The Soft Pitch

I frequently write in this blog about things Avnet is doing in the community – like the food drive that’s  or the pillow drive of a month or so back.  Part of why we have so much going on in the community is our people.  Especially our leaders.  One leader in particular.  Who was recognized as the Outstanding Volunteer Executive of the Year – Al Maag, my fellow blogger for Soft Pitch. You probably already know Al founded the Maag Toy Foundation more than 20 years ago, providing toys to children whose families might not be able to afford them.  It was great seeing Al recognized for all his work by the Business Journal of Phoenix and Hands On (formerly Make-a-difference).  Not only is he the founder of the Maag Toy Foundation, he’s the mastermind behind much of Avnet’s community involvement, including the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation (awards chair this year), president of the local chapter of Business Marketing Association (he instigated the formation of the local chapter last year), the B2B classic softball tournament  , Avnet Tech Games, etc. etc.  He roped me into the MDA executive telethon earlier this year and inspired other Avnet leaders to get more involved personally in a wide range of activities.

So, I’m talking about him and his award, because he won’t.  Too shy (not).   Maybe too modest(perhaps).  But probably just too busy.  I’m sure he’s already cooking up his next community event.

It used to be that that quote “Good things come in small packages” made me think of the ruby bracelet my husband bought me for our 10^th wedding anniversary. Nowadays I veer off to thoughts of an iPod Shuffle the size of lapel pin or my newest toy, a Flip Mino HD.  I decided to give it a try and jump into video blogging after I heard Brad Whitworth from Cisco talk about how the ease of use convinced a top Cisco executive to blog for employees and customers using it.

 My first try? Definitely shaky cam style. I used it to interview the judges for the Avnet Marketing and Communications Awards.  I haven’t heard of other companies doing this – but Avnet has been holding an internal awards competition for its marketing professionals for more than 10 years now.  It recognizes the best of our marketing efforts, but also encourages Avnet marketers to try new things and benchmark themselves against their colleagues globally.

 (Hold on there Avnet employees – I’m not giving away any secrets here of who won.  You’ll have to wait for the awards ceremony to learn that!)

I wanted to write about Avnet’s award for the “greening” of its data center, then I saw that one of our IT directors has written about it internally and he has provided a much better write up than I could – so this comes from Bruce Gorshe, IT Director – Data Center Operations.  The list of small and big things show, Kermit the Frog got it all wrong. It can be easy to be green, you just have to be a little bit innovative:

Green Computing, Energy Efficiency and the Data Center – Avnet won!

Avnet was selected as the winner of InfoWorld’s 2009 “Best Practices in Green Computing, Energy Efficiency and the Datacenter.”

Jennifer McConnell (Director, IT) accepted the award for Avnet at the “Storage Networking World” annual storage convention held in Scottsdale, Arizona. The award represented the cumulative efforts of multiple teams and demonstrates how Avnet is a leader in the Green IT space.

Jennifer McConnell Accepting SNW Award

The winning entry included these main points, specifically, Avnet:

• Consolidated more than 300 pieces of hardware by retiring or collapsing systems into larger vertically-scaled servers.
• Created a heavily virtualized environment with 24 VMware ESX hosts supporting 378 virtual guests
• Deployed 15 product AIX frames, representing 538 systems across only 39 physical systems.
• Installed StorageTek’s Virtual Storage Manager system to move a storage area network environment.
• Replaced older less efficient air conditioners with newer air conditioners, which were more power efficient.
• Re-foamed the ceiling of its datacenter roof and applied additional insulation.
• Installed “subzero” air flow leakage cubes and high-flow perforated tiles.
• Replaced 250 T12 lighting ballasts with more efficient T08 ballasts.
• Developed a script that would run on all desktop and laptop systems connected to the datacenter to automatically place idle systems in hibernation.

The gains from these changes included:

• Avoided spending more than $5 million to expand the power supply to its datacenter.
• Decreased power consumption by 44% per image through its vertical scaling and virtualization efforts. It also freed a considerable amount of valuable raised flooring space within Avnet’s datacenter. Avnet now has 5,000 square feet of available raised flooring, up from 1,000 square feet, allowing Avnet to avoid structural build-outs costs.
• The new room air conditioners are 20% more efficient.
• Re-foaming the datacenter ceiling and applying additional insulation lowered Avnet’s datacenter cooling costs by $7500 per year, and increased the longevity of the cooling systems and roof.
• The “subzero” air flow leakage cubes and high-flow perforated tiles helped improve air flow by 90%.
• The new power efficient lighting reduced related costs by 30%.
• By placing idle computers in hibernation during non-business hours, Avnet will save an estimated $150,000 annually. Also, it significantly reduced Avnet’s power consumption. A desktop PC consumes approximately 137 watts of electricity; however, by placing it in hibernation, it only consumes one watt.

