Larocque is officially retiring as president of TD Synnex North America on November 30 and moving into a special advisor role.

When Peter Larocque graduated with an economics degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1983 he bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco, ran out of money and ended up getting a job at lean and mean technology distribution upstart Synnex.

Forty-one years later, Larocque, widely created with helping to build Synnex into a distribution titan that merged with Tech Data in 2021, is officially retiring as president of TD Synnex North America on November 30 and moving into a special advisor role.

Larocque, who played a key integration role during the merger, which created the world’s largest technology products distributor at what was then a $59.8 billion company, said one of the reasons he felt the time was right to step aside is because the merger has been completed with regard to the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning System).

“We go to market with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system) that we have that’s industry leading and a P & L that people can figure out how to manage their business effectively,” he said.

Larocque, who has become renowned as a dealmaker and solution provider relationship builder, is credited by partners with driving an unprecedented level of technology solutions sales during his four-decade-plus career.

TD Synnex North America Advanced Solutions Chief Reyna Thompson is taking over as North America President on December 1.

“(Former Synnex Chairman, President and CEO) Kevin Murai once told me: ‘When does doing this become enough?’ And it became enough,” he said in an interview with CRN. “We were ready, and the timing was right. Reyna will do an exceptionally great job.”

As for his special advisor role reporting to TD Synnex CEO Patrick Zammit, Larocque said it will be a part time role, looking at certain segments.

“It could be working on developing the international business and focusing on new vendors and solutions,” he said. “It could be five or 10 of these things. But you know, my suspicion is he (Patrick Zammit) and I will lock in on one or two. And we’ll execute, and it’ll be accretive to the business that we have.”

Larocque, 62, who concedes that he “missed a lot of stuff” during his long career, said he is looking forward to spending more time with his wife of 23-years, Lisa; his daughters, Marissa, 19 and Jenna, 17; and his son Andrew, 13.

Larocque said one of the benefits of the pandemic was the ability for him to be at the dinner table with his family. That is something he was grateful to be able to do. “I got to participate in the little things,” he said. “After the pandemic we all go back to our old habits. We did this merger and I spent a lot of time traveling again. I don’t want to miss anything (ever again).”

As for what the future holds for TD Synnex, Larocque said he is confident that the distributor is in good hands with the crop of talented young people coming up the ranks.

“We get new hires that come in and they are all extremely smart young folks, and the first question that they all ask is: where will this business be five years from now?” he said. “And my answer is twofold. First of all, just like when I was 21 years old and asked (former Synnex founder and CEO) Bob (Huang) that question. We’re going to have exceptional people who follow the culture rules that are the best in the industry, and these smart people are going to figure out ways to help customers and vendors do their job most effectively. and keep that mentality of take care of the partner, grow the business and be the best.”

As for Larocque’s future he noted that he is a member of two golf courses and hasn’t played at either in the last six months. “I’m about to fix that,” he said.

Below is an edited excerpt of the conversation with Larocque.

Why are you retiring now and how does it feel?

It feels good! After November 30 I’m going to be playing a role as strategic advisor for (TD Synnex CEO) Patrick (Zammit) on a lesser (than full time) basis.

When is a good time (to retire)? You know what I mean? I felt a good time is when we have a great team, which we do, the best in the industry.

I have the best job in the industry, and always have. So we have a great team. We have completed the (Tech Data and Synnex) merger from an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system) and process perspective. I have a great group of leaders who, if you don’t play them, you’re perhaps missing a window that’s really important.

In the case of (incoming North America President) Reyna (Thompson) she is exceptional. This is how we roll here. That’s part of our success. We actively manage our succession plan. I’ve worked very closely with Reyna over the last 18 months, and she’s ready. And I’m ready to do things that are on a lesser basis, spend more time on family businesses and and relax.

So I’m here to help. Patrick’s got me locked in as an advisor. I’m going to focus on a few things for him and be an individual contributor.

(Former Synnex Chairman, President and CEO) Kevin Murai once told me: ‘When does doing this become enough?’ And it became enough. We were ready, and the timing was right.

Reyna will do an exceptionally great job. She knows, like I did, that I’m overhead. I’m overhead, and I’ve got CEOs of the business everywhere. And now Reyna has got the best team in the world.

What is the strategic advisor role? How long is the contract for and what does it entail?

Patrick has certain projects (that he is looking at). I’ll give you some examples. I don’t want to give away my secrets too much, but it could be working on certain segments of the business.

It could be working on government. It could be working on developing the international business and focusing on new vendors and solutions. It could be five or 10 of these things.

But you know, my suspicion is he and I will lock in on one or two. And we’ll execute, and it’ll be accretive to the business that we have.

Is that special advisor role a full-time role?

It’s not going to be a full-time role. And if you look at today I do a lot of part-time roles in a lot of different areas.

Managing and developing people is a big part of what I do. And those types of things will move over out of my purview.

I look forward to being an individual contributor and helping project by project, putting together plans and organizations, working with customers. That’s what I do well!

I’ve done this for 41 years, and I feel great. But you know I’m a proud warrior. I don’t want somebody to ask me to leave. And what if you’re going to leave- leave when you’re number one!

So how long will you be in that role as special advisor?

That is totally up to to me and Patrick. But it’s likely probably 12 months either plus or minus.

You’ve spent 41 years in technology distribution sales. What are the lessons learned from the Peter Larocque sales playbook?

One thing that we always talk about is what advice would I give my team. The advice I give them is: hit goal and don’t hide (behind an excuse).

