…