The Soft Pitch

Had to watch Senator Kennedy’s memorial service service today…well done by the entire family.

I was 14 and in drafting class at Lane Tech in Chicago when I heard over our intercom system that JFK was shot…I learned later in another class he was gone.  At that service I remember the drum beat, the black horse with no rider and casket on the caisson. Then John saluting his Dad. Someone took away from us a person we all trusted to lead us. Very sad.

Bobbie was another blow to our future. 

Ted blew his own personal attempt at the oval office on his own…but he sure made up for it as a US Senator.

Once heard Ted speak in Congress…both my wife and were mesmerized. 

Wish John and Bobbie had lived as long as Ted…I wonder what the world would have been like? 

Again at my age, I’m so lucky to have seen them live even if most of it was on TV. I remember JKF being elected while in grammar school. My Mom was Catholic so u know who she voted for and loved.  Everyone eventually loved him. Bobbie was having a positive impact on us draft age guys ending the Vietnam war… Ted was just taken lightly and people felt bad for him…before he went off the bridge. But he faked out everyone and turned out to be pretty damn good leader and created 300 laws.  He did not rest on his family brand name laurels. Gotta give him his props.

After all this, sister Eunice who also passed recently may have the biggest impact on our society with the Special Olympics…THAT is a great program. Props to her.

What I liked was they were wealthy and were not afraid of making decsions because it could impact their power or salaries. They just wanted to make the best calls, made some errors and admitted them and they really seemed to enjoy the moment and life.

Hopefully another family will emerge in my lifetime as royally as they did.

Tweets are not for everyone…I read today emails are not for demand creation, but for nuturing relationships. Tweets to me are replacing the water cooler w short comments between people…140 characters …that is about all I need. LinkedIn is the new virtual rolodex…Video is really in…hell who wants to read and think, when u can be entertained.  Avnet OnDemand is creating quite a bit a buzz and viewership so I know that is working.

If u do not use any of these tactics….your misssing out.  Enjoy your fax machine.  Enough said.

Blogging from the cell block today … locked up for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

 I’m doing my best to raise money for MDA   and looking for a little help from my friends. 

The jailbird raising funds for MDA!

Believe me, there have been moments when I wondered why I agreed to this.  But now that I’m here talking to these kids, there’s no doubt.  Kids just want to be kids – even if they’re in wheel chairs or wearing braces.  I like knowing we’re helping them.  At camp, they can do what all kids do at camp – go horseback riding, crafts, roast marshmallows – they just need a little extra help in case they have medical emergencies.  That’s where MDA comes in.  In between calls, e-mails and tweets to raise money, I’m talking to staffers and listening to kids talk – they all say the same thing: Camp is the best week of their life!  Imagine that, helping someone to have the best week of their life. 

These are the times I’m proud to work for Avnet.  First for getting me involved (through Al – thanks), second for supporting me with taking the time to do this (thanks again) and for giving me wonderful connections to colleagues and friends willing to support me (thanks a third time).

No surprises here, though.  Avnet has long had a commitment to the communities we serve. It’s part of our culture and how we do business.  One of the things I learned a long time ago is that people don’t care how much you know or how much you do, until they know how much you care.  Care about their business.  Care about them as people.  Care about those around them.  Sure we make good, sound business decisions based on long-term strategy and the drive for results.  BUT, deep down we’re all human and we like to do business with people we like.  And at the end of the day, we’re all in this together, so if we can do a little something good to help the community along the way, GREAT!

 So, time for me to go back to fund raising for MDA and see if I can’t raise enough to send another kid to camp.  For every $800 I raise, another kid gets to roast marshmallows under the stars and make a sand candle.  Want to help?  Here’s the website to donate.

 And let me take a moment here to thank a lot of folks who have already donated: Gail, Al, Steve, Roy, Joal, CarolAnn, Chris, Jun, Michele, Charlie, Ed, Steve, Bret, Grant, Teri, MaryAnn, Sean, Kathy, Jan, Mark, Jim, Linda, Erin, Philip, Rick, Stephanie, Steve, Julie, Joal, Cheryl, Michaelle, Ed, Sonia, Jane.  Thanks to all!  I started off wondering how I was going to do this – and now together we’ve raised more than $5,000 so far.  Now I know how I’m going to do this.  With a little help from my friends.

