The Soft Pitch

I always enjoy watching the NCAA Women’s Softball World Series, but tonite was unbelievable. ASU is wining 2-0…but now bases are loaded and the Bama coach Patrick Murphy takes out his leadoff hitter, Brittany Rodgers who is batting .350…oh she is an All-American senior…for a freshman Jazlyn Lunceford. Talk about controversy…talk about egos and upset people…well Brittany never complains, pouts or sits dejected and is the biggest Bama cheerleader at the top of the dugout…Lunceford is 2-2, 2 outs and then jacks it deep to LF for a grand salami…everyone goes nuts and eventually ASU loses. What a moment in sports.

Brittany was being watched by everyone, the pressure was on the coach…replacing a star with an unknown was a potential alumni killer…well it paid off. Brittany was a class kid no matter what happened she was a winner. Her coach is a winner to not because of the decsion but because she handled it so well, sportsmanship is a great word. Team first…what a concept

As we all know thousands of people have been laid off in our industry…Avnet is no exception. What hurts and I wonder about are a few decsions I have seen when a few veterans here laid off…they did nothing wrong…been here 25 plus years, but someone made a tough call to replace them with someone or just drop the resource for now. What has truly amazed me that I know 4 people who just left in the last few months and 2 have sent very kind emails wishing us well and saying how great it was to work with us…and one person gave me a hug and said she understood why and hoped to be back one day…another person still showed up for an event because he said he would be there and held no grudge because he loved the Avnet people and culture. What? Laid off reactions are not that way. These people should be pissed and throwing things and saying why me?

Just like Brittany tonite who held her own and showed alot of class not getting uptight and understood the coaches decision (he was going for the big blast, she is punch/slap hitter)…her parents should be proud of her and the coach they sent her to play for…he has developed a great culture.

Makes me think, Roy Vallee and our executive team have  established a great culture at Avnet too, and that will pay dividends…just as it did Bama with their win.

O goodness I’m not drinking all the Kool-Aid, sure some folks did not write letters or say good bye or show up for anything and they are probably still looking at their ceilings…but the facts are people do like it here…our employee engagement scores say so…when business picks we will see how voluntary turnover goes. In any case it makes me very proud when folks walking out the door still say goodbye and give best wishes. Culture… maybe thats one reason why we are the Fortune’s Most Admired Company in our indutry…maybe. I know one thing dont bet aganist our people or right now Bama.

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.

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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We celebrated two little-ballyhooed anniversaries in July. First, it’s been 10 years since Avnet moved its headquarters to Phoenix, Ariz.  Previously, Avnet had two headquarters – one in California and one in New York.  It was before my time, but seems the two headquarters came about as Avnet built itself through a series of acquisitions and found itself with critical mass on both coasts. Avnet’s newly-named CEO Roy Vallee made the strategic decision to consolidate and move to Phoenix.  Why Phoenix? According to Roy, attracting and retaining top talent was critical to the company’s success, but it was getting more and more expensive and difficult to achieve that in LA and NY, two of the most expensive places to live.  Phoenix offered a better quality of life for employees plus an attractive business climate.  So here we are today in the Valley of the Sun — we have 2,400 employees in the state of Arizona and we’re the second-largest publicly traded company in Arizona with headquarters in the state. We have an economic impact here in the millions, as well as participating in the local community with “Avnet Cares” volunteers, community boards, etc.

The second anniversary has to do with Roy himself.  He just celebrated ten years as Avnet Chairman and CEO. Much has changed in those 10 years for Avnet and the industry. We’ve grown from $6 billion to $18 billion in FY ’08.  We went from being a US-focused company to a truly global company.  In 1998, 75% of sales came from the US; now less than 50% of revenue comes from the Americas – in fact we just tipped the scale last quarter with 53% of revenue now being generated from outside the US.  This was accomplished largely through acquisitions – 33 to be exact since Roy took over the reins. We transformed the business from a purely revenue focus to a on return on capital focus – nearly doubling our market cap in the process.  The company culture has evolved, too, to focus more on people and helping them to develop their talents and skills.

I’ve had the privilege this week to sit in on a few interviews and listen to Roy talk about the past ten years.  Talk about humble.  It’s always “the team this” and “the team that,” never much about himself though clearly he has been the catalyst for many of the changes. I guess his real talent is in getting the team to do “this” and “that” – oh that’s right, that’s what true leadership is all about. Well, IMHO, he’s a great leader … and still going strong.