Tech Data Celebrates 40 Years In Business

Break out the streamers and birthday cake -- Tech Data turns 40 years old today.

Birthday wishes rolled in Wednesday from across the industry, including video greetings from big-name tech CEOs such as Hewlett-Packard's Meg Whitman, Cisco's John Chambers and Dell's Michael Dell, in honor of the distributor's founding on Nov. 19, 1974. Tech Data chairman and former CEO Steve Raymund also congratulated employees on the milestone, honoring the company founded by his father, Edward Raymund.

The company will fete the anniversary with its employees on Friday, when it plans to put up balloons and dish out cake and ice cream, part of a yearlong celebration that has included sharing weekly stories about the history of the company and biographies of longtime employees.

[Related: Q&A: Tech Data CEO On Rising PC Sales And More]

The distributor isn't the same company it was when it first opened its doors. Tech Data has evolved over the past 40 years from a marketer of data-processing supplies to end users of mini and mainframe computers to the IT distributor that it is today. That change has been necessary to keep up with the accelerating pace of the tech industry's evolution, said Bob Dutkowsky, CEO of Tech Data, who joined the company in 2006.

"Today, the world is much more complex," Dutkowsky said. "The IT landscape is extremely more complex than it was back then. [Technology] is also far more pervasive."

That presents a challenge for both the distributor and the solution providers it works with, he said.

Dutkowsky said channel partners have evolved just as much as Tech Data has over the past four decades. Just being in the right place at the right time used to be enough for VARs to win an opportunity, but that isn't the case anymore, he said. Dutkowsky said he sees Tech Data's solution providers as "much more sophisticated now than they were 40 years and [even] 20 years ago."

Scott Fluegge, president and general manager at JDL Technologies, a Tech Data partner based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., said he has seen how Tech Data has had to transform itself over the years, pointing out that its start 40 years ago predates email and the Internet. That mirrors how he has seen his own business transform, he said.

"I think about our own evolution as a VAR, and how we've reengineered the company into a full-service MSP over the past two years," Fluegge said. "We know how important it is to our success to keep on rethinking the business and moving it forward. Tech Data has done a good job of it, or they wouldn’t have made it 40 years."

Dutkowsky agreed, saying what stood out to him the most was the company's ability to adapt to industry changes.

The Clearwater, Fla.-based company started in 1974 as marketer of data-processing supplies to end users of mini and mainframe computers. It wasn't until 1982 that it became an IT distributor. Today, Tech Data has more than 115,000 reseller customers, selling more than $26 billion of technology last year.

Over the years, adapting for industry changes has meant billions of dollars in investments in research and development in what Tech Data sees as the "next great sea change," Dutkowsky said. For example, he said three years ago, Tech Data sold only $300 million in tablets globally. Last year, the company sold $2.5 billion worth of tablets. That type of change means big investments and pivoting of company agendas, such as the joint venture launched in 2011 with Brightstar for TDMobility and acquiring it in full in November 2013.

"To me, that's the secret sauce of Tech Data: its ability to adjust and adapt to the realities of the market and the technology space, which, by definition, changes all the time. That's not a thing that's easy for a Fortune 100 company to do, but we're good at it, and we continue to practice it every day," Dutkowsky said.

It's hard to predict what that next big change will be, Dutkowsky said, but Tech Data is investing in areas like data center, mobility, software, consumer electronics and the Internet of Things to be ready for it.

"When we look back, it's been an amazing ride, but we like to think it's just the beginning and the foundation we've built, whether it's the capabilities or the IT systems and the infrastructure, we're just getting started. As much as we're anxious and proud to look back, the opportunity is much greater going forward," he said.

PUBLISHED NOV. 19, 2014