Q&A: Synnex's Stegner Drops Partner Community Hints

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Bob Stegner joined Synnex Monday as senior vice president of marketing, North America, eight months after a long tenure at competitor Ingram Micro. Stegner, well known among the solution provider and vendor communities, aims to develop Synnex's planned partner organization and build tighter alliances with customers on both sides. The noted Ohio State alumnus was on the job for a mere five hours when he talked with CMP Channel about his new role with a former competitor.

I guess the first question is do you feel like you're walking around in the middle of Ann Arbor, [Mich., home of Ohio State arch rival University of Michigan] right now?

That was low! That's a great comment. No, actually I always have a lot of respect for what they've done. I really like the culture here. The way they do some things is very customer-based and very focused on that, so it really fits my style.

It would have been tough for me to go back to distribution, but I've been talking to Peter [Larocque, Synnex president of U.S. distribution] for a long time and it just seemed like the right thing to do. It afforded me the opportunity I really wanted and that was North America. There was a lot of opportunity out there that was just U.S.-based., but I truly wanted to do something North American and this allowed me to take advantage of the customer and vendor relationships that I have in the North American market.

It's good. I've been through this before with Ingram, going to a North American initiative and I know the challenges with it. I look forward to it. I've already received a lot of e-mails just from the Canadian customers since I've come on board.

Let's start at the very beginning. Can you talk a little bit about what you've been up to, and also a little bit more about why Synnex and why now? While it was tremendous exposure and a great learning experience with the world-wide [responsibilities at Ingram Micro], I truly did think I was going to fully retire and just do some consulting, but as the months went on I started realizing how much I truly missed the customer and vendor touch that you have. I had talked to Peter before and we continued to talk. As he started setting the vision for what the future and this new initiative for Synnex was going to be, that's when I really started thinking this could be a good fit for me.

What exactly is the fit? What is your role and what are some of the things you're going to be focused on?

First of all I do want to clarify one thing. Synnex already has a customer community in place that they started. Kirk Nesbit has already started a community, so I didn't come over here just to start a community. That will be something that is under me, and I obviously will have my input on it, but I'll be really focusing on the overall marketing efforts of the whole company for North America, looking at some of the programs we need to do and how to help Synnex meet the goals that they've set.

Can you talk a little bit more about the community in terms of how it's structured now? What kind of members does it have, and where do you see it going?

I don't know enough about it. It's really more in the development stage. It's not a full-fledged customer community yet, but it's not something I came in to start. It's something that Synnex had started and I will simply help them enhance it. It's in its infancy stages right now, and it's said to be developed down the road.

Obviously you have very good reach into the reseller community now. Will recruitment be a big part of your involvement in getting the community up and off the ground?

Anybody who's a senior vice president of marketing is always actively involved in sales. In the program, the communities are definitely there to enhance the relationship with the respective distributor. I will do anything that I can do help sales make that community into something that enhances the relationship with Synnex.

NEXT: Stegner Addresses Vendor Issues

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