Most companies on their websites, in executive speeches and in marketing materials will somewhere make a statement that basically goes something like – “Our people make the difference.” –  “Employees are our most important asset.” —  “What makes us different is the quality of our people.” Same message, different words. Heads nod and reporters yawn.  So, I’m going to commitment the same sin and say “It’s all about our people.” But let me take it a step further and say what that means to me is that it’s about the expertise of specific individuals. Just as in the real world, a body of people is really a collection of individuals with varying levels of talent, expertise, knowledge, commitment, etc. Some catch our eye because they are particularly good at something.  I like to talk to these “experts” because I’ve learned they usually earned the recognition for a very good reason: they have a level of knowledge in a particular field that goes beyond what you would normally expect.  They have a lot to share and often make good speakers for industry events.

Here’s a couple I heard about recently that would make good subject matter experts:

Microsoft Names Dan Saniti Most Valuable Professional

Microsoft recently honored Avnet Field Applications Engineer Dan Saniti with its Most Valuable Professional, Windows Embedded award. Saniti is based in Minneapolis.

Microsoft most valuable professionals (MVPs) are recognized for sharing their high-quality, real-world expertise with its users and Microsoft. Saniti joins an elite group of just 85 Microsoft Windows Embedded MVPs across the world. He is the first Avnet employee to receive this honor.

To read Saniti’s MVP profile, visit Microsoft’s MVP site

Doris Gray Receives Contract Management Outstanding Fellow Award

Doris Gray, Avnet senior contracts manager, has been selected to receive the National Contract Management Association’s (NCMA) 2009 Outstanding Fellow Award.  The Outstanding Fellow designation is NCMA highest award that it grants its members.  This award is given to those few who have made significant and outstanding contributions to the field of contract management and to the NCMA.

The Outstanding Fellow Award recognizes Doris’ achievements through the years as a member of the Council of Fellows, which include Motorola’s CEO Award, and the Black Engineer of the Year President’s Award. For more details on her background, read the full announcement.

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As Announced at NEDA’s conference earlier this week —

Atlanta, GA—The National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA) bestowed its highest honor, the Gail S. Carter Award, to Roy Vallee, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Avnet, Inc.  The annual presentation was held during the 2008 NEDA Executive Conference at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel. The award acknowledges electronic distributor principals who have made significant contributions to the distribution industry, have taken an active role in NEDA and civic affairs, and are recognized by the industry as leaders.

NEDA President Frank Flynn of Sager Electronics, presented the award and praised Mr. Vallee’s contributions to the industry. Under his leadership, Avnet has been a steady champion of NEDA throughout the years. Mr. Vallee has generously supported its programs and encouraged senior Avnet executives to serve on the NEDA Boards. “It’s not often that an organization enjoys this type of high-level deployment of executive talent and expertise,” said Robin B. Gray, Jr., NEDA Executive Vice President. Mr. Vallee has also been an active leader within the NEDA Large Company Council. Avnet has helped to improve the visibility, importance and growth of electronic distribution, NEDA and raised the professional standard and ethics for the electronic distribution industry.

In his acceptance, Vallee spoke of the rewards of Avnet’s involvement in NEDA and called on others to make the most of their NEDA membership.  “It’s an honor to receive the Gail S. Carter Award and be included with a distinguished list of past recipients. Our industry has been through tremendous changes and challenges during my career. NEDA has consistently been there to provide insight and a critical forum for discussing issues and topics that have helped our industry continue to advance. The opportunity to work closely with NEDA has given me a deep appreciation of the power of collaboration in championing the value and contributions of authorized distribution from a local to a global level.”

NEDA is a not-for-profit trade association representing supplier authorized distributors of electronic components and their manufacturer-suppliers. Dedicated to enhancing the authorized distributor-manufacturer relationship, NEDA represents companies involved in the distribution of electronic components, computers and computer peripheral components and test, measurement and control equipment parts. 

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