Industry Innovators: Rick Hamada

Rick Hamada has guided Avnet – by harnessing the power of data – to remain a leader in a fast-paced environment.

John Filippelli: In your experience in the technology industry, what are the keys to identifying the technological needs for today’s end user? What is Avnet’s role?

Rick Hamada : First, it’s important to understand that Avnet doesn’t typically serve end-user customers directly. Our customers – the OEMs on the electronics side of our business and resellers and ISVs on the computing side of our business – are interacting with and listening to their end-users daily. So we rely on our suppliers and our customers to help us understand the end-user trends they are seeing because our goal is to help them get their products and services to market faster and more efficiently. Keeping that in mind, innovation needs to be tightly linked to the voice of the customer and supplier to ensure we are mindful of what’s important and of value to them. We use a variety of tools, including things such as customer councils, surveys, individual meetings and quarterly business reviews, to keep us abreast of what’s important on their dashboards.

John Filippelli : What would you say are the most interesting developments in the technology industry in the past few years and where do you see that heading in the future? Why do you think things have developed that way?

Rick Hamada

Rick Hamada : The speed of business has continually increased, which directly impacts the speed at which you must be able to adapt, make decisions and implement changes. At the same time, the incredible amounts of data that need to be navigated in today’s world and translated into information you can actually use has increased exponentially. Interestingly, the technology marketplace we serve has been a big contributor to both of these phenomena.

One of the most interesting developments that impacts our behavior is the essentially continuous and constant connectivity enabled by today’s technology. Regardless of where you are and what you are doing, you can — and sometimes are expected to be — in touch with your work, your family, and your friends at all times. It’s even having an impact on our psyche – there’s a phenomenon now called “nomophobia” which is the anxiety you feel if you don’t have your mobile device of choice with you, or you misplace it.These two major forces are driving our accelerated needs for innovation. The incredible volume of data that is generated and needs to be turned into productive information is only going to continue to grow. The challenge is to find ways to use that data, through analytics for example, to help us make better decisions at the rapid pace of business today.

John Filippelli : In your experience, how does the proper gathering of data and information impact innovation?

Rick Hamada : The explosion of data is a reality, and the goal is not just gathering more data but harnessing the power of this wealth of information and turning it into actionable data. We must ensure we are looking at innovation as a way to meet current and anticipated future needs of our business partners to drive mutual benefit. Innovation for the sake of innovation doesn’t have a place in business today. And of course it helps to be focused on the “right” measurements – meaning that data which is truly meaningful and relevant to your overall business goals.

At Avnet we think of innovation in two simple ways: innovation with a little “i” that is basically incremental in nature and focuses on continuous improvement of processes and operations. And Innovation with a big “I”, which describes business model innovation, for example launching new services that help solve emerging needs in our existing customer base or perhaps provide us an entry into a new part of the broad technology marketplace we serve..

John Filippelli : Do you notice a difference in the type of innovation you may be seeing internationally as opposed to within the United States?

Rick Hamada : I’m not sure I can say that I see a major difference geographically speaking and I do believe the global economy is becoming more interconnected and interdependent as time goes by. But I do sense a growing interest in the creation of intellectual property outside of the U.S.. It used to be that China, in particular, thrived at supporting the manufacturing needs of new technology created elsewhere in the world. But now there’s a growing appreciation for both the creation and manufacturing of “home grown” new technology for export. Much of the world outside of the U.S. is investing in science, technology and mathematics education and looking to build engineering centers of excellence. Overall, I believe we’re seeing a trend in emerging markets wanting to grow their own IP and be recognized for the value they bring to the market.