The Soft Pitch

If you follow my blog you know I’m a huge Cub fan, where have I been? With no comments so far with spring training starting, I assume a few of you thought I was in debtors prison or dead. I think it was the Cardinals in the super bowl that threw me off.

The PHX valley weather is awesome here…tomorrow I’m going to the Cubs vs the hated cross town rival White Sox game in Mesa…All Cub fans for generations have looked down on Sox fan because they are blue collar, don’t have cell phones, they buy used cars, and worst of all from the southside. Obama, his replacement and Daley are Sox fans, sad.  WE hate them because of they won the series a few years ago when they had no clue what was happening and got lucky.  They wear black. We wear a very nice shade of blue.  We have passports to travel.  Travel to Sox fans is going to Wisconsin.  My parents (God rest their souls) were huge Sox fans, so was the whole family but me…the debates were legendary…I was easily the bad seed.  The first time I ever said the F word in front of my 80 year old Mom and Dad was when some idiot Sox fan got me going for no reason at a crosstown classic (before the games counted) at Wrigley Field. My wife was holding me back and my Mom grabbing her heart like Red Foxx’s girlfriend…I’m getting jazzed already…hot dog, beer, hot dog, beer and peanuts….bring it on baby!!!!

So what does this have to do with Avnet…nothing. I’m going to kickback and enjoy some friends and not even think about the grueling 162 game schedule and playoffs my body and brain pain I will need to go through again this season. Another season of hope and enthusiasm…time to enjoy the moment.

A few weeks ago Avnet announced that Phil Gallagher, formerly president of our Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas team had been promoted to the global president position for a different business within Avnet, Avnet Technology Solutions.  As a follow up, this week we announced Ed Smith would move up to succeed Phil.  When Phil’s promotion was announced, there were a few questions along how someone who spent their entire career in components would do leading our computing business. It seemed a no brainer to us: experience counts.  Phil knows how to connect with employees, suppliers, customers. He has experience building businesses, setting priorities, allocating resources and making hard decisions.  So does Ed.  He’s run sales for the Americas team and has been “in the thick of it” so speak.  I was reminded yesterday yet again of just how much experience counts when I was listening to our CEO talk to a reporter about how the current economic meltdown is different from the tech bubble of 2001 and how he’s applying the lessons learned during that time to managing the business now.  In essence – it’s a balancing act between managing expenses to align with the short-term (trimming our expense structure to parallel declining revenue) AND continuing to invest for the long term. No one wants to cut back so far that the organization is crippled to the point of service levels deteriorating or that we won’t have the resources to capture the opportunities when business does bounce back – we all know it will – we just don’t know when.  To me, these are the kinds of decisions where you need experience, a deep bench, and someone who’s been there before.  That depth of experience allows you to put everything in perspective and – this is critical from my point of view – make wise decisions that are not driven by fear and panic. It’s also important to move quickly, being constantly vigilant.  I once worked for a company that didn’t react fast enough to a dramatic change in their business and guess what?  That company no longer exists.

During an interview Roy Vallee shared (a bit apologetically by the way) that we’re managing the business quarter-to-quarter. The reporter mentioned not to worry as other execs had told her basically the same thing.  It makes perfect sense to me in an environment where just about everyone is saying there is limited visibility into future economic trends.  Is it at the bottom?  Still going down?  No one knows right now, so we’re keeping close watch and adjusting as we go along.  A “let’s wait and see” approach could be devastating if we waited and then had to dramatically cut costs and people in a panic mode mentality, or worse cut too deep and not be able to manage the business.  That’s where experience comes in – knowing how and when to adopt a management approach that fits the situation. Call me if you’d like to talk to Avnet management more about how we’re managing through the down turn – we’re positioning now to make sure we’re on top when the macro-environment turns around.

Executives from Microsoft, Blimpie, Wells Fargo, and Humana will head a panel on 2/25 on the topic we are all stuck with for awhile not just playing defense in this market. Join us.

 I have learned of two groups doing some nice things for veterans which I’m hope Avnet and I will be supporting in some way. I know biz is bad but at least your not in Afghanistan and worried about coming back in one piece or your a family member or friend holding your breath.

Great idea number 1….Pizzas4patriots.com. They send goods and services to our troops in the middle east, this 4th of July DHL has donated a 747 to us to fill up what ever we can. If I was helping load I would have to borrow a few of those pizzas…they are Lou Malnati’s a staple of Chicago diets. They also send a few brews along….

The Phoenix Regional Sports Commission is back under Jon Schmieder’s and Mark Tudi’s direction. The civic program supported by our regional cities and the PHX Convention and Visitors Bureau opened up their Champions Circle networking program with 3 great past Suns players during NBA All-Star week here in PHX…Eddie Johnson, Alvin Adams and Mark West on a dais. They were very interesting about their views on the league, globalization and very kind on how bad the Suns are…

An excellent crowd enjoyed the topics and got to mingle…my guess is president Jon will make his precense known…in a very professional way. 

The mission of the PRSC is to “Enrich Our Community Through Sports”

through three initiatives.  First, by representing the citizens of the Valley

to bring national and international sporting events to the state.  Second, to assist in the promotion of existing sporting events and our area sports teams.  And third, to support youth sports programs.   

The PRSC also owns the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame, and will revive the annual induction ceremony on April 16th.  This event is the sole fundraiser for the organization and is the primary driver for the Sports Commission to continue to be active executing its mission. Avnet will be a sponsor…so join in the action. For more info contact Jon at 602/258-6272.