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AMERICAN IN PARIS?
STEEPED IN HISTORY AND CULTURE BRINGS TO MIND A PICTURE OF STEVE RAYMUND KICKING BACK AND SIPPING FINE WINE AT A ROADSIDE CAFE. SO WHY DOES RAYMUND, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF TECH DATA CORP., FEEL LIKE HE SHOULD BE WEARING A CRASH HELMET ON HIS WAY TO HIS PARIS OFFICE THESE DAYS?
"DRIVING HERE IS A LITTLE LIKE A DEMOLITION DERBY," SAYS THE NORMALLY UNFIAPPABLE RAYMUND. HE COMPARES THE DAILY COMMUTE TO HIS NEW DOWNTOWN OFFICE DIGS TO BEING SWEPT UP IN A FAST-FLOWING HORDE OF people walking down the street with their elbows out, jabbing and jostling each other. It's a long way from the sunny, easygoing retirement community of Clearwater, Fla., Tech Data's corporate headquarters, where Raymund used to have a much more orderly drive to work.
So much for the reputation of the City of Lights and the country of romance. But then again, Raymund has not come to Paris to sample either. Typically, he comes equipped with a business agenda. He is here to make sure that Tech Data's highly strategic acquisition of European distributor Computer 2000 AG comes off smoothly. The European company is playing a crucial role in Raymund's unfolding international strategy, and the future growth prospects of his multibillion-dollar company could well hang in the balance.
The task of smoothly integrating Computer 2000 is one well suited for Raymund, a studious, methodical type who now must conquer Europe the same way he mastered the U.S. distribution industry-one step at a time.
No one at Tech Data appears particularly nonplussed by Raymund's decision earlier this year to pick up his family and move to Paris. In fact, many view it as logical, a trait that often is mentioned when the conversation turns to Raymund.
"It doesn't surprise me because Steve is a leader by example . . . willing to make sacrifices, commitments and, therefore, [he] leads by showing people how it should be done as opposed to just talking about it," says Tony Ibarguen, Tech Data's president and chief operating officer, who was left to handle the domestic operations when Raymund went off to foreign shores.
Just three weeks into his year-long stint at Computer 2000's Paris office, the normally organized and systematic Raymund...