Strategy in TECH...
Gibson Brands announced Tuesday that it has hired Lee Cheng as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and executive vice president. This appointment takes effect immediately and follows a recent additional credit downgrade by the Moody’s Investor Service.
Recently, while researching the “analog renaissance” phenomenon, we spoke with an integrator who told us he had to scramble when he realized he was missing the trend for 2-channel analog and vinyl systems. But how could he miss this trend as it was clearly a result of customer demand?
“Don’t be so surprised,” a manufacturer told us. “Integrators have no idea on how to connect with customers and ‘sell.'” Is it true that integrator’s don’t know how to sell? Or is the sales process changing?
Late yesterday afternoon, a strange press release came our way. This release was strange for a couple of reasons – first, for what it was announcing – Savant’s founder Robert Madonna was returning to the CEO role, replacing “outgoing” CEO William Lynch. Second, it was strange because it gave no reason for this dramatic change of CEOs; and, third, it was strange because of where it came from – a PR firm that the company hasn’t been using for a couple of years.
This week, CEDIA released their attendance figures for CEDIA 2016 (formerly the CEDIA Expo) which closed last week in Dallas. The total number of attendees was said to be 18,750 or flat with the 18,700 that attended last year.
This morning, the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) announced that CEDIA EMEA and CEDIA headquarters in the U.S. has been completely “integrated” and is now one entity in whole. The news will be a huge surprise to some, and a point of confusion for others, as not many people understood the relationship between the two organizations. CEDIA EMEA, formerly CEDIA UK, is in fact an independent organization that licenses the rights to use the CEDIA name in Europe.
Now, things have changed.
Despite Crestron’s announcement earlier this year that they will exit the CEDIA show, Strata-gee has confirmed with CEDIA that Crestron Electronics, Inc. will in fact be exhibiting at this year’s CEDIA 2016 next week in Dallas, TX. Crestron will be exhibiting in booth 2510, a booth that they are sharing with Amazon Alexa.
In a letter to dealers sent Thursday evening, Kaleidescape CEO Cheena Srinivasan says the company is back in business, but in a leaner, lower overhead way. The news, which the industry rumor mill was buzzing about all day Thursday, is a bit of a surprise considering the company was completely shut down just a couple of weeks ago.
News comes out of Japan that the new owners of Sharp are in the process of buying back a building the old management sold off when seeking to improve profitability by reducing overhead. Now, new management – made up of former Foxconn executives – are doing an about-face and looking to repurchase the building, in a move that has Japanese media scratching their heads.
Sharp Corp., a division of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. – better known as Foxconn – is rethinking its previously determined plans for business success. As the company was struggling with financial hardships prior to the closing of their acquisition by Foxconn, Sharp made several cost cutting moves, including selling the North American and Europe rights to the Sharp TV brand to certain OEM manufacturers. Now, as they ponder how to drive revenue growth, there are reports they are changing their minds on these and other deals.
We have been inundated with multiple reports that media server kingpin Kaleidescape has ceased operations as of the end of the day yesterday (Friday). Furthermore, all employees both internal and external, have reportedly been let go.
