Strategy in TECH...
Multiple sources are reporting that Velodyne Acoustics, Inc. – a once high-flying specialty subwoofer manufacturer – has had a significant layoff in its audio division last week as the company seeks to redeploy its resources full-scale behind its LIDAR business. The company, which is driven by its enigmatic founder, David Hall, is betting its future (betting the farm, some would say) on its LIDAR technology which is used in self-driving vehicles (such as Google’s).
The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.
Robert Frost
Screen Research, a line of high-performance projection screens owned by the Adeo Group of Italy, announced that it has selected specialty products distributor Grace Motif, Inc. as its exclusive distributor for the U.S. custom installation market, effective this month. Grace Motif has been the Screen Research distributor for the commercial market since the beginning of this year, so this announcement represents a significant expansion of the relationship.
A new group of industry veterans have formed for the purpose of launching six regional trade shows covering the entire U.S. – three shows taking place in the fourth quarter of 2014 and another three shows in the first quarter of 2015. The group says that this event – called The Tech Tour – came about as the result of manufacturers, representatives, and media representatives working together to provide dealers and installers a new easy-to-attend regional tradeshow and educational event.
On Wednesday, Lenbrook America, the exclusive distributor of NAD in the U.S., held a press presentation in a suite at the upscale Andaz 5th Avenue Hotel in Manhattan. It was a cool but gray and curiously humid day…still able to create enhanced perspiration for those rushing to the event from assorted train/subway/bus stops. But those members of the press who chose to attend were well rewarded for their efforts, as NAD launched a significant update to their Masters Series line – an update designed to further target a new customer that the company calls “Audiophile 2.0.”
In our travels around the TECH industry, we’ve had the good fortune to speak with literally thousands of business owners and managers,,,maybe tens of thousands – we’ve lost count! We’ve watched start-ups launch, sputter, founder, and then catch and take-off. And we’ve watched well-established former high-flyers begin to lose altitude, sputter, and crash and burn.
The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.
Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
Walt Disney
