The Soft Pitch

When your from Chicago THE neighboorhood beer is Old Style…many folks have made toasts and given congrats with this beer here…so while in Chicago for the recent NEDA annual event the disty, semi, passive manufacturers and even the media attendees were smiling and relaxed compared to last year and raised an Old Style to relieve the pressure. Hopefully we will also add champagne to that toast one day.

The optimism was lead by the speakers including a Northern Trust economist and forecasters like iSupply and Bishop Reports…all predicted 2010 as being a gradual double digit % climb back to life as we remembered.  Kudos to our industry for screwing up as bad in 2001…forecasting and supply chain lessons were learned. 4 out of 10 years were not very good this decade…let’s see if we can avoid that many ruts in the 2nd decade of 21st century.

I felt it was productive program but the it’s the enthusiasm was contagious. Sure there are demand creation issues, counterfeiters, green issues, gross margin pressure…and everyone said they would not take unprofitable business and play nice…yeah whatever on that one.

Dr Zandman from Vishay was a well deserved lifetime achievement winner with a past that you could never image…escaping at a young age from being executed by the Nazis by hiding under someones home for 18 months in “grave as he called it with 7 others”.  He had everyone spellbound with his remarks.

And Avnet’s Phil Gallagher was also honored for his NEDA efforts. He is one of the good guys.

All in all good to see so many nice hard working folks smiling…alot of work ahead but but NEDA members will grind it out.

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 realize Michelle Gorel and are two of the folks here who are leading the charge into social media, with blogs, twitter, video, forums and avnetondemand.com, etc but the foundation of Avnet’s growth success is based on branding and advertising.

Advertising in trade publications still works…all these digital tactics are good but I do not believe they enhance Avnet’s brand or seek out new buyers who do not know about our values, lines, solutions and services. Print drives people to our web offerings. IF more publications fail how will we market our company in the future…spam emails or just yell from the street corners?

In fact I will give a public apology now, Avnet along with our main competitor had a tremendous negative impact on the publishing eco-system. In the past decade as we both acquired companies, we also eliminated advertisers….thus sealing the fate of many excellent publications that served our industry.

The pendulum seems to have shifted too far to digital when ads, seminars and personality are still relevant. Our 2nd X-Fest global seminar series which just kicked off is a stellar effort with Xilinix and other component suppliers to educate our customers. This old marketing tactic is still around and kicking….I remember the great open house programs Hamilton Avnet did in the 80’s. 

Again, Avnet will push the envelope with digital efforts like our AvnetOnDemand.com but our marketing approach is to also to get in trenches with our customers and suppliers with relevant training like X-Fest and some good old advertising. Stay tuned.

Several years ago, I was reading a self-help book, I really can’t remember which one –either from the guru of positive thinking Tony Robbins or from king of the one-line success quips Zig Ziglar or maybe even someone else.  It doesn’t really matter as the lesson was simply around “the most important words in the English language.” Since then, I’ve read many different versions of the same sort of list, but one of the things that strikes me is the list almost always includes “Thank You,” and so I’ve come up with my own list of the most powerful words, and it starts with “Thank You.” Those are short, simple words with a potent punch.  Sharing appreciation by saying “Thank You” makes you step out of yourself even if just for a second and acknowledge to the world that you’re not an island and others are an important part of what happens every day.  These words are so important they can make or break a marriage, because if no one appreciates you, why bother with doing the dishes after dinner or even making dinner to begin with? A sincere Thank You can let a child know how special that hand-made birthday card was to you. Or can let a friend know you appreciate them listening to your latest rant about car repairs. Or let a customer that you appreciate their business.

I was tickled last year when Avnet decided to participate globally in Customer Service Week and adopted the theme of “Just Say Thank You.”  It worked so well, we kept it this year for Customer Service Week again.  So we here at Avnet are celebrating Customer Service Week by doing our best to reach out to thousands of customers this week with a simple little message – “Thank You.”  There are videos from Rick Hamada, Avnet Chief Operating Officer, from Patrick Zammit , the president of our components group in Europe, e-card messages, internal training programs, customer appreciation events with moon cakes and balloons, and a whole lot of thanking going on internally and externally.  The point is to just say “Thank You” to our customers and suppliers for doing business with us.  We want all of you to know, that we appreciate you choosing Avnet. 

So here I am, chiming in to say “Thank You” for reading this blog.  Al and I appreciate your comments, questions and the few minutes you spend with us reading our random musing on baseball and all things Avnet.

Michelle

PS – The other most important words in the English language? Here’s my list: Please, Sorry, and Help.  Do you have a list of the most powerful words?

Seems I’m frequently writing in this blog about Avnet employees getting involved in the community.  Probably because it happens around here so much, it’s not really “hard news,” and dang it, it’s important!  At the end of the day, people matter more than things or money.  In my family, we try to always keep that in focus – so when my daughter busted a china plate the other day, I just shrugged. My husband shouted “Touch Down!” and my daughter? She got out the vacuum cleaner.

Why do I mention this?  It’s a value I see across all of Avnet.  Yes, we’re here to grow the business, return value to our customers, suppliers and shareholders.  But we’re still people who care about people.

So two things to share – why is there a ceiling-high wire bin by our employee cafeteria filled to the brim with pillows, blankets and sheets?  Because our local Arizona chapter of Avnet Cares partnered with Bridging Arizona Furniture Bank and IKEA for a pillow drive.  The goal is to make sure no kid is sleeping on the floor – and we can help by donating bedding, and boy did we in a big way!  When this is over, it looks like donations from our 5 Phoenix facilities will total up to a few hundred pillows!

19-time Blood Donor Ryan and Family

Then there’s this – several times a year the United Services Bloodmobile shows up in an Avnet parking lot and employees trot out, expose their veins, give blood and then drink orange juice.  Here’s the cool part: one of our employees, Shawn Ryan has just been announced as the winner of a 2009 Saturn through the United Blood Services “Drive Away a Hero”  campaign!  Nearly 55,000 blood donors between June 1 and August 31 were automatically entered to win during the campaign to increase summer blood donations.  The eight finalists drawn throughout the campaign gathered yesterday for the Grand Prize Ceremony at United Blood Services headquarters in Scottsdale.  Each finalist was awarded a key to try their luck in one of eight new Saturns at the event.  Ryan was the blood donor who drove away the proud winner of a 2009 Saturn Aura and a hero to Arizona hospital patients.

 Ryan garnered his spot in United Blood Services Saturn Grand Prize Ceremony when he donated at the Avnet Chandler blood drive on August 6.  His commitment has grown with each of his 19 donations on record with United Blood Services.  “My mom always told me I had a gift to share,” Ryan said after he learned he was the universal donor with type O-negative blood.  It became even more personal for him about five years ago when his child required a blood transfusion.  Reflecting on that time in his life, Ryan was prompted to select case number “5” in the Grand Prize Ceremony, which secretly contained the winning key to the Saturn labeled “O-negative.”  “As soon as I saw the cars with the different blood types on them, I was hoping to get the O-negative car,” Ryan said.  He was cheered on by his wife Gioia and kids, Liam and Olive.

 It’s all about the people!