AGRON Business Development

Meet Mike Agron

Mike Agron launched AGRON Business Development, a California-based consultancy, to address a need in the technology sector to improve sales execution through proven business development and partnering strategies. With a 25-year history at top technology hardware and software firms (Apple, Oracle, MapInfo and deCarta), he has been recognized for his best practices in both the private and public sectors across multiple enterprise solutions (e.g. BI, CRM, GIS, LBS, Field Service Management, etc.) and markets (e.g. Telecommunications, Insurance, Retail, State and Local Government, etc.). Mike has worked in the trenches and led global business development, channel, and partner sales teams that managed VARs, SIs, ISVs and OEMs. He is also an accomplished speaker and producer of executive forums, partner conferences, and webinars.

Mike created AGRON Business Development to help technology companies achieve new heights via his experience delivering results with innovative business development and partnership strategies. This practice is a natural extension of Mike's talents and is driven by his passion for creating high impact and high performance partnerships. He has guided clients to achieve predictable revenue and market share expansion.

Most recently, Mike was Vice President of Business Development and a member of the executive management team for deCarta, a privately-held LBS (location-based services) company that had alliances with industry leaders including Google Maps, Zillow.com, Hotels.com, Verizon and Sprint. Mike is proud of developing partner relationships and programs in the enterprise market with such leaders as Business Objects, Click Software, First American Proxix, and SRC.

Throughout Mike's career he delivered exceptional results in sales, business development, and strategic partner management on a national and global basis. His ability to conceptualize and implement innovative plans through business development and partnering was exemplified at MapInfo. At MapInfo he pioneered the location-enablement of business intelligence applications that opened new revenue streams by striking new relationships with major software companies. In addition to managing his business development team, his leadership of the Americas Partner Group, also continued to contribute over 27% of the Americas revenue goal.

While at Oracle, he developed partnering initiatives to increase field sales engagement, managed a multi-billion-dollar global partner, and was the point person for developing and solidifying a key global strategic geospatial technology and go-to-market partnership between Oracle and its partner MapInfo.

At Decker Communications, he created a separate division to integrate multimedia and presentation technology to provide training for the then emerging field of Sales Force Automation and acted as a contributing editor to the “1994 Business Week Guide to Multimedia Presentations."

At Apple, he managed the State of California sales team and implemented strategies leading to market share growth of 105% in less than three years. During his first year at Apple, he influenced key agencies, such as County of Orange, City of Anaheim, and the International Association of Fire Chiefs to adopt the Macintosh as an alternative platform to the entrenched MS-DOS standard. This resulted in the expansion of business by more than 650% in the Southern California state and local government markets.

The common thread for his success throughout his career has been partnering for success. He is passionate about building profitable relationships for his company, clients, and partners. Mike has managed and supported initiatives involving top tier technology corporations, start-ups, and mid-sized firms. His unique perspective and ability to guide companies of all sizes and all stages of operations enables him to craft the optimal value proposition to meet the company's objectives. He has earned the reputation as a trusted advisor, able to assume the role of an outsourced VP of Business Development for companies in a transition or seeking to take their business to the next level.