RTM: I know that one of your many jobs now is as chairman of the European Wholesaler Group – a coalition of five regional IT wholesalers in Europe. I know some of the members and they really are the survivors, the ones with the business savvy to compete successfully with the international wholesalers like TechData and Ingram Micro.  How does EWG work?

AS: We decided right from the beginning that it would only work if it delivered clear benefits to the individual members. If they saw real benefits from membership then they would carry on supporting it and it would gain momentum. So a lot of the time it is about the exchange of good practice. All of our members are really good at one or two things and it is a case of comparing their internal processes, and identifying the best and motivating everyone to implement and execute.

“They really wanted to find out where we were going wrong.”

RTM: So is it a bit like International Computer Group – the federation of large PC resellers?

AS: (Laughs) No, it is the exact opposite.  ICG had a central office and employed staff and tended to formulate top-down strategies which were handed down as edicts to the national members. They did not respond well to these, as they had their own profitability goals to meet. So there was a lot of conflict. Thomas Weissman, the head of Swiss distributor ALSO - was in both ICG and EWG and, whenever we are discussing what to do, we tease him and say: "Thomas, tell us how not to do it!"

RTM: So what are you doing?

AS: To succeed, every wholesaler has to do two things right. It has to have the best-in-class supply chain plus back office structure and, secondly, it has to have a superb  customer interface and beyond that, a clear understanding of the end-users’ requirements. 

RTM: But how can you get to know the end-users?  I mean these distributors are selling to tens of thousands of resellers who, in turn, are selling to hundreds of thousands of end-users.

AS: You start by listening to your resellers and certainly to the top 20% who most likely give you 80 % of your business.  I argue that the wholesaler who has a deep understanding of the end-user experience, no matter what methodology it uses, will be a far more effective competitor. We can talk a lot more about how to get to this level of understanding.

RTM: So you can start to classify the resellers and the services and needs they have by the type of customers they work with?

AS: Precisely…

RTM: Which I guess takes us back rather neatly to your work as a VP of customer advocacy at HP!

AS:  I could not have asked for a better position at HP. I have a passion for customers and always felt that the customer is rewarding us for a job well done by keeping us employed, promoting and rewarding us.

Carly Fiorina shared this passion and I had a strong admiration for her. That’s why I supported the merger as much as I did, and actually got deeply involved in the proxy battle during the last 5 months up to the point where the battle was won. My job was to solicit support from our largest and most loyal customers.

The most memorable achievement in the advocacy role was to be able to tie customer satisfaction to HP’s compensation scheme. Every quarter, customer satisfaction was measured against a standard or benchmark and people’s variable pay would depend on the results.

I understand from speaking with Carly recently that this program is rolled out across more HP employees with variable pay factors and the percentage significantly increased. This will help HP to become more customer centric. Employees will behave the way they are being measured, recognized and rewarded.