Ingram Micro 2010 Annual Report Download - page 10

worldwide in both difficult economic times and growth cycles, and to lead the IT distribution and services market as
it evolves.
•Strong Working Capital Management and a Solid Financial Position. We have consistently demon-
strated strong working capital management. Maintaining a close relationship with resellers enables us to
monitor demand to optimize our investment in inventory, while preserving customer fill rates and service
levels. We continue to control our inventory days on hand through our focused and sustainable initiatives
towards minimizing excess and obsolete goods while improving our purchasing processes and product flow.
Furthermore, we continue to effectively manage our accounts receivable through timely collections, credit
limit setting, customer terms and process efficiencies to minimize our working capital requirements. Our
conservative approach to capital management, as well as our diversified portfolio of capital resources, has
served us well in tighter credit markets. Our financial strength enables us to provide valuable credit to our
customers, employing a disciplined approach to account management and credit worthiness. We also believe
that we are well-positioned to support our growth initiatives in our IT distribution business and invest in
incremental profitable growth opportunities. Finally, we believe our solid financial position provides us with
a competitive advantage as a reliable, long-term business partner for our supplier and reseller partners.
•Continuous Focus on Optimizing Productivity. We continue to seek ways to improve our processes and
streamline our business model, while refining our cost structure to respond to changes in market demand.
During 2008 and 2009 we undertook a number of initiatives to reduce operating expenses and exit less
profitable businesses. We believe our restructuring efforts have created a leaner and more agile cost structure
upon which to execute our growth initiatives as the economy continues to improve. We continue to
incorporate cost-saving measures in all business processes. The strategic locations of our IT systems and
warehouse locations support custom shipment requirements and optimized delivery methodologies, allow-
ing us to deliver products faster, while reducing shipping costs. We remain focused on ensuring that our
catalog includes the products most desired by our customers, which improves inventory management,
realizes higher margin opportunities, and develops merchandising and pricing strategies that produce
enhanced business results. In order to fully leverage our global operation, we make continuous investments
in our IT infrastructure and streamline and standardize business processes to drive efficiency and provide
best-in-class quality in our processes and systems throughout the world.
•Business Evolution. We have consistently led the broad-based technology distribution industry in
securing a presence in new markets, executing alternative business models and delivering new services,
thereby both promoting and benefitting from the evolution of our industry. Our ability to execute on new
initiatives and adapt to new business models provides a competitive advantage by allowing us to capture
opportunities and overcome the risks, volatility and demand fluctuations associated with a single market,
vendor or product segment and to remain a vital partner in the evolving IT marketplace.
•Products. Based on publicly available information, we believe we offer the largest breadth of products
in the IT industry. Our broad base of products allows us to better serve our customers, as well as mitigate
risks associated with market volatility and reliance upon a small base of products. Our broad line card, or
catalog of product offerings, makes us less vulnerable to market dynamics or actions by any one vendor or
market segment, and to the volatility in market demand in specific product lines. We continuously refresh
our business with new, high-potential products and services. We are focused on moving deeper into new
adjacent product categories and globalizing our efforts. Our U.S. operation was realigned to strengthen
our capabilities in delivering higher-end technology solutions and services. We have made strategic
acquisitions, including our three acquisitions in EMEA and Asia Pacific in 2010, expanding our internal
capabilities to enable reseller partners to capture opportunities in the sale of enterprise computing
solutions, particularly within the growing data center market. In addition, our AIDC/POS business, which
we believe has expanded to position us as the only global distributor in this specialty area, is realizing the
benefits from past acquisitions and investments combined with new vendor authorizations and effective
best practice sharing across regions. In the mobility space, we are creating focused business units and
pursuing active expansion plans by securing new vendor authorizations, adding service capabilities, and
developing relationships with telecommunications carriers. We are able to offer value-added resellers and
solutions providers (“VARs”) a more complete solution for their customers by supplying them with
2