Steve Jow - 2019. 37 years, 37 top business influencers you should get to know

When America’s Return Inc. turned 30 in 2017, I recognized each?of the 30 most influential people in the history of my business.? Now at 37 years, the updates.

2019 – Steven Jow , TD SYNNEX

When Steve Jow started in the IT distribution channel in 1990, things seemed simpler. Business journals were still covering the “PC Revolution.”? Computer networking was in its infancy; there was no commercial internet yet, let alone browsers to access it; cloud computing was a decade away; AI was still in the lab.? Now, as head of Commercial Sales at TD SYNNEX, Steve manages a significant portion of the business in the United States for the world’s largest IT distributor with revenues of approximately $60B, providing technology solutions in every product category for every market segment through a partner ecosystem even more complex today than it was in 2019.? That was the year that SYNNEX (pre-Tech Data merger) brought me back in for S.A.L.E.S.? training in a two-year program with the 100-person SMB and MSP sales group in the Philippines.? For that engagement, I credit Steve as the business leader who exerted the greatest influence on America’s Return Inc. that year.??

Steve's sales leadership journey has confirmed for him how to succeed in the big, complex world he is expected to manage today.? He shares that advice here: make the effort to meet more people, learn from them, engage face-to-face, gain their trust.? And something grand happens, he states: “the world becomes smaller and more understandable.”? He not only advises this approach, he lives it daily.? As evidence, Steve’s trademark has become selfies posted on LinkedIn with dozens of people weekly as he travels on business. Relationship-building has helped him navigate his largest merger yet, easing thousands to look beyond legacy routines and embrace something new: becoming a 23,000-person corporation that he proudly brands the “Best Team Ever.”

We have a long history together, my having been brought into SYNNEX first by Peter Larocque. ??In that first early encounter, Steve demonstrated his focus on learning from others. He was already a Sales master who had built a strong Sales culture: celebrating wins, making connections and maintaining honesty.? But he realized it takes more than a manager’s knowledge to train a team; it takes a framework.? He adopted my S.A.L.E.S. methodology to train 300 reps nationally over three years during their growth from $5B to $8B.? Reps and visitors to his office would see his laminated S.A.L.E.S. sheet pinned to the wall, marking for the team his commitment to systematic customer acquisition and development.? Equally important, he noted, was my commitment to refining the documented process to stay relevant with SYNNEX’s changing world. ?When I revisited Steve in 2019, on his wall was the evolved S.A.L.E.S. lamination, about to be improved again in the Philippines. ?I was aided in that deployment by two sharp and emotionally intelligent leaders of TD SYNNEX’s SMB and MSP Groups, SVP John Phillips and Sales Director Camden Fuller. ?The innovations we adopted helped grow a global selling team. ?Most of the interactive instruction on territory and account development was conducted onsite in Manila.? But the reinforcement from 7,000 miles and 14 time zones away demanded new approaches, adaptations to remote learning made essential once Covid policies transformed contact center offices into work-from-home models.

The relationships forged during that international engagement remind me of Steve’s advice. I only mastered a few social phrases of Filipino, but since there are more English speakers in the Philippines than in the UK, I had unlimited opportunities to share thoughts with scores of gracious, intelligent, dedicated people and have Steve’s principles prevail: the world became smaller, more understandable and friendlier.? That’s Steve’s gift of human connection, to which I say, “Salamat!”

Next up - 2020 - Laurie Kumar, Tilden Preparatory School

1987–Michael E. Gerber ??1988-1989 –David Packard and William Hewlett? 1990–Larry Wainscott? 1991–Dave Luke? 1992–Al Powell ??1993–Julie Mantis? 1994–Peter Romness? 1995–Kathleen Schaub? 1996–Dina Haase? 1997–Laura Honeycutt? 1998–Deanne Bergevin? 1999–John Costas? 2000–Marc Sarazin? 2001–Bob Hartz? 2002–Guy Cournoyer? 2003–Pat Donovan? 2004–Chris Swahn? 2005–Mary Alice Rau? 2006–Nicole Desmarais Lee? 2007–Peter Larocque? 2008–Gary Shottes? 2009–John Hackley? 2010–Rich Stratton? 2011–Brian Vincik ?2012–Zachary Tyler? 2013–Honorable Mention – George Uema, Frank Brady, Phillip Privett, Phil Woudenberg, John Paget, Jon Bennett? 2014–Peter DiMarco? 2015-2017–Michael Schwab and Dan Schwab? 2018-David Williams