Greg Spierkel is the latest in a line of chief executives to put their mark on Ingram Micro Inc.
His predecessor, retired Air Force Capt. Kent Foster, stressed military discipline for the technology products distributor.
Ingram’s boss before that, Jerre Stead, called himself “head coach” and stressed a newer school of management thought.
Spierkel, who took over from Foster in 2005, calls himself a “leader of leaders.”
During a recent speech at the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, Spierkel said his job is to set the tone for Ingram Micro, Orange County’s largest company with yearly sales of $31 billion.
Those who work with the 50-year-old Spierkel say that’s what he does.
“Setting the right tone at the top is critical in a company like ours where we’re driving a large number of people toward common objectives,” said Ingram President Kevin Murai, who counts Spierkel as a colleague for eight years and golf buddy for about three. “It’s important that those at the top walk the talk. Not just in terms of performance, but in how we actually behave as a company, the values we have and the way we choose to do business.”
Ingram, the largest distributor of computers and other tech gear to stores and service companies, runs on the slimmest of profits. The company nets about a penny on a dollar.
So Spierkel drills frugality into his workers. On winter weekends, he turns off the heat at the company’s Santa Ana headquarters.
On a recent Monday morning, with the offices still chilly, Spierkel set an example by interrupting a meeting, running back to his office, and putting on his coat.
The Carter administration-era move defies Ingram’s size,it’s the No. 1 tech distributor in North America, Latin America and Asia and is a close second in Europe to archrival Tech Data Corp. of Florida.
Ingram ranked No. 72 on the Fortune 500 last year.
“We’re the largest organization in the U.S. that no one has ever heard of,” Spierkel joked during his guest lecture at UC Irvine.
Spierkel has spent a lot of time streamlining, cutting costs and centralizing operations.
The moves have paid off. The company recently posted a record profit for the fourth quarter at $92 million, up 8% from a year earlier. Sales rose 11% to $8.9 billion.
Just a few years ago, Ingram was struggling with the tech sector’s downturn.
“We were financially challenged to say the least, with barely break-even results,” Spierkel said. “Over the last three years, we’ve seen double-digit growth.”
Diversification has been another push, according to Murai, who helped lead the turnaround in North American business.
The company expanded “not just geographically, but in terms of some of the businesses we’re getting into, such as consumer electronics,MP3 players and home theater and home audio components,” Murai said.
Ingram’s always been big with the computer set,IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp. are among its 200,000 global customers.
Now Ingram distributes products for Sony Corp. and even Apple Inc., which came to the company when it wanted to boost sales of the iPod early on.
At first, Apple was bringing in 90% of its iPods from China. Retailers on the East Coast were waiting as long as 10 days to get shipments.
Ingram now distributes iPods from a network of warehouses.
“It’s 99% next day,” Spierkel said of iPod shipments.
The move saved Apple more than $200 million and led to a relationship that’s set to continue with the rollout of the iPhone.
Ingram also has gone into new businesses in search of profits.
The company has set up units to handle warehousing, shipping, billing and supply management through radio frequency identification for customers.
It also has expanded through acquisitions.
In 2004, Ingram paid $530 million for Australia’s Tech Pacific Ltd., which bolstered its business in Asia. As worldwide president, Spierkel led the acquisition, Ingram’s largest to date.
As chief executive, Spierkel was behind 2005’s $120 million acquisition of home electronics company Avad LLC.
“One of the best things (Spierkel’s) done is pursue growth, and you’ve seen that in the acquisitions,” said Andy Hargreaves, a senior research analyst for Portland, Ore.-based Pacific Crest Securities.
The acquisitions built on Ingram’s supply chain management prowess while expanding the company in Asia with Tech Pacific and in consumer electronics with Avad.
“In that business, literally one mistake can cost you a year of profit,” Hargreaves said. “In order to survive,let alone thrive,you have to be nearly flawless in your operation.”
Spierkel, a Canadian who joined Ingram nine years ago to build its Asian operations, is reserved and quick with a smile.
That’s not to say he hasn’t ruffled feathers. As part of Spierkel’s efficiency push, he has been a big proponent of outsourcing jobs. In 2000, Ingram employed 3,400 people at its headquarters. Today it’s fewer than 900.
It was a controversial decision, Spierkel said in his speech to business students and peers. He highlighted one benefit of outsourcing.
Late last year, Ingram’s call center and everything else in Buffalo, N.Y., was buried under record snow. The company’s first contingency was to have its 1,200 employees there work from home.
“We didn’t contemplate the power being out all over Buffalo for two days,” Spierkel said.
Calls were rerouted to India and the Philippines. A universal computer system kept lag time to a minimum, he said.
