When she founded Land Technology more than 30 years ago, the owner sometimes signed her faxes as “A. Klein.”
“When you buy overseas, you're buying from Japan,” Andrea Klein said of the company's early days. “Japan didn't want to work with women. They didn't respect women.”
The result of her corrected faxed signature was: “No one knew we were women-owned.”
Rand Tech is a global distributor of electronic components and associated supply chain solutions. The company has 220 employees worldwide.
The company is ranked No. 4 on the Business Journal's list of Orange County's top women-owned companies and has reported revenue of $150 million.
Customers include leading Fortune 100 hardware technology companies such as Dell, HP, Cisco, Arista Networks, Microsoft, Meta and Apple.
“I started this in my kitchen,” she told the Business Journal on June 26. She describes her business as “amazing,” saying the company has annual sales of $150 million.
'Fight for it'
If you can create efficiencies and bring benefits to people, you “win” regardless of race, religion, or gender.
Still, she says while some things have changed in her industry over the last 30 years, others have stayed the same.
“In the hardware technology world, there's a man's world where you go to the golf course, you go to the strip club, you do whatever you want,” she said. “We women just don't do that.”
And she doesn't play golf.
While smart, beautiful women stand out and are memorable in meetings, “I think in big companies, men take notice,” she says.
Her advice to women: “You have to fight for it.”
Klein also believes there are fundamental differences in how men and women do business.
Men in her industry are very good and competent competitors, she said, but “their culture is about making deals with customers.”
“Women-owned businesses are actually trying to help their customers, rather than just confronting them,” Klein said.
“We are willing to help solve a problem that has no benefit to us and no orders for us.”
As a result, they may suggest that you buy from a different company.
“We're really, really passionate about helping our customers.”
6.1 billion parts sold
The numbers posted on Rand Technology's website tell a big story: 6.1 billion parts sold, serving over 5,000 customers and 72 countries.
Land Technology will be exhibiting at the big Electronica trade fair in Munich in November.
Klein summarises the company's business:
“Every electronic device in the world is computerized: cars, computers, phones, alarm systems, refrigerators. Every computerized thing in the world uses countless electronic components — millions of them. And we sell them all.”
Landtec has offices around the world buying and selling electronic components, and just one year ago the company opened its seventh operations centre in the Netherlands.
“We sell millions of parts every year across many different product categories.”
Rand Tech describes itself as “a sophisticated, full-service technology hardware supply chain company offering a comprehensive suite of services including NPI, production, global services and sustainability solutions.”
In 1995, Rand Technology became the first independent semiconductor distributor to become ISO certified.
