The Soft Pitch

Our Fiscal Year 08 is over…and July 1st starts 09 for us. I can’t tell you how we did unless I do my next blog entry from jail. But suffice to say that we did better than the previous year…and if you watch our quarterly results that would be just a da. Q3 was sure forgettable but I personally feel it was another good year as we start to market all the reasons like we acquired 9 companies that will add value globally…blah blah blah.

I would rather make my observation that our people development is the key…employee engagement scores are up (annual survey by Watson Wyatt) again, but I do not need a survey to tell me that…I can tell it when you see the smiles, body language and enthusiasm of our folks when I travel or just walk the hallway.

We have consistently made good investments in our employee training, recognition and morale programs. A few examples are enhanced training in 4 areas; when folks arrive, interns (see Michelle’s last blog), operational excellence and sales efforts that improve our results. My favorite employee program of late was when our morale folks rented out two movie theatres in PHX as our employees paid for discount tickets to see the new Indiana Jones flick…I saw warehouse, sales, operations, finance and management all show up with their families…it was cool.

Steve Church and Mary Ann Miller lead our HR/development effort and are becoming well known as they are sought after in speeches and press…I recommend you really get the scoop from them. In our service business people do make the difference, and we have 13,000 plus doing a damn good job.

One person missing will be Dave Rapier who just retired. We had a very nice small surprise party for him Friday which Roy Vallee and Ed Kamins lead. His wife and 5 kids, plus other family members were there and were so happy and proud. He has 19 grandchildren which should keep him busy. He leaves a legacy of integrity, kindness and a successful career. An Avnet officer and 26 year veteran here he lead our telemarketing effort in the 70’s and direct sales online in the 90’s and our customer loyalty survey data…his innovation still impacts our efforts everyday…best of luck…good guys can finish first.

PS

More importantly the Cubs are in first at mid-year…that is rare, thank you GOD. I’m holding my breath. Also important is we have two stellar countries Spain and Germany for Avnet who will not be thinking of selling component parts or computer solutions today and celebrating tomorrow who wins the football championship of Europe. I love the energy of Spain’s team but my Euros are bet on the reliable Germans.

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