The Soft Pitch

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.

We have seen in our customer and community scores that we have increased in our brand preference by 15 % due to company personality…the trust in our employees and things they do in the community top that list.  

I believe that my favorite past time has had an impact on that score.  As I reflect on the opening of the Chicago 16 Inch Softball Hall of Fame today in Forest Park, Il. Avnet has indeed been able to enjoy our brand being noticed by being involved in the sport/sponsorship.

Out 7th annual 16″ B2B Tourney for Businesses is scheduled for Nov 14th…there is a buzz about it…starting with the 28 teams from last years venue and the all the CEO’s who played in the “featured game” on TV vs the XTRA Sports 910 Radio squad (the CEO’s won). By the way the games on TV were the # 2 show on Phoenix Tv during the day both years  it was shown. ( I must admit it is is either really good TV or what are those folks doing on that day?…geez get a life).

The venue has a great impact on morale for companies here, many of which are our vendors, suppliers and customers, which is good thing ! I know people want to work us because of the vibe. We have been able to raise money for charities too. This year we will support the Phoenix Sports Commission Youth programs and AZ Sports Hall of Fame effort. Last an most important I know our employees enjoy playing it, and it’s great for morale. Men and women play and we have from senior leaders to sales to warehouse players involved.

Did you know the great game of softball started in Chicago in 1887…when bored alumni of Yale and Harvard were waiting for ticker tape scores of the big football game between the two schools? They wrapped up a boxing glove and started hitting with a broom stick. Want to know more about 16 Inch softball? 16Inchsoftballhof.com  By the way our HOF Inductee Park looks great. Special thanks to KODAK, March manufacturing and Vienna as sponsors…trust me Avnet’s name will be noticed there too.  Looking forward to the ceremony and celebrity game. By the the GOV of Illinois declared by proclimation, today is 16 Inch Softball Day in Illinois. If in the area stop by from 11-3 and say hello

Multi-tasking is a myth – or so-said a brain researcher interviewed on radio a few weeks ago.  Her point was you may think you’re being ultra-efficient and doing two things at once, but what’s really happening as far as your brain is concerned is more like a fast game of ping-pong, your attention is bouncing between two things and you are never really giving either one the attention it deserves. That’s why people get in accidents while talking on the cell phone and driving at the same time. 

But in today’s world, we’re all so busy, how can we not try to get two things done at once? That got me thinking about other activities that have two purposes.  Is it the same?  For example, my daughter is supposed to go to the Grand Canyon in a few weeks with the YMCA.   It’s a combo fun, outdoors trip for teens AND they are going to put in some community service doing trail maintenance, reseeding burned out areas, etc.  The teens win, the park service wins, (and parents win by sending the kids out of town for a week!). That seems to work – they’ll split their time between fun and service and accomplish more in the long run.

I’m impressed when our Avnet employees do the same thing: they plan and host events that benefit our local communities and build relationships with our customers and suppliers at the same time.  For example, employees at Avnet’s Peabody, Mass., office have started a tradition of combining an annual customer appreciation day with a Toys for Tots drive.  In the Netherlands, employees joined with reseller partners to run a marathon that raised money for Kinderhulp, a Dutch organization assisting children in troubled home situations (I’d call that a three-fer – relationship building, raising money for kids and exercise!). 

That brain scientist might understand how the brain functions, but people clearly function a bit differently.  That’s the working smarter, not harder part. Here’s another example and full disclosure on my part.  In the spirit of trying to accomplish two things at once: that trip to the Grand Canyon?  Turns out the Y needs a few more kids to go on the trip and really help out the park service.  Got a bored teen at home who likes the outdoors and can use some CR on the college resume?  Check it out here  … they leave June 21 and mom could really use the break.

I’ve been thinking about the reports I’ve read recently about donations being down for toys for kids at Christmas. In one of my last posts I wrote about a branch office of Avnet Electronics Marketing hosting an annual party with customers and suppliers to raise money for charity. And last week I learned about another Avnet grassroots effort to support local kids during the holidays. Long story short, our team at the new Avnet Global Solutions Center  hosted a party for employees. Suppliers donated some prizes like DVD players, big screen TVs and Wii systems for a party and all employees received prize drawing tickets for a shot at the prizes. Employees could also get extra tickets in return for a donation, then Santa made a visit, they ate lots of food and drank hot cocoa.   Then they counted up the money to buy presents for the kids who didn’t get picked during the Salvation Army’s Christmas Angel program.  Apparently there’s always some.  This year the solutions center team raised almost $5,000 – and Avnet, Inc. matched bringing the total to $10,000 for these kids.  Now here’s the cool part – then the employees went on a $10,000 shopping spree with the Salvation Army in hand to buy the things these kids and their families really needed and wanted.  They went to the local Wal-Mart, where the manager gave them an across the board 10% discount to make those dollars go a little further.  What a great way to spread some holiday cheer! Kudos to the team and to our suppliers for finding a way to have some holiday fun and help others at the same time!

Traci Henderson unloads part of the $10,000 in Toys donated to Salvation Army

Kevin Olson, John Beimfohr and Traci Henderson join the ranks of Salvation Army Angels shopping for toys.

It’s been several weeks since I’ve posted and Al has been taking up the slack.  While I’ve been offline (so to speak – I’ve been e-mailing like crazy these last few weeks) I haven’t been out of touch.  In fact there’s been lots happening to share.

My first thoughts go to innovation.  It’s becoming a pretty big push here.  We recently named a global head of innovation – Greg Frazier.  We’re asking customers, suppliers and just anybody to share ideas, and we’re already getting them too.  If you haven’t seen it, there’s now a button on our website where you can share your thoughts on ideas on how Avnet can serve customers and suppliers better. Innovation is one of our core values, so it should come as no surprise.  But we’re adding a dash of discipline to what had been more like spontaneous combustion.  We’ve got training classes in place that will coach senior leaders on how to encourage and support innovation.  While I’m on the topic, our Avnet Technology Solutions team in the US has come up with a way to extend financial terms to their resellers’ end-users – helping them manage through the credit crunch.  It wouldn’t be the first time Avnet was described as a “banker to the channel.”

My second thought of the day is around community service.  We are heading pell mell into the holidays, and no matter which one you celebrate this seems to be a heady time of year for all.  Al mentioned the military videos we hosted this past weekend.  We didn’t have as many people show up as we have in last year (I heard a rumor that someone else in town was offering the same thing to military families, copying is the best form of flattery I think.), but those who did show up were so very grateful that it was worth every bit of the effort.  From families with their dogs to families singing their own version of “The Night Before Christmas,” it was a great day to bring the resources of Avnet and its partners Metro Studios and Modavox, to help people stay connected with smiles (and not just e-mails) for their loved ones.  This commitment to our communities isn’t something that just happens at Avnet, Inc. headquarters, last week I read about one of our branches in Massachusetts that invited customers and suppliers to an event that raised more than $10,000 and $4000 worth of toys to donate to the annual Toys for Tots campaign.  More smiles all around!