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Exclusive: New Rexel USA CEO Roger Little Talks With tED Magazine

On his first “official” day as CEO of Rexel USA, Roger Little took some time to talk with tED magazine about the past, present, and future of the distributor. Little has already been around the country to meet Rexel employees before officially starting in the position.

Q: I know you have been on the road and meeting with folks (at Rexel) and talking with people. What kind of a message have you been sending, what conversations have you been having with folks as you hit the road before you started today?

Roger Little: A lot of it who I am. I knew the senior management team of Rexel USA quite well, in fact all the regional presidents except for one who is newly hired. I had met them on numerous occasions, and we have collaborated between US and Canada the past. So, we’ve had good relationship there. The goal of the meetings has really been to get down past that layer and into the regions and you know over 7000 employees. I talked to a lot of people, but that’s how I operate. I like to be “in” the in the business. I’m not smart enough to do it from sitting in a chair somewhere I have to go out and touch it and feel it, and that’s what I’ve been really doing. And the message is pretty simple: who I am, what the strategy is, which is the strategy hasn’t changed for Rexel USA. The person changed but the strategy itself remains unchanged and, if anything, we’re looking to accelerate it. That’s been the first message. I done some town halls, done a lot of one on ones, and actually did a video that’ll come out as well. I obviously can’t get to everybody in the next couple of weeks, so the video is a great way of doing it.

Q: Let’s get into a couple of those comments that you made if that’s OK. First, go back to the region structure which I think is widely accepted, people seem to love it whether you’re a supplier or whether you’re a customer. That Rexel region structure that was developed a number of years ago, just for clarity’s sake and make sure nobody freaks out, nothing’s changing in the region structure because everybody seems to love it. Is that correct?

Little: That is correct, and then quite honestly, I ran Canada previously that has a regional structure, so it’s kind of structure I’m very used to. I think how we manage those regions, how many direct reports I have, that may change along the way, although nothing short term, but as far as having the regions the geographic footprint, what’s in and out of those regions today, nothing changes. With M&A and as we grow our business, maybe there will be requirements to change those slightly, so I’m not going to say never will there be changes to a region. But the region structure stays intact, and there may be some geographic changes, at least where the lines get re-drawn as we go based on pure size because you have to be able to manage them.

Q: So, again, just for clarity, the idea of having regions, regardless of how big they are or who’s running them, it’s going to remain at Rexel.

Little: As long as I’m around. I can only get you that far.

Q: And then get me into a little bit of those conversations that you had with the people you talked with at Rexel. You talked a little bit about getting kind of granular and talking to Rexel employees. So give me some of the feedback you received from the people who make Rexel work.

Little: I think there’s general excitement that somebody from within the business, whether it be me or somebody else, is CEO at Rexel USA. I’ve got 30 years in the electrical business, 28 and a half or 29 years with Rexel Canada. Certainly, I think there’s comfort in that for the folks. Brad (Paulson) did a great job, but I think there is obviously some comfort when somebody comes from within, which I think is just generally accepted. It doesn’t matter if it’s Rexel or anybody else, you always like to see somebody from within the business do well and run the operations that so that’s been number one. The questions you’ve asked are high on the list, what about structure are we changing the way we go to business or are we changing the customers we focus on. The answers are always the same and all the strategy remains intact and its mine to drive.

Q: You mentioned M&A and expansion a little bit, and I want to get into that in a second. But let’s talk first about the next big thing. It always seems like there’s a next radical change in the world and the way we’re doing business, and now we’re looking at electrifying the continent, not just the United States but certainly Canada, too. Not a technical term here, but the US has a ton of money heading toward clean energy and re-electrifying the country. It’s a big opportunity for distributors and manufacturers. How are you accepting that this is the next big thing and how does that shape the Rexel strategy for not just for 2024 but for the rest of this decade?

Little: I would say exactly at least the next decade and I personally think we are a little ahead of some of our competitors in that space. We have RES, the Rexel Energy Solutions business, for many years, which has focused on a lot of those topics, whether it be solar or wind and now obviously a lot of topics like that EV added to that. So you know we’ve had that business and been accelerating that business and growing that business to where it is today and into a much bigger footprint. It was a boutique business when it was purchased years and years ago by Rexel USA, got integrated into the general business over the last couple of years, and now we need to amplify them. I think that’s the short answer is take what we’ve learned through that acquisition and really put it into all the regions because whether it’s North, South, East, or West those topics are now on everybody’s mind. They used to be kind of an East Coast/West Coast thing especially California and Boston and a couple areas like that. We’re going to see hotbeds of ESG or renewables. That’s the world actually right no.

Q: A big part of that is staying ahead of the curve. What’s the next thing that’s going to happen? How are you staying ahead o of the next rebate dollar that is going to be available? Are you tracking the stimulus dollars that are coming from the US government? You don’t have to get specific with me, but at least share the plan to make sure that your supply chain partners, your manufacturers or your customers are understanding that Rexel is taking care of what is happening in this massive opportunity, and making sure that you’re taking advantage of everything before it happens.

Little: Partially, we can leverage what we’ve seen in other countries and certainly Europe. They are well ahead of North America when it comes to this topic because they had to be. I mean they had no choice; they were really forced into it by constraints on gas and oil through some of the unfortunate situation that’s happening with Russia and Ukraine. And then further down into the Middle East, we’ve watched that acceleration through our global business and then certainly our footprint in Asia has helped us with some supply chain partners that are well established into this space. The manufacturer globally but might be either headquartered there or at least have big footprints and different parts of Asia, so I think we’re learning what we can from other countries within the Rexel group, and then obviously stay close to what is happening with local and national governments and making sure we are in lockstep or even a half a step ahead of those folks.

Next week in Part 2, Roger Little discusses leadership, recruiting and building the supply chain, digitization, and Rexel’s mergers & acquisition strategy.