CDW 2012 Annual Report Download - page 16

Table of Contents
If we lose any of our key personnel, or are unable to attract and retain the talent required for our business, our business could be disrupted
and our financial performance could suffer.
Our success is heavily dependent upon our ability to attract, develop and retain key personnel to manage and grow our business,
including our key executive, management, sales, services and technical coworkers.
Our future success will depend to a significant extent on the efforts of Thomas E. Richards, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
as well as the continued service and support of our other executive officers. Our future success also will depend on our ability to retain our
customer-facing coworkers, who have been given critical CDW knowledge regarding, and the opportunity to develop strong relationships with,
many of our customers. In addition, as we seek to expand our offerings of value-added services and solutions, our success will even more
heavily depend on attracting and retaining highly skilled technology specialists and engineers, for whom the market is extremely competitive.
Our inability to attract, develop and retain key personnel could have an adverse effect on our relationships with our vendor partners and
customers and adversely affect our ability to expand our offerings of value-added services and solutions. Moreover, our inability to train our
sales, services and technical personnel effectively to meet the rapidly changing technology needs of our customers could cause a decrease in the
overall quality and efficiency of such personnel. Such consequences could adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows.
The interruption of the flow of products from suppliers could disrupt our supply chain.
A significant portion of the products we sell are manufactured or purchased by our vendor partners outside of the U.S., primarily in
Asia. Political, social or economic instability in Asia, or in other regions in which our vendor partners purchase or manufacture the products we
sell, could cause disruptions in trade, including exports to the U.S. Other events that could also cause disruptions to our supply chain include:
We cannot predict whether the countries in which the products we sell are purchased or manufactured, or may be purchased or
manufactured in the future, will be subject to new or additional trade restrictions or sanctions imposed by the U.S. or foreign governments,
including the likelihood, type or effect of any such restrictions. Trade restrictions, including new or increased tariffs or quotas, embargos,
sanctions, safeguards and customs restrictions against the products we sell, as well as foreign labor strikes and work stoppages or boycotts, could
increase the cost or reduce the supply of product available to us and adversely affect our business, results of operations or cash flows.
A natural disaster or other adverse occurrence at one of our primary facilities or customer data centers could damage our business.
Substantially all of our corporate, warehouse and distribution functions are located at our Vernon Hills, Illinois facilities and our second
distribution center in North Las Vegas, Nevada. If the warehouse and distribution equipment at one of our distribution centers were to be
seriously damaged by a natural disaster or other adverse occurrence, we could utilize the other distribution center or third-party distributors to
ship products to our customers. However, this may not be sufficient to avoid interruptions in our service and may not enable us to meet all of the
needs of our customers and would cause us to incur incremental operating costs. In addition, we operate three customer data centers and
numerous sales offices which may contain both business-critical data and confidential information of our customers. A natural disaster or other
adverse occurrence at any of the customer data centers or at any of our major sales offices could negatively impact our business, results of
operations or cash flows.
13
•
the imposition of additional trade law provisions or regulations;
•
the imposition of additional duties, tariffs and other charges on imports and exports;
•
foreign currency fluctuations;
•
natural disasters or other adverse occurrences at, or affecting, any of our suppliers' facilities;
•
restrictions on the transfer of funds;
•
the financial instability or bankruptcy of manufacturers; and
•
significant labor disputes, such as strikes.