The need for influential business leaders has become paramount in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, where technological advancements and changing market dynamics constantly disrupt different industries. These leaders possess a unique combination of industry expertise, strategic long-term vision, and technological acumen, enabling them to navigate complex challenges and drive meaningful transformations within their organizations and in the industries. Sanjib Sahoo, the Executive Vice President and Global Chief Digital Officer at Ingram Micro, is one such influential and visionary business leader who exemplifies these qualities.
With an impressive and unique background in technology and business, Sanjib Sahoo has successfully held key positions at renowned companies across the industry. His exceptional track record in leveraging technology to overcome industry challenges and drive revenue growth has made him a trusted and sought-after figure in the business world. His strategic vision and technological expertise are set to transform Ingram Micro, a global technology distribution partner and the business behind today’s technology brands touching 90% of the world’s population, into a unique B2B platform company.
Professional Experience
Sanjib Sahoo is an accomplished executive who has held key positions of increasing responsibility at companies including Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and Charles Schwab, where he honed his skills in utilizing technology to overcome industry challenges, and create increasing opportunity. While technology was a key focus at the start of his career, he soon switched to taking dual roles that aimed at leading business differentiating strategies enabled by game-changing technology.
As CIO and CTO at TradeMONSTER, now E*TRADE(Morgan Stanley), Sanjib Sahoo led the development and implementation of an innovative online trading platform, driving consistent year-over-year revenue growth and ranked best platform by Barron’s seven years in a row. Later, as the CIO of XPO Logistics transport, a top global logistics provider, he played a pivotal role in the company’s digital transformation efforts. His strategic vision and technological acumen helped reshape the organization and drive digital initiatives.
Journey at Ingram Micro
Sanjib Sahoo’s career journey has been characterized by a determination to challenge limits, exceed expectations and make a lasting impact. While his initial aspirations did not include becoming a Chief Digital Officer, Sanjib’s commitment to leadership and constant learning led him to pursue an education in business management at Harvard. His diverse background allows him to create and capture value from technical and business perspectives.
The company’s remarkable qualities inspired Sanjib’s decision to join Ingram Micro. Despite its vast size and presence in over 60 countries, Ingram Micro maintains a personal and approachable atmosphere. The dedication of its employees to mutual success with customers and colleagues makes it a highly desirable workplace. Furthermore, the vision of CEO Paul Bay to modernize both Ingram Micro and the industry as a whole further solidified Sanjib Sahoo’s choice. He is honored to lead the company’s digital transformation and reimagine how it creates and captures value to become a platform company.
The Business Partner Behind the World’s Tech Brands
Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Ingram Micro is the business behind the world’s brands with the ability to reach nearly 90 percent of the world’s population. Its diverse solutions portfolio spans thousands of technology hardware and services options, as well as XaaS solutions. As part of its commitment to reducing environmental impact, Ingram Micro offers full-service IT Asset Disposal as well as reverse logistics and repair services. The industry leader also offers a more intelligent and streamlined way of doing business in the IT industry with its digital platform Ingram Micro Xvantage™. Reaching close to 200 countries, Ingram Micro has approximately 27,000 associates and more than 161,000 customers and 1,500 vendor partners worldwide.
Ingram Micro stands out from the competition due to its unparalleled agility, deep market insights, and strong foundation of trusted relationships cultivated over decades. The company’s core specialties include technology solutions, supply chain services, advanced logistics, mobility, eCommerce, fulfillment, cloud solutions, reverse logistics, asset disposition, physical security, point-of-sale data capture, and marketing. These diverse offerings cater to the evolving needs of businesses, enabling them to leverage technology and optimize their operations effectively.
Making the Impossible Possible
Digitally transforming a $50+ billion dollar organization, with four decades of legacy doesn’t happen overnight and some may even see it as mission impossible. However, under Sanjib Sahoo’s leadership, Ingram Micro broke new ground on its digital transformation journey within months of starting. Sanjib Sahoo credits the team’s unwavering commitment to embracing challenges and adopting a growth mindset as pivotal in overcoming any challenges and embracing the spirit of digitization.
Ingram Micro’s enduring success can be attributed to its rich history of more than forty years, rooted in the exceptional efforts of its dedicated workforce. As a trusted business partner for companies ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to enterprises, Ingram Micro has built a reputation based on strong relationships and delivering outstanding results. This commitment to excellence and the team’s determination to challenge themselves continuously have propelled the company forward.