There’s plenty of reasons that you didn’t maybe hit, but the only thing that we all are interested in is what are you going to do to make sure that you hit (goal) and grow the business?

We always feel a lot of pressure to grow the business because all the kids that work for us they want my job and the only way that they’re going to get that job (is to hit goal).

If you look at where we are today versus 10 years ago I’ve got a lot of CEOs (that run different segments of the business in North America). They all run big businesses for us.

But you know, it gets down to the very basics: find great people, put them in the right spot and don’t put a ceiling over their head. We’ve been very effective in doing that.

We have a lot of capabilities. It makes it easy to sell (to customers) in my opinion. I really feel like people like to own their own business. We go to market with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system) that we have that’s industry-leading and a P & L that people can figure out how to manage their business effectively.

I’m not the only person making decisions here. It’s the thousands of sales people, business development people, and product people that can use that to run a business.

We are a great believer in decentralized (management) and taking action. That and good coverage. There’s not a time that I go out and talk to a customer that may be buying certain things elsewhere. The way I look at it is if you’re doing that, you’re buying from second best. I wish I was 52 and could turn back time because with this type of lineup of people, product lines and capabilities, I like our chances.

What do you think is the biggest difference between TD Synnex and the other distributors as the channel evolves in the AI era?

The first thing is it’s a big company. Nobody wants to hear it’s a big company. But there are advantages of being a big company. For example, you may have 100 people in an AI group think tank, growing businesses, working with the key vendors in that space. You don’t get the luxury of having that type of team if you don’t have scale.

Look at the facilities that we have. Nobody has the five-million square feet that we have in the U.S. in the markets that partners need to be in.

Look at our financial capabilities in terms of bringing in inventory. If you’re small and you have got to bring in a lot of inventory to work with vendors when you’ve got a lumpy business environment like you have today, one month good, one month slightly down, one month good. Those things are a lot easier needles to thread (when you are big with our financial capabilities). You can bring in quite a bit (of inventory) when you are big. You can take risks that you didn’t take before financially for partners,

My sense is it’s the creativity, the coverage, the amount of people that we have that can cover a lot of folks, and the value pieces are exceptional.

If you look at our security business it’s a dedicated team with one throat (to choke). The customer calls in and gets one frontline person that answers their questions. They don’t throw it over a wall.

We have that in a lot of other businesses too. We have exceptional coverage in the field and on the phone. We have on the security side the CyberRange that we have in Phoenix. We have solution providers there on a regular basis, bringing their customers into the CyberRange.

There are just a long list of things we do like SLAs (Service Level Agreements) on difficult configs. We’re a big company that is acting like a little one: hungry for our dinner, competitive.

We have a good mix of associates here with a good front office and a good back office. We’ve had that Philippines operation since 2000.

We have number one draft choices and competent people who are selfless. You don’t do a merger like this (Tech Data-Synnex merging in 2021 in a $7.2 billion deal) without a lot of selfless people.

From a management perspective I never worried about having to talk to my people because we were around each other so long.

I don’t have to remember an exact conversation because I know damn well with regard to basic management capabilities me and my team are on the same page.

What do you see as the key for partners to drive growth in the AI era?

(Incoming TD Synnex North America President) Reyna (Thompson) is going to have more depth for you on this. But the biggest question our partners have is: what are we talking about (with AI)?…How do you make money and how big is it?

That’s why we have had that separate team working for Reyna doing the AI data analytics, developing skill sets and working with the major providers in that market.

That’s how you end up making a business for a partner. And let me tell you I’ve been to so many events where partners were doing zero modern data center business with us and then worked with our teams (to grow sales in that market).

I go to many of these major events that our OEMs have and I’m just shocked at how much our folks know. I don’t know why I’m shocked. Our people put together a lot of plans that partners can use to execute their business. It’s really everything. It’s not just devices. It is all about a real solution and what is it worth? That’s what people want to know. What is it worth and what steps do they need to take (to build a solution). So for a lot of partners we can fill that gap for them with our capabilities until they build up their practice. There are a lot of them that are significant companies.

We’re not talking the “S” of SMB. We’re talking midmarket and enterprise. A lot of people use our capabilities just like they use our government capabilities with the amount of contracts that we have and the people on the public sector side. We have people who help manage contracts for our solution providers. We set up events with an end user on behalf of partners. We’re filling that gap and because we have scale we can live to fight another day if (sales) are lumpy.

How do you feel about the future of TD Synnex as you get ready to start your new role as special advisor?

Well, I gotta tell you I have the best job in this business, and I have the best team in this business, so we expect hell or high water to always execute.

You know I was just telling somebody this: We get new hires that come in and they are all extremely smart young folks. And the first question that they all ask is: where will this business be five years from now? And my answer is two fold. First of all, just like when when I was 21 years old and asked (former Synnex founder and CEO) Bob (Huang) that question. We’re going to have exceptional people who follow the culture rules that are the best in the industry, and these smart people are going to figure out ways to help customers and vendors do their job most effectively. and keep that mentality of take care of the partner, grow the business and be the best.

The second thing is we’re going to be the most efficient business in the (distribution) business. Our customers and our vendors expect us to have a lot of capabilities and manage expenses tightly, and our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system) is the best in the business with a good full P&L for our CEOs up front to make decisions.

So we’re going to be efficient, and our smart people will always put us in a place to win because five years from now. Just think about it, even with your crystal ball, five years ago would you have dreamt this?