Avnet chief Rick Hamada

With the possible exceptions of Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Cisco’s John Chambers, it’s unusual for senior executives to spend the majority of their careers at one company. But for Avnet chief Rick Hamada, staying at the company for close to thirty years was a natural thing to do because he felt closely aligned to the organisation’s core values.

“I was a finance major, but I joined in tech support because I saw that technology was going to be a very good place to be,” Hamada, speaking to CRN this week during a whirlwind visit to Australia to rally the troops and set goals for FY 14.

“On top of that, I felt – and still feel – the values the company has at its core were closely aligned with my personal values. You can’t spend 30 years at a company if your values and the values of the organisation aren’t aligned.”

Avnet, founded in the early 1920s as an electrical component distributor, recorded $25 billion in revenues in its last stated accounts. The company employs close to 18,000 people, operates in three key geographical locations – the US, EMEA and APAC – and records a gross margin of close to 12 percent.

Asked how a mature organisation can maintain growth in a global economy that is still sluggish, Hamada said growth is still positive at an international level. “Tech grows as a function of global economic growth, and while growth is still slow globally, it is still positive. We estimate we will see growth of between five and six percent globally for the next twelve months.”

Hamada said the company is very much oriented on bottom-up growth, as well as growth both organic and through acquisition. “I leave it to my regional managers to tell me where growth is going to come from in their regions,” he said. “That’s not something I can foretell from our offices in Arizona.”

In order to keep in touch with the regions, Hamada said he regularly books in time on the road to go to each geography and make contact with the local staff. He said he’s looking to understand where growth is going to come from – and often times, acquisition can be a good place to find it, as well as the potential in emerging markets, particularly those in APAC.

He also said the company has put significant capital resources into building its services business. Those services fall into three distinct categories: software services, educational services and lifecycle services.

“Lifecycle management is not just about selling the product. It’s also about fixing the product, taking care of it in the field, and then managing it at the end of its life.”

As a long-term manager and business leader, Hamada said he’s had some major influences on his life and management style, and he tries to provide the same mentoring to those who report to him. “My definition of successful leadership is getting the best out of others,” he noted. “What I learned is the more time I spent helping others realise their goals, the more I achieved my goals both within the business and also personally.”

He said the worst decisions he has ever made, however, are people decisions. “I’ve bet on the wrong people, and the worst mistake you can make is thinking you can fix [them]. If you know someone is wrong, then don’t wait too long to do something about it because eventually it will reflect on your own success.”

Hamada said the values and expectations he instils in his troops comes down to what he refers to as “Rick’s Three Gees”: “It’s about growth, globalisation and great people,” he said. “Wherever I travel in the business, our people know when I talk to them those things are what it’s going to come down to.”