Sanjib Sahoo has inspired the organization to focus on the art of the possible and always question why not. While it takes some time for such a large organization to change overnight, one of the key factors behind Ingram Micro’s success lies in the willingness of its employees to embrace digital transformation. Employees are excited to change and be a part of this transformation.
Unlike many companies, the team at Ingram Micro is fully committed to the journey, enabling the seemingly impossible task of digitally transforming a 40-year-old, $50 billion enterprise without disrupting business operations. This remarkable achievement was made possible by the team’s ability to “perform while they transform,” ensuring a seamless transition and creating an entirely new customer experience.
Empowering Technology Channel Partners
As an indispensable business partner, Ingram Micro offers diverse solutions to enable its customers to run their businesses more effectively and profitably. The company empowers technology channel partners to grow faster, do more and provide exceptional customer experiences.
Ingram Micro’s comprehensive suite of services includes flexible cash flow solutions, access to technology services and resources, and high-value business intelligence and marketing services. These offerings equip partners with the necessary tools and support to thrive in a competitive market.
Ingram Micro’s Portfolio Categories
Ingram Micro offers diverse portfolio categories, providing comprehensive solutions for various business needs. These categories include:
- Security Solutions: Safeguard sensitive data, ensure business continuity, and achieve compliance with cloud security applications. This encompasses encrypted cloud solutions, website security, endpoint protection, email encryption, data loss prevention, secure file sharing, and compliance tools.
- Cloud Infrastructure Solutions: Enhance business agility while reducing costs and resource demands with cloud computing platforms and infrastructure software. This includes cloud solutions for IT, application development, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), hosting, migration services, storage, network appliances, database management, virtual machines, VPNs, and dedicated servers.
- Business Applications: Streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and drive project deliverables with cloud-based business software. This category comprises solutions for IT, document management, productivity, virtualization tools, business automation, data insights, legal technology, accounting software, and design solutions for construction and architecture.
- Communications and Collaboration: Empower teams to work together effectively and securely regardless of geographic limitations. This category encompasses communication and collaboration software such as Microsoft Office 365 and solutions for business phone systems, fax applications, instant messaging, document management, secure file sharing, hosted exchange email, online meetings, webinars, and presentations.
- Backup and Disaster Recovery: Ensure data protection with reliable backup and disaster recovery solutions. This includes comprehensive plans for daily backup, business continuity, archiving, secure access, and recovery of essential information. Solutions cover cloud email, systems, servers, devices, and data centers.
- Professional Services, Management, and Training: Deliver exceptional customer support, accelerate technical development, and enable cloud-based services. This category includes cloud solutions for IT, ITaaS, professional services, technical support, identity management, identity synchronizers, active directory, exchange synchronization, billing and invoicing integration, and end-user requests.
- Digital Solutions: Drive online traffic and engage customers through effective online marketing techniques. This category encompasses website and online store development, photo editing, blogs, social media, paid search, search engine optimization (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
- Managed Service Provider Solutions (MSP): Enhance productivity and service delivery with cloud-managed services specifically designed for MSPs. These solutions facilitate seamless workflows and enable faster revenue generation.
Key Achievements
Throughout his career, Sanjib Sahoo has achieved significant milestones and made a lasting impact in the industries he has worked in. One notable accomplishment was his pivotal role in creating the world’s first streaming trading platform at Trade Monster, which later became part of E-Trade. This achievement brought financial success and garnered recognition for Sanjib Sahoo within the Financial Services industry. He was recognized with several awards including appreciation from the White House.
In another noteworthy achievement, Sanjib Sahoo contributed to the growth of a logistics company. His team’s successful digital disruption in the trucking industry, an area not traditionally at the forefront of digital transformation, marked a significant milestone. This achievement showcased Sanjib’s ability to drive change and disrupt a multi-trillion global industry for the second time in his career.
However, the most significant highlight of Sanjib’s career has been his recent leadership in creating a transformative business platform within a global technology distribution company, Ingram Micro. This platform has established a strong foundation of digital technology that will have a wide-reaching impact, touching more than 90% of the world’s population.
Above all, Sanjib Sahoo’s greatest sense of accomplishment comes from positively impacting the careers and lives of those he has worked with. Hearing their personal growth stories from his guidance brings him the utmost pride. Sanjib Sahoo attributes these achievements to his unwavering commitment to core values such as integrity, curiosity, ingenuity, and humility. He admits to learning every day and never claims to be perfect, but wants to be a bit more perfect everyday. His brand of leadership now is one of learning from his teams, peers and also influencing the teams to drive to greater heights.
