As we expand the Ringside series to hear from experts beyond RingCentral’s walls, we continue to engage with our own leaders to get insights into the challenges and solutions of the telecommunications industry.
Today we’re talking to Sunny Dhami, Senior Director of EMEA Product Marketing & GTM for RingCentral. That means he’s responsible for driving and delivering the messaging strategy, GTM, and positioning across the EMEA business and strategic partners.
Sunny has extensive marketing experience across SaaS, telecommunications, and technology sectors in companies such as Vodafone, Reed Elsevier, Calor Gas, and SapientNitro. He loves learning and is an ardent student of marketing. During his time at RingCentral, Sunny has successfully led major product launches across EMEA and APAC. He holds a real passion to create differentiation and value for the customer and to share that through messaging and positioning.
Sunny, what’s your role at RingCentral and what do you love about your job?
I lead the EMEA product marketing and go-to-market team for RingCentral. I’m responsible for all aspects of product launches and go-to-market, content, positioning and websites whilst also ensuring all of our partners also have access to these. On paper it’s very clear what that remit covers, but in reality my team and I get involved in all sorts of roles in order to support the business. We’re in a unique position in that we’re aligned with both product and marketing teams and as such we get to help drive the growth RingCentral has seen on numerous fronts. That means there’s incredible variety in the work we cover, and there’s constantly things to do and get involved in.
I’ve been at RingCentral for six years and am still waiting for the day when things slow down. It takes a certain type of person to be able to cope with the speed of delivery and execution that’s found here, but luckily I’m surrounded by brilliant colleagues that continue to deliver and execute. That’s what makes RingCentral a great place to work. I believe it’s my colleagues and our joint desire to deliver a real change in the market is what keeps me going, and that’s what I love most about my job. Everyone is focussed on the goal of helping people to communicate and collaborate, and we live and breathe that in everything we do. As I mentioned, my team is brilliant and they always come together and support one another – and this is seen throughout the company. It’s a pleasure to work in an organisation where people are so engaged and empowered, and that manifests in what we achieve together. It makes us excited for the future.
In what ways has business communications changed over your career?
Things have changed drastically during my time at RingCentral, both internally in the company and externally in the market. The company has grown exponentially and delivered some great things which I’m proud to have played a part in. In the market I have seen cloud adoption increase along with the switch from on-premises communication stacks to unified communications as a service. I’ve also seen a big push to create an integrated ecosystem of cloud applications, with a major push being focussed on bringing everything together in one application. What we have seen over the last few months, living through a major pandemic and seeing the shift to work from home where possible, I think this has been a significant change to how we will perceive work and where we work from. We have already seen major organisations commit to not needing employees back in the office for the foreseeable future, and in some cases companies agreeing to implement even more flexible working arrangements. With tight margins and competitive markets, I expect a lot of businesses to embrace new technologies and processes in how they work so that they can remain competitive. I think this will bring in a new era of work, collaboration and communication.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give to a business wishing to improve its communication?
My single biggest piece of advice for businesses trying to improve their communication is that they should keep their vision, mission and employees at the forefront of what they are trying to achieve. When looking to improve your communications you should always be thinking about how your employees will be impacted and how the change overall will support your business vision. This is a theme that came up in the Technology in the Workplace discussion I was part of late last year. It’s important that digital transformation is a people-first policy. That way, change is directed towards enabling employees to do their best work.
Sometimes businesses make changes because they feel it’s the right thing to do, but in our economy there’s no room for “technology for the sake of it.” Before making any change, map out how the change will support your vision and employees.
Sometimes businesses make changes because they feel it's the right thing to do, but before making any change, map out how the change will support your vision and employees. Click To Tweet
With that, we thank Sunny for his contribution and wish him success over the next six years. Once again, as lockdown in the UK is loosened and people begin to return to work, we remind you all to be vigilant in keeping safe and healthy. In the meantime, look out for more episodes in this series of Ringside.
Originally published Jun 15, 2020, updated Jan 16, 2023
