avnet

Fortune Staff

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

Fortune 500

The 25th Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list suggests that tech giants’ peers respect them as much as ever.

World's Most Admired Companies

Current All-Star Rank

Industry

This distributor and retailer of tech components and IT services was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Phoenix.

Avnet | 2023 World's Most Admired Companies

legacy

Sector

Previous All-Star Rank

Industry Rank

Previous Industry Rank

Overall Score

Innovation

People Management

Use of Corporate Assets

Social Responsibility

Quality of Management

Financial Soundness

Long-Term Investment Value

Quality of Products/Services

Global Competitiveness

Avnet

Avnet | 2023 World's Most Admired Companies | Fortune

Susie Gharib

Avnet CEO Says It Took Vision, Trust, Inspiration To Reinvent 100 Year Old Tech Company

/2018/08/27/avnet-ceo-bill-amelio-leadership/

Barb Darrow

Why Tech Data Dropped $2.6 Billion to Buy Avnet’s Technology Services Unit

/2016/09/19/tech-data-avnet-technology/

[MUSIC PLAYING] Bill, let's start by talking about what is Avnet. It's not a household name, even though it's been in business for 100 years. And it's a huge technology company listed on the Fortune 500. So give us a quick description about what does Avnet do. I want you to think about your favorite product for a second. That product started with a sketch on the back of a napkin. So we help customers take that sketch and make it into reality by getting the right components and the right electronics and the right technology into place, and we help them ramp that into production. And it becomes something that you use each and every day. You've been reinventing Avnet ever since you became CEO two years ago. What change did you see going on in the tech world that you said we've got to change this company and take it in a completely new direction? Well, we saw that we weren't participating early enough in the cycle with customers. That means at the time that the sketch is being designed. We had to get there earlier in order to be able to capture the hearts and minds of customers really early in the product lifecycle. Because we do that. That customer becomes a customer for life. We found that is a very powerful way to have a business model. Everyone's talking about the internet of things and how this is reshaping not only what's going on in the tech world, but also what's going to happen in our world. What's Avnet's role in these new technologies? Some estimates say that there'll be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Can you imagine that? 50 billion devices. And we're right in the middle of all that. So how do we make it all work? Well, not only do we provide the devices, we work with customers to develop the entire solution, which includes the gateway, the network, the cloud, the analytics, and the data. And then we help them put that whole end to end strategy together. Pretty complex. And what happens at Avnet, we demystify that for our customers. And actually, you talk a lot about the importance of ecosystems in today's business environment. Why is this so important? Well, the idea is this, is we want to get working with customers early in our lifecycle. So we don't want to wait until the time frame during the production. We want to catch them in pre-production and in the design phase and then help shepherd them through the entire process. So what is Avnet's role in the ecosystem? Well, we start right at the beginning. From design, so we have great engineers that can help you think through the ideas that you have and make sure that we select the right products for you that's going to be in a cost optimized lead time and optimized way. Then we help you ramp up production. And we get you to the market effectively and efficiently. And we have tools that help you, in fact, design for manufacturing and make sure that you're designing at the lowest possible cost. You're here in New York to meet with Wall Street analysts and investors. And given that Avnet has gone through dramatic changes over the last few years, what's the key message that you want to get across to them? Key message is we're on track. We're making great progress. And we have a new-- there's a new Avnet. The new Avnet is one where we're mainly just entire lifecycle of products, from the time we design to the time we develop to the time we bring it to market in prototypes and to the time we do mass scale production. Well, you know that Wall Street is all about stock prices. And looking at Avnet stock, it's pretty much trading at the same price level it was two years ago when you became CEO. So what do you have to do to get that stock moving higher and to get investors to believe in your plan? The great news is this. We've now had four quarters in a row where we either beat or met our commitments. All we need is a couple more quarters of that and then them to understand the strategy that we've put in place and say, look, these guys got credibility. Couple more quarters, we believe them. And the friction will go away, and you'll see our stock price start to soar. 

Avnet CEO Tells Wall Street "Our Stock Price Will Start Soar"

Finance

Bill Amelio says the giant electronic components supplier is on a roll with strong sales and earnings.

