I am back from California.
The Hall of Fame event was inspirational. I am always inspired when I see and hear great people. Seeing people like Craig Barrett of Intel and Carol Bartz of Autodesk and seeing a bit about what they have accomplished was great. It drives me to do more.
I also like the trade show part of events like this. I get to meet many vendors and customers in a short period of time. It appeals to my sense of efficiency.
One of the speakers at the event was author Geoffrey Moore of Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado fame. He is a great speaker. Well researched. Good thinker. Good theoretician. Simplifies things well. Thought provoking.
After his talk, I spoke with a few of my colleagues about what he had said and how it applied to SYNNEX. One valid point was just because someone writes or says it does not make it a fact. Like I always say, filtering is good.
Moore thinks low cost commodity distribution is incompatible with specialty or value added distribution. SYNNEX applies a low cost back office model to some of the more technical products in our TSD (Technology Solutions Division). There is high logic in doing this. Customers want the expertise, knowledge etc. but do not need higher costs from the distribution, warehousing, invoicing etc. part of the business.
Great to hear that you met Geoffrey Moore. I've read his book "Crossing the Chasm" and now use his theory to evaluate young companies. I wonder what were your challenges when your company was crossing the chasm if any? Have you ever had endeavors that didn't pass that stage?
ReplyDeleteMuch of what Geoffrey talks about in "Crossing the Chasm" is about how technology develops. In our case as EMJ and later as SYNNEX, we sell technology but would not face the same challenges. Our challenge is to choose products on the right place in the development curve. As a distributor, we always have vendors whose stars are rising and some whose fortunes are waning.
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