The Soft Pitch

This comes as no shock to me that our CEO Roy Vallee was named to PHX Business Journal’s Most Admired CEO list in the valley of the sun. He is on the list with 25 other leaders.  Roy consistently is asked to speak at events and support programs in town…not counting leading our 12,000 employees through this tough economy.  This falls into the pattern of of being named earlier this year as Fortune’s # 1 most admired company in wholesalers category. A nice pattern indeed.

Admired is such a great word…not always the best or most popular.  Admired means so much more.

This week we (Avnet) were named the most admired company in the wholesaler: electronics category based on the annual Fortune magazine survey. We were first in 8 of 9 categories voted by our peers…like winning the Oscars.  Last year we were a few votes short of 1st…this time we went past the barrier…now I know how Chuck Yeager felt.  I gotta tell ya, it feels good…. 

It is recognition for all our folks efforts around the world to help customers and be the most trusted channel for our suppliers.  Our brand continues to grow due to their success of our engaged employees, but the reality is it started with Roy Vallee who had a vision the way he wanted his team to act everyday in good times or bad. I have been honored to be in staff meetings for 10 years. His management team is stellar, as are our leaders in 73 countries. If you do not learn to how to be a better person, a better manager, and how to be successful hanging out with them you are asleep at the switch.

Roy’s leadership team has changed a little bit over the years but his mentorship, message and communication has been consistent. Stay focused on what we can control, provide value, make a good return, live our core values, have fun, help in the community and we will outperform the bad guys. He is one the most admired people in our industry…Hall of Fame on the computer side 2 years ago and NEDA honored him on the components side last year. This week may have been the cherry on the sundae for Roy. Now that our corporation he has lead as CEO and Chairman for 10 years has been noticed by others and a great magazine…that will make him very happy and proud…as it does us.all..he and we will thank everyone at Avnet plus our vendors, suppliers, customers and shareholders and then we will get back to work, to stay on top of the premier list with some great companies and competitors.

We will smile for quite awhile…with business being tough this has been a gift for our spirits. Thank you fellow employees, Thank you voters. Thank you Fortune.