Advancing the Company
According to Sanjib Sahoo, taking the company to the next level involves more than individual decisions or actions. It begins with the leadership team embracing a growth mindset and a commitment to digitization. This energy and mindset are then disseminated throughout the organization and, ultimately, shared with customers.
Sanjib Sahoo emphasizes that successful transformation is primarily about the team rather than technology. It starts by prioritizing people, both employees and customers. One crucial aspect is addressing the cultural transformation necessary to support change. Additionally, companies and leaders must recognize the potential to create and capture true business value.
Sanjib Sahoo advocates embracing design thinking and active listening to employees and customers to facilitate progress. Having a bias for action and cultivating an experience-driven organization becomes paramount, shifting the focus from mere transactions to meaningful customer interactions.
The company is driving accelerated growth by transforming into a platform business. The introduction and adoption of Ingram Micro Xvantage bring a B2C-like experience to the B2B tech industry globally. This platform-based strategy revolutionizes the customer experience, streamlines processes, and expands the company’s global reach.
Crucial Role of Workforce in Business Growth
Sanjib Sahoo believes the workforce plays a vital role in driving business growth due to its direct impact on the customer experience. He emphasizes that the employee experience is intertwined with the customer experience, making the team’s dedication and commitment crucial for success. Ingram Micro recognizes that its people and the experience they deliver to customers and partners are pivotal for the company’s future growth.
He believes that the heart of any transformation is human. Transformation doesn’t happen to people, it happens with the employees. The spirit and mindset makes or makes transformation and hence impediments business growth.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Ingram Micro
Ingram Micro is dedicated to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment where associates are encouraged to bring their authentic selves. The company’s vision is to create safe, innovative and inclusive spaces empowering employees. From inclusive hiring practices to comprehensive bias training and the establishment of employee resource groups, it is committed to promoting a strong culture of diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and belonging.
In its talent acquisition efforts, Ingram Micro goes beyond mere statements of commitment, actively demonstrating its dedication to DE&I through inclusive hiring practices that attract diverse candidates and prioritize inclusivity from the beginning. The company recognizes that consistently showcasing its commitment to diversity and inclusion is essential.
To ensure every employee feels valued and heard, Ingram Micro offers inclusion and bias training, appoints DE&I ambassadors to facilitate inclusive conversations, and establishes employee resource groups. These groups serve as safe spaces for open discussions and contribute to creating an environment where all employees can thrive.
Ingram Micro extends its DE&I efforts beyond its organization by sharing its resources and inclusion training with partners. This creates inclusive workplaces where employees can be authentic, feel valued, and thrive.
Recognizing the importance of its people, the company invests in its 27,000 associates across 61 countries, aiming to redefine its social impact. By fostering a culture that allows associates to thrive as authentic, the company believes it becomes stronger as a collective entity.
Environmental Sustainability at Ingram Micro
Ingram Micro exemplifies its commitment to environmental sustainability through its ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance. The company’s dedication to making a positive difference is reflected in its business practices, policies, and programs established under the IngramMicroESG program. These initiatives aim to continuously improve environmental impact, social responsibility, and governance, which are significant to stakeholders.
For Ingram Micro, ESG goes beyond mere promises; it is a commitment to achieving ambitious goals and aligning with the Tenets of its Success. The company takes a data-driven approach to ESG matters, incorporating stakeholder feedback and focusing on continuous improvement. By actively understanding and addressing the impacts of their business, Ingram Micro develops strategies to maximize positive outcomes while minimizing negative effects across all stakeholders.
Driving Purpose
Sanjib Sahoo’s driving purpose is rooted in making a positive impact and creating positive change in the world. Motivated by the words of his late father and the continued wisdom and support of his mother, he strives to utilize his skills and expertise to benefit others. Through his role in driving digitalization and technology adoption, Sanjib Sahoo aims to help individuals and businesses thrive in an ever-evolving landscape. With a deep sense of purpose, he seeks to leverage his abilities to their fullest extent, making a meaningful and lasting difference in the lives of others. He says his “why”, his purpose is to keep a legacy with some people and technology that can positively impact this world.
When asked about his favorite quote, he asserts, “Be your own CEO. I learned this attitude from my mother, which has always helped me face the hardest times with optimism and faith.”
“Ingram Micro is dedicated to accelerating growth and delivering value to its customers, who are technology channel partners operating across the globe.”
