Mitch Breen, SVP, Global Channel Strategy and Sales, EMC Corp.

And for Breen, it probably is.

Breen is one of the Top 25 people in terms of impact on the channel in large part because he and his team has shaped EMC's channel organization into one that's becoming a benchmark against which enterprise vendors can measure their own indirect sales efforts.

And that model is also successful in the small business market, where EMC has acquired vendors such as Dantz (with its Retrospect software) and Iomega, and then tied their products with some home-grown hardware and software into a channel-only play.

As EMC's senior vice president of global channel strategy and sales, Breen is responsible for overseeing one of the industry's strongest channel program, the success of which is "certified" by solution providers themselves.

Just look at the August VARBusiness Annual Report Card survey of solution providers and their picks for the most channel-friendly vendors. EMC not only won in both the storage hardware and storage software categories, it topped its competitors in both by the highest margins of any categories.

Between its annual partner conference, regular meetings of its partner councils, and a huge and growing force of channel-focused sales reps who get no compensation on a deal unless it goes through a solution provider, Breen and his crew take feedback on channel issues seriously, and make it part of the semiannual ritual of enhancing its channel program.