bill. Let's start by talking about what is AB net. You know it's not a household name, even though it's been in business for 100 years, and it's a huge technology company listed on the Fortune 500. So give us a quick description about what does it do? I want you to think about your favorite product for a second. That product started with a sketch on the back of a napkin. So we help customers take that sketch and make it into reality by getting the right components and right electronics and right technology into place. And we help them ramp that into production, and it becomes something that you use each and every day. You've been reinventing, admit ever since you became CEO two years ago. What changed? Did you see going on in the tech world? That's that, you said We've got to change this company and taking a completely new direction. What we saw that we weren't participating early enough in the cycle with customers. That means at the time that the sketch is being designed. We had to get there earlier in order to be able to capture the hearts and minds of customers really early in the product lifestyle because we do that that custom becomes a customer for life. We found that is a very powerful way to have a business model. Everyone's talking about the Internet of things and how this is reshaping not only what's going on in the tech world, but also what's gonna happen in our world. What Avenue rule in these new technologies? Some estimates say that the lead 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Can you imagine that? 50 billion devices and we're right in the middle of all that. So how do we make it all work? Well, not only do we provide the devices we work with customers develop the entire solution, which includes the gateway, the network, the cloud, the analytics in the day. And then we help them put that whole end and strategy to get a pretty complex. And what happens that admit we demystify that for our customers. And actually, you talk a lot about the importance of equal systems in today's business in environment. Why is it so important? Well, the idea is, this is we want to get working with customers early in our life cycle, so we don't want to wait till the time frame that during the production, want to catch my pre production and in the design phase and then help shepherd him through the entire process. So what is Avenue its role in the ecosystem? We start right at the beginning from design that we have great engineers that could help you think through the ideas that you have and make sure that we select the right products for you that's going to be in a cost optimized lead time up to my sway. Then we help you ramp up production, and we get you to the market effectively and efficiently. And we have tools that help you, in fact, designed for manufacturing and make sure that you're designing at the lowest possible cost. You're here in New York to meet with Wall Street analysts and investors. And given that avenue has gone through dramatic changes over the last few years, what's the key message that you want to get across to them? Key messages were on track. We're making great progress and we have a new There's a new admit. The New Agnes one were were made itjust entire life cycle of products from the time we designed to the time we developed at the time, we bring it to market prototypes into the time we do masculine production. Well, you know that Wall Street is all about stock prices and looking at Avonex stock, it's pretty much trading at the same price level. It was two years ago when you became CEO. So what do you have to do to get that stock moving higher and to get investors to believe in your plan? The great news is this. We now have 4/4 in a row where we either beat or met our commitments. All we need is a couple quarters of that and then them to understand the strategy that we put in place and say, Look, these guys got credibility. Couple more quarters, we believe him, and the friction will go away and you'll see our stock price start to soar.

[ MUSIC ] Bill when you became CEO of ABnet two years ago. You decided to take the company in a completely new direction. From a leadership point of view what was the key thing you had to do To reinvent a 100 year old company. I think the top thing leaders need to do is to gain the trust and confidence of all the people. Then you have to think about instilling the vision that people can follow, and then you gotta think about how to take the obstacles out of the way that are stopping people from getting things done and change. And finally you gotta do it in an inspiring way. What was the hardest part of that whole process? There is un invisible resistant in any organization that stops you from doing things. I like to call it corporate antibody. So when you wanna change something all of a sudden they are there trying to stop you from changing. And what you need to do is have a compelling. Reason for change. And if you can get that across to the leadership and all the rank and file, then all of the sudden you can make great changes. I mean all of the changes that you did make; whether it was acquisitions or getting out of businesses or management changes, were pretty disruptive. So what did you have to do to get people to stick with you- Change with you and execute this vision that you describe. Over communicate. Lots and lots of communication. I travel a lot, so when I visit any particular site I do a town hall, I do an operations review and I do a town review. All that matters because the contact people have with you, all of a sudden they say Okay, this is not going away. This change needs to happen, and the leadership is right here trying to make it occur. And then what did you do with that feedback to get to the next level in getting their support? I spent a lot of time listening to people, too, to gain their feedback and make adjustments to the strategy to make sure that we can demonstrate that we're listening. But yea we still got an agenda that we're gonna pull off. But that doesn't mean we can't make adjustments along the way that fits a little bit better in the current culture that we already have. I was really interested to see that you created a new position at Abnet called Chief Transformatoin Officer. What was your thinking on that? And how is it- helping you to do all these things you want to do. Well we realize to transform a company the size of [ UNKNOWN ], 15, 000 + employees, $ 18 billion in revenue, there had to be really an impetus to change and one spot you could go to that would contain all the projects that we're managing. So we developed 10 different work streams, over 400 projects and all managed in the Chief Transformation Officers with a [ UNKNOWN ] that occur every week to make sure that there's progress being made on each and every one of those particular projects. Given that you're making some big bets on Avnet's future, what's your approach to get everyone in the company To try new things, to do things differently, take more risks. Get the top team together, and we ensure that no one can leave the room until everybody's hands' on the table and say they're in. Nobody can put their hand under the table and do the old cross your fingers and say I agree with you now, but when I leave I'm gonna agree with something else. The key is, we all agree And when you lead, we expect you to execute. And so, what about people who do try something new and it doesn't work out, what's your reaction to that? It's great to fail, I think we all learn from failure. I was a wrestler, I don't remember many of the [ INAUDIBLE ] Wins I had. But I can remember every loss. Because I learned something from the losses. So if you take a look at some of the best companies today. They're filling fast. I mean the Amazon models won where they throw everything against the wall and not everything sticks. And I think thats an important message that we tell all of our people that The most successful companies are taking experiments and taking calculated risks each and every day. If they don't do that they're not going to innovate and evolve. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Avnet CEO Tells What It Took To Reinvent 100 Year Old Tech Company

Leadership

Bill Amelio says trust, vision, inspiration and removing obstacles are key to success.

Avnet

Company Information

World's Most Admired Companies
As of 2/1/2023

Avnet

Company Information

World's Most Admired CompaniesAs of 2/1/2023

World's Most Admired Companies
As of 2/1/2023