Strategy in TECH...
Sony told the Nikkei this week that – to paraphrase – after years of painful dieting, the company has reached its fighting weight and is ready to go to battle to grow its sales worldwide. The company has spent the last few years spinning off divisions, cutting back on employment levels, and reducing overhead – all for the express purpose of improving profits. That goal achieved, the company will now focus on sales.
Just a couple of weeks after we reported on GoPro’s recall of thousands of defective Karma drones and other business problems, now comes word that the company is in the process of cutting more than 200 jobs, or about 15% of its total workforce, amid a sales decline. The company has also decided to shut down its Entertainment division and rededicate itself to its core wearable camera business.
Ann Arbor, MI-based Leon Speakers, known for their high-end A/V solutions that juxtapose the drama of art with the pinnacle of sound, announced this week that they have launched a line of wood trim encasements that bring the warmth of richly detailed woodgrain to the normal gray and black boxes of popular SONOS brand speakers. Known as Tonecase Hardwood Cabinets, Leon manages to bring a new form of richness to SONOS- a visual one.
Startup software provider TRXio announced this week that it has joined Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) and fully participated in the organization’s Fall Conference last month in Chicago. The move is seen as another step on the road to greater awareness and acceptance of the company’s prime offering – inventory tracking software.
CT Lab, which is associated with NAPCO Media, publisher of Dealerscope and Technology Integrator, announced today that it is launching a new magazine and website call CEMBLY. CEMBLY, which the company describes as “an ambitious project,” is largely a business-to-business magazine that will target home technology professionals, interior designers, architects, builders, and building designers. The idea is to blend technology, with design, with dramatic home installations.
Strata-gee editor Ted Green was a guest panelist on this week’s ResiWeek webcast (recorded on Halloween), a production of AVNation.tv. Hosted by Matt Scott, the panel, which also included Jason Griffing of Harrison Home Systems and Jason Knott of CEPro, covered a range of topics in custom integration.
Within a span of just minutes today, we began hearing from multiple sources around the country that something was afoot at Savant Systems, LLC. Word quickly spread that the company was terminating salespeople around the country, a move that was occurring in the wake of founder Robert Madonna’s return to the company to replace former CEO William Lynch.
In a national conference call with sales reps yesterday, Onkyo announced a major restructuring of their sales organization. This overhaul involves consolidating their four major brands – Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer, and Pioneer Elite – into two newly-created divisions.
Crestron Embraces Sonos, Amazon, & OthersAt CEDIA 2016, one of the top themes we identified was companies seeking more and better integrations with other companies’ technologies. In most cases, this expressed itself with companies seeking to have their product lines properly interface with the major control companies. But at CEDIA this year, Crestron took that concept to new heights and in a new direction with their enthusiastic embrace of newcomers to the CI channel…Sonos and Amazon Alexa.
With CEDIA 2016 now over, those of us in the media are left to try and uncover the underlying themes in order to help our readers wrap their heads around just what this particular CEDIA (formerly referred to as the Expo) was all about. But this show is big enough that no one member of the media can possibly visit all booths, talk to all exhibitor executives, and experience all new models. So each of us have our own version of the themes of the show.
