Strategy in TECH...
For a few weeks now, I’ve been chasing a rumor that both sides of the failed Sound United acquisition of Onkyo’s branded A/V business were in the throes of a major reorganization. The rumors, it seems, were true – starting with Onkyo’s announced reorganization last week…and now word that Sound United is also implementing changes to its management structure.
Origin Acoustics announced this week that it has promoted current Sales VP Marc Fisher to the unusual title of President of Sales. The company also the appointment of John Marchionda as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
Luxman America has appointed well known industry executive John Pravel as its Vice President of Sales. Previous to this appointment, Pravel was one of Luxman’s sales representatives in upstate New York.
Sony announced that is has promoted two of the members of its team to new roles in the wake of the recent retirement of Gary Frankel, Western Regional Sales Manager. Both new appointments are in their “award-winning” AV Specialty and Custom Integration sales group and were made effective as of September 1, 2019.
Consolidation continues in the custom integration world – in this case, Denver-based manufacturer representative firm Momentum Group has acquired the residential division of Texas’ own renowned Dobbs Stanford rep firm based in Dallas. Consolidation has NOT been a big story on the sales representative side…up until now.
“You are WAY too excited about this news,” Jason Sloan, Sonance Chief Sales Officer joked when first telling me about their rebranding plans a few weeks ago. But I was excited – these plans put forth a major shift in the position of the Dana Innovations, Sonance, iPort, & Trufig brands. To Sloan and CEO Ari Supran, this was more of a refocus than a rebranding – a return to their largest and most beloved brand after a long and at times frustrating period of trying to establish another overarching entity.
But to me, it was much more than that.
The industry is still adjusting to the new normal of SnapAV combining with Control4…even as it continues to gobble up more local distributors and talk about their e-commerce prowess. It can get a little confusing. Is SnapAV a manufacturer? An e-commerce play? A local distributor? Or are they attempting to be all of the above?
I spoke with SnapAV’s John Heyman and Charlie Kindel to try and help our readers sort this all out. It’s certainly a new world out there…but just what planet are we on?
Only six months to go and word has emerged that the Consumer Technology Association – the trade group behind the annual Consumer Electronics show – has proactively taken steps to avoid repeating the mistakes that caused them to endure a plethora of embarrassing headlines last year. The controversy, a self-inflicted wound, surrounded the Association’s awarding – then rescinding – of a CES 2019 Innovation Award…and retroactive cancellation of booth space for that company. The news dominated the early headlines during the January 2019 event…mostly because the matter involved sex.
The last ninety days or so have been somewhat turbulent at Nortek Security and Control (NSC), with two top executives departing under foggy circumstances. First, in May we learned that President Mike O’Neal had left the company. Then, last week, news emerged that Joe Roberts, Executive VP of Products and Marketing had also departed.
I reached out to Joe Roberts to try to find out what was up with all of these changes at NSC.
Alex Camara, CEO of Seattle-based specialty electronics manufacturer AudioControl, was featured Friday on a segment on the Fox Business Network (FBN) talking the real impact of tariffs on American manufacturers. In the wake of the move by the Trump administration pushing a dramatically increased 25% tariff on a wide range of Chinese goods, Camara explained to FBN anchor Liz Claman the true impact these tariffs have on his business…and ultimately the American consumer.
