Strategy in TECH...
Crestron Electronics announced on Friday that long-time company President and CEO Randy Klein will retire from the company “later this year.” The news was a bit of a surprise and the company said that Crestron Chairman and COO Dan Feldstein – son of company founder George Feldstein – will assume the role of President and CEO after Klein retires.
While there were many horrible ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic that sickened and killed many Americans and people around the world, one interesting byproduct has been a renewed look at our world of work and how it can be changed and/or improved. News organizations around the world are just now talking about the results of a recently concluded study in Iceland that may change our world of work forever.
Did you hear this statistic? Just this past April, a total of 4 million Americans quit their jobs, according to data recently released by the US Labor Department and reported on by the New York Times. Think about that for a moment. That April figure was the largest number of workers quitting their jobs in any one month…ever. Why? Ah…that’s a good question. I’m glad you asked…
STRATA-GEE: This is the second installment of our series on the controversy engulfing MQA, conducted in partnership with guest poster Bill Leebens. In this post, you will learn more about those who are critical of MQA, with some going on the record for the first time for this story. MQA has been controversial almost from the beginning – with an intense opposition that ebbs and flows over time. But as we told you in our introductory installment (see MQA Controversy – A True Audio Breakthrough? Or a Marketing Scam?), a recent YouTube video critique from an audiophile not involved in the audio industry, has spurred a huge resurgence of interest (that video had over 267,000 views!), in part because of the perhaps naive but seemingly earnest reasonableness of “GoldenSound” and the heavy-handed backslap from MQA.
Not long ago, I weighed in on whether I believed that the U.S. economy would “bounce back” after the impact of COVID-19 began to taper off. A vigorous debate had erupted at the time, with multiple market observers offering their opinions as to whether there would be a v-shaped, w-shaped, u-shaped (or another character) recovery. We all wanted a v-shaped recovery, which would mean that the economy would essentially snap back instantly to where it was before the pandemic.
I did not expect a v-shaped recovery because it seemed to me that reopening the economy would be less coordinated than when the entire country basically shut down at the beginning of the pandemic. The latest government data on U.S. job growth shows this to be the case.
Loudsoft Ltd, a leading provider of speaker design software and precise testing gear, announced last week that it has appointed a new agent to represent the the company throughout North America. This new agent is Andy Lewis of SOUND Product Strategy, based in New Hampshire.
I’ve been thinking about leadership a lot lately. A subject of endless interest for me, the pandemic in 2020 really brought the topic of leadership to the forefront, as we all faced unprecedented and upsetting times. Those dark days in early spring last year were truly scary times – people were getting sick and dying, local governments were forcing us all into lockdown, all businesses stopped functioning, the economy crashed like never before…and no one knew how this story was going to end.
Recently, I ran across content from a leader that I am familiar with, whom I have been following for a long time. This content was what looked to be a painful video for him to make. His discomfort was visible…palpable. And yet in so doing, the video he created was a raw and powerful demonstration of what I would suggest are the genuine traits of a true leader. I wanted to share this with you in case you missed it.
LWith great fanfare, Crestron kicked off their annual festival of all things Crestron – Crestron Masters 2021 – with a keynote address titled “Innovation Fuels Us.” And in a bit of irony, Mother Nature, or should I sway Mother Internet, reminded us all of who’s in charge by causing the program to suddenly stop at about five minutes in. About fifteen minutes or so later, the program started again and, save for a couple of stutters later, attendees were entertained with an impressively professional and compelling pre-recorded video presentation that celebrated Crestron’s history of innovation and set the tone for the week of education and conversation to come.
Sound United, parent company to a wide range of audio lines, announced this week that it has hired Trip Randall, a former executive with sneaker & sports gear maker Nike, to be the new President of Denon. The company says this move is part of their plan to “revitalize marketing” at Denon. They also say they are looking to “boost direct-to-consumer sales” as well as several other initiatives.
Legrand AV announced today that it has selected NuTech Group as its new manufacturers sales representative for the Mid-Atlantic region. NuTech will provide sales and technical support for the wide roster of Legrand’s residential custom integration lineup.
