Business Strategy and Outlook
| William Kerwin |Avnet is one of the largest global electronic components distributors in the world, but we think the company lags peers in efficiency, and self-inflicted miscues have weighed on profitability over the last five years. Still, we think Avnet’s value proposition is compelling--it uses expertise in sales, marketing, and working capital management to connect suppliers to a long tail of small customers, while servicing customers with a large selection of chips and other components, increasing profits for both ends of the supply chain in the process. Additionally, we think Avnet has given itself numerous inroads into new customers by expanding into all parts of the product development lifecycle with acquisitions ranging from idea generation and prototyping to high-volume production.