Tech Data Canada boss ponders HP's direct move. (Q & A).

Rick Reid, president of Tech Data Canada, is one of the top executives in the Canadian channel. He also does not mince words. Reid, who was named CDN's No. 12 top newsmaker for 2002, talked about HP Canada, whose president, Paul Tsaparis was named CDN's top newsmaker, and the worries he has about the company's direct strategy.

CDN: What's it like dealing with the new HP today?

Rick Reid: I continue to give them accolades for the distance they have come with such a monster/mental integration. These are two incredible large organizations with different cultures, systems, terms and conditions and they have done an awfully good job in less than a year in that integration process.

I remain optimistic, but now if you ask me how well I get along with them, it is excellent. I have no issues at all.

Clearly I have an issue with some of their perceptions that customers want to be distributed to directly or that we are a cost that they can avoid. That is inconceivable. I think it is absolutely inconceivable that a manufacturer like HP or an IBM can distribute product as inexpensively as one of their current distribution partners. Yet the train is leaving the station and there is no way I am going to change their mind because the U.S. is insisting that Canada try it. And, they will do it. By the time the U.S. figures out that it wasn't such a great ideas the train will be well down the track in Canada.

CDN: You are talking about the new rules of engagement strategy at HP Canada?

Reid: Yes, and we may have a little bit of paranoia. Through Compaq's acquisition of Inacom several year's ago, it has built distribution capabilities in the U.S. that is ...