New Ingram Micro CEO Looks Toward Asia For Growth

CRN: Can you take us through the process of how you were named to replace the retiring Kent Foster as CEO?

SPIERKEL: Kent started the process as far back as two years ago. At 60, he sits on three other boards [Campbell Soup, J.C. Penney and New York Life Insurance]. He's spent a great deal of time thinking about the management team of the future. Kevin [Murai, newly named president and COO] and I have both been in the sights of the board. We've both been running the largest parts of the company for several years. That was the first formal signal you could take to the bank [about being CEO candidates]. That gave Kevin and me exposure to strategy, governance and other things [that are part of] being a large public company, managing Wall Street and the board.

CRN: Was there a competition between the two of you to 'win' the job?

SPIERKEL: There's always a risk when two men struggle to share responsibility. The good news is Kevin and I both bring our personal experiences to the table. I spent the last 15 to 18 years abroad. I had an understanding of the issues and complications in working in a fragmented set of markets like Europe and Asia vs. the homogenous environment of North America, which Kevin has. We shared views of what worked, what would be more difficult. We really set the agenda for the company over the last year.

CRN: What have you done in the past year that may have led to your selection?

SPIERKEL: [Last year] was our best year since 1999, the boom year around the Internet. Kevin and I saw a lot of progress across the globe. Europe over the last two years has been a powerhouse. I see now a major investment in Asia with the acquisition of TechPacific. Now we have some real size with a $5 billion business in Asia. That region will be high [growth] for several years. I see a lot of positive things such as access to vendors that we didn't have access to before. We will bring Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese vendors to North America.

CRN: How do you plan to bring those vendors to the United States?

SPIERKEL: We're bringing certain products that are, frankly, made by the same manufacturers [that sell in the United States now]. Pick, say, monitors. We can bring products in at a lower cost from China or from Taiwan by virtue of not having a branded product. We call it our own brand. V7, Video 7, which started in Europe four years ago. Now we have brought it to North America. Manufacturers making products for HP or Dell and other well-known manufacturers slap their own name on them. We can bring a product to market here, with a great refresh rate, resolution, for cheaper.

CRN: Could you do the same thing for systems?

SPIERKEL: Systems would be more difficult. They tend to be extremely competitive and more sensitive to brand recognition in North America. It's a different story in Europe or Asia, where there is more acceptance of unbranded. But when you get to monitors or low-end digital cameras or printers or cables, those are things people say [they] can't tell the difference.

CRN: What will differentiate the Spierkel era from the Foster era?

SPIERKEL: Kent, Kevin and I have worked shoulder to shoulder on our direction for the last year. Everything here we do is about growth, about going into adjacent markets, new technologies. [Kent] gave us leeway to set the direction of the company. In Europe the last two years, we have made powerful improvements. We have more control of rebate programs, we manage the distribution houses differently. We can take out costs by not having so many centers. We leverage the Web better. We have the highest Web usage in Europe by far. Those basic things allowed us to move from a $7 billion to a $10 billion company [in Europe] in the last two years.

CRN: Some solution providers say they hope Ingram's new management will focus on investment and providing more opportunities for VARs, rather than cutting costs. Is that something you can do?

SPIERKEL: We went through a period of belt tightening, and we had to get more returns than our shareholders want. It is a balance to find a good spot with your customer base and [make] tough decisions to improve profitability. At times, people would like us to do [certain] things, but our return won't be adequate. We've made some of those mistakes in the past, and we will be smarter about that going forward. There will always be times when you have to take a look at what the market is doing, where there are opportunities to improve cost. But we will invest in tools for customers, like we did with Choice Advantage. We want to have a more reflective set of options to customers.