Brands and names surround us. From the everyday consumer goods to business to business icons, every brand name exudes a personality and customer promise. The degree to which the brand promise is felt and experienced by a customer sets the iconic brands apart from the mediocre. Successful brands transmit the spirit and fundamental values of an enterprise and embody the vision and work ethic of its employees. For a brand to endure, the brand promise requires evolution to match a rapidly changing world.
At Arrow, we have been on a journey to refocus our mission towards enabling the transformational future that awaits us all. Our “five years out” campaign articulates a tangible future where new technologies, new materials, new ideas and new electronics will make life not only different, but better, cheaper, and smarter. Accompanying the brand identity redefinition, Arrow has identified specific value propositions along a set of solution areas: Aerospace & Defense, Business Intelligence, Data Centers, Power Management, Internet of Things, Cloud, Mobility, and Security. All of Arrow’s divisions are now oriented towards providing customer value in these solution areas
When I joined Arrow to lead the OCS organization, I frequently was asked by many (both internally and externally) what “OCS” meant and what exactly we do? As I stumbled to get “OEM Computing Solutions” out of my mouth, the response was, “Yeah, but what does that mean?” Note, it was also not lost on me that we had an acronym within an acronym, which I am sure is against some rule in the marketing world. More important, our name didn’t reflect the true value we bring to customers and many of our customers don’t really see themselves as “OEM’s” in the traditional sense. When I first flirted with the idea of changing our name, I asked a few members of my staff, to which I got some mixed reactions. Many felt that our brand tied to OCS was strong. Someone else said to me, “I mean it’s just a name, Kristin. Changing it doesn’t transform the organization overnight”. I agree with this, but I have also felt that words are important and powerful tools to convey emotion, energy, and intent. The example I always use is the Eiffel Tower. If I say those two simple words, you cannot help but to form a picture of the Eiffel Tower in your mind and then associate it with an emotion – perhaps when you visited there and what that experience was like, or perhaps, it is a place you’ve always wanted to go. Regardless, words create pictures that create emotion and connection, so yes, they are important. Therefore, to more accurately portray our value proposition, I decided to undergo a brand transformation for OCS.
So what does this all mean for our legacy OCS division? Simply, it represents positive change! We will now forever be Arrow Intelligent Solutions (AIS). Our customers are altering their business models to have a greater business impact. Their needs are expanding and demand a bigger role for Arrow. Our new name reflects our mission to help customers design, build and deliver Intelligent Solutions. Further, it encompasses today’s market need and needs that are five years out, as our clients continue to seek opportunities to innovate, create and transform.
Most important, our name represents a broad and global capability set that takes ideas from vision to completion rapidly. The Oxford English dictionary defines “intelligent” as ‘being able to vary one’s state or action in response to varying situations and past experience’. In my mind, this exemplifies the very nature of our work at Arrow Intelligent Solutions. De-cluttering the complex process of moving from prototype to production and adapting our solutions to match our customers’ competencies is at the heart of our approach to customers. It is on us to cement this brand promise through invigorated engagement with our customers. Transforming ourselves from just being vendor partners into important extensions of our customers’ design, and engineering teams will take us a long way towards fulfilling this promise. Our strong foundational capabilities in supply chain management and a full range of business services will enable us to be effective.
A few months ago, I unveiled our new name at an employee only All Hands Call and the reaction… as I took a deep breath…was applause! The feedback has been similarly positive by our customers, suppliers, partners and internal stakeholders. But all of the promise is nothing without deep collaboration between Arrow teams, our employees and customer stakeholders. So what’s in a name? Well, ours is about working together to turn new possibilities into reality.
