New TD Synnex CEO Preparing for 'Evolution'

CF: What are your immediate plans for TD Synnex?

Zammit: We live in a very dynamic environment. There are constantly new areas, new opportunities, new threats that you need to address. But don't expect a revolution, just an evolution.

I made a change, for example, in the regions. I want regions to be led by entrepreneurs with a high level of empowerment. So I moved Latin America from under the Americas and have it reporting directly to me. The reason is because the operating model is very different with the 35 countries there.

CF: What is one of the areas that you are most focused on as a CEO?

Zammit: AI is one of our leading priorities. AI is not only going to impact software, it's going to impact the whole infrastructure so that we can deliver business outcomes to the end users. We're talking about AI PCs, AI servers, AI switches and AI storage. And there will be many more technologies [impacted] by it.

What we need to do now is create the awareness and enable our partners to adopt the technology. We also need to define how they want to take it to the end users because they will have to specialize, and that's where distribution plays a critical role. It's a huge growth opportunity. That's also what the vendor expects from us, because as a distributor the goal is to accelerate adoption of technologies and productive solutions from our vendors.

CF: Are there any struggles or roadblocks that you are preparing to run into or push back on?

Zammit: We believe that when researchers go and meet with the end users, change management is going to be required. So we know that [generative AI] is going to deliver a lot of value, but it will also have an impact on the task of the employees and the end users. So we're going to have to counsel our end users on how to implement the technology and get the buy-in of the user."

CF: What has been the evolution of your recently announced MSP program?

Zammit: One of the first things that we are recognizing is that there are different segments of sellers. So speecialization is accelerating. What you see is us adjusting to our go-to market and value proposition to the different segments. So it's better alignment between our offering and the specialization of the customer.

The second development is that when you specifically think about MSPs, you see that it's a customer base that's very much interested in operational excellence. How can they streamline their processes? How can they automate the interactions with the distributors? How can they automate the relationship with the end users? And that's where we've developed our stream, one platform, to facilitate that."

CF: Coming off one of the largest mergers in industry history (Tech Data and Synnex) what does TD Synnex's M&A strategy look like going forward?

Hume: Growth for the industry is created in two ways. The first is around organic and then the second is through mergers and acquisitions. Just about all our competitive landscape has grown with both. We continue to cultivate and keep a pipeline of M&A targets in front of us. Some of the high-level thoughts relate to areas of interest where we have a smaller footprint. In addition to that, we would like a stronger ... position in terms of selling security outside of North America. [Also], any type of acquisition that would allow us to pursue our strategy around hybrid cloud cybersecurity analytics.

Zammit: M&A is a very good opportunity to accelerate growth, and we are committed to growth.

CF: What do you consider your main impact that you left during your time at TD Synnex?

Hume: I'm very proud of the culture that we built at TD Synnex. It's an entrepreneurial culture where we keep the people a as our primary focus. Management is in service to those individuals to help them be successful with their careers, and personally prosper while they're pursuing their careers. For me, that will be the most important thing.

CF: What do you consider your main impact that you left during your time at TD Synnex?

Hume: I'm very proud of the culture that we built at TD Synnex. It's an entrepreneurial culture where we keep the people a as our primary focus. Management is in service to those individuals to help them be successful with their careers, and personally prosper while they're pursuing their careers. For me, that will be the most important thing.