Unless you’re a cactus you know it’s the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. I admit I was not at Woodstock, but I remember the impact of the tv news coverage and print stories…like wow, how did they do that?  No one I know heard of it before it happened…I guess no one twittered us.  The gang I was in were not hippies, so we may not have gotten the invite anyway. We did not have long hair, we played softball and went to parties. This is one party wish we had crashed.

The movie a year or so later was an event every person in their teens and 20’s had to see.  It made Monterey Pop in ‘67 look like a Cub Scout Jamboree.  Loved all the big stars, but Sly, Country Joe, and 10 Years After really impressed me. The opening act was Richie Havens and he played a Guild guitar made by AVNET…according to Sean Fanning, Scot Clark and Dave Harmet who responded to this blog.

In spirit we were all there. It looked awesome. Fun, music, weed, love, living amongst others under the stars…minus the traffic problems, wet, dirty conditions and no food which I would have hated.  All with an anti-war theme. We all thought Vietnam was a waste of our young people…sounds like today…thought we would have learned something.

The event was unprecedented, as 400,000 plus made their way to Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y. When I watch the old footage, I’m always thinking what the attendees must be doing now or wonder what they think about their stay…amazingly some these groups are alive and still playing and still loved today. I liked music…this made me really love it…from 50’s on…especially 60-70’s…even some disco.

I felt obligated to get an movie event booklet and actual tickets from the event as memorabilia a long time ago…still makes me feel to good to look at once in awhile. But what really makes me feel like I was there was seeing most of the bands eventually…enjoying Joplin, The Who, Santana, Crosby, Stills and Nash and of course Jimi Hendrix the most. I hated Joan Baez…talking about her husband in jail, yada yada and eventually when he got out he dumped her…had to laugh.

“3 days of peace and music” will never go away. I was 20 then. Now each anniversary spawns thoughts of a great time…combined with landing on the moon a pretty good damn good year, which had a big impact on all our lives and the world. 

My guess is Our Guild guitars we made then were there far more in number. We are checking it out now. If anyone knows what musicians used these guitars please tell me. The music was played on Garrard turntables and Wharfedales speakers, all due to our acqusition of British Industries in 1960, which allowed us to be the first distributor on the NYSE. 

WoodstockWire: Al –  Your story is very popular with my readers today.. about 109 clicks so far..

We just announced our numbers for April/May/June which is our Q4… so for the year our revenue for fiscal 2009 was $16.23 billion, down 9.6% over fiscal 2008 revenue.  You can read the press release, but in my opinion our leadership team around the globe controlled our destiny under very difficult circumstances, outperformed the bad guys in many metrics and made the tough calls on expenses early on (this may have been a lesson learned from the 2000/2001 tech storm), but did not shy away from investing in M&A, service offerings, our employees, and making the right marketing investments with our suppliers and customers. For example investing in customer educational programs, IT solutions programs and seminars.  Or innovative ideas like batteries, LED lighting, embedded programs, Avnet Express and Avnet OnDemand.

I’m personally proud of our team’s efforts.

Three comments I was pleased to see/hear and makes me optimistic were…Roy Vallee, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,  “With EM’s inventory turns near record levels, the bulk of our inventory reduction appears to be behind us. Furthermore, we believe that inventory throughout the supply chain is now reasonably well aligned with stable end demand.” and “Technology Solutions met its revenue expectations for the second consecutive quarter furthering our belief that the markets we serve have reached bottom. 

Cash Flow for the full fiscal year 2009 generated in excess of $1.1 billion.  Our CFO, Ray Sadowski noted, ” Our ability to continue to generate positive cash flow has further improved our liquidity position and affords us the flexibility to continue to invest in organic growth and take advantage of value-creating acquisitions when they are available.” 

The dark clouds maybe behind us….in Phoenix it’s 150 degrees here for the summer months, and I feel the same way about our business temperatures are slowly getting back to enjoyable weather.