MADE BY: NIKITA SANGAL

Arrow Electronics was a distributor of electronic components that began as a radio equipment retailer in 1935.

1977 - became the fourth largest electronic arts distributor in

US.

1979 - shares were listed in the NYSE. 1980 - became the second largest distributor in US. 1993- highest sales in North America.

Steve Kaufman joined Arrow as Executive Vice President in

1982 and assumed the role of CEO in 1986.

He wanted to revive the college recruiting program, he had

started in 1984.

But he recalled the difficulties the company had faced in retaining the talent in the organization.

So in order to introduce the program again they need to find a way to retain talent.

Missing sales budgets

High employee turnover Need of new sales representatives

Lack of loyalty among the employees

Upgrading the professionalism of the sales force. The sprouts program was introduced in the organization to drastically change the work force

Selling based on what the customers want now and what will they need in the future.

Along with this, a training program for existing sales representatives was also required.

The Sprout program was introduced in 1983.

Arrow was the first company to introduce this program It trained its managers on how to interview college

students.

A structured interview was prepared for the students. In 1984, Arrow sent executives to college campuses to interview students

The selected candidates were sent to headquarters for orientation and on the job training.

Training in California was well structured whereas the

issues raised in other branches were:

Managers were not good trainers Sprouts were not exposed to meaningful parts of the business.

After the feedback of the program it was realized that a more formal training program was needed.

A new program was introduced in 1985

Arrow rented Xerox training facility in Virginia.

The program included:
Classroom training Company

executives and professional instructors

were hired
Thirteen weeks of on the job training.
Three

weeks of training before being sent to field

permanently

The company was facing the major problem of poaching leading to high attrition rate in the company. Reasons of attrition were:

Hike in compensation was less when compared to other players in the industry Delayed promotions

Lack of career advancement opportunities

Lack of support from senior managers

As a result, after 1985, the compensation structure was made deffered

Commision rates were increased.

They were given percentage of the account every quarter.

After two years of service they would get a hike in compensation, but had 6-9 months of at risk pay in reserve.

Signing of non-compete agreements.

These efforts did not prove to be successful and the program

ended in 1988 as the company made major acquisitions which brought in large group of salespeople

1997, kaufman decided to re launch its college recruiting

program

The company needed new energy into the company. The company now had a sales force of around 1000 with an attrition rate of 26-30%

The company needed to recruit 300 people a year.

To accomplish this college recruitment was a good option where the company go for mass recruitment.