Bob Huang, CEO / Synnex

Born in Taiwan and schooled in Japan and the United States, the high-energy Huang is always on the go, always working and always demanding that once his tight-knit group of loyal managers reaches a consensus, actions follow. “You need to have an IT system change made? OK, make it. It will get done tomorrow,” says John Paget, Synnex president and COO.

Velocity also has characterized Huang&'s ability to consolidate a series of acquisitions, bringing them under one IT system, in a seemingly continuous reinvention of the company. Huang&'s acquisition last year of EMJ Data Systems, a Canadian distributor big in the auto-ID market, moved Synnex into high-support solution sales. Soon, it added field sales to push enterprise products. And in January, an investment in India-based IT services company Microland made Synnex the first distributor to market with a managed services offering.

Huang, who earned double master&'s degrees in electrical engineering and business statistics, is also data-driven. That&'s where the visibility and value come in. Huang makes sure all of Synnex&'s managers know their GPE ratio—gross profit divided by expenses—a statistic he invented as a simple way to measure performance throughout the company.

“You don&'t want to have wrong numbers around Bob,” says Peter Larocque, Synnex executive vice president. “He&'s very educated and grounded. When you&'re dealing with somebody that is very educated, they appreciate facts and data, but if they&'re not grounded, they don&'t know what they mean.”

Huang knows what the numbers mean.