Strategy in TECH...
Several sources have reported that Parasound Vice President of Sales Larry Bennett has left the company. Bennett was one of the first people brought in when new owner David Sheriff purchased the company from retiring founder Richard Schram and has been at his side during a challenging transition period. I reached out to both Larry Bennett and CEO David Sheriff, finally connecting with Sheriff late Wednesday afternoon, to learn more about this unexpected news.
Parasound has appointed Final Link Audio of Melbourne, Australia as its distributor for all of Australia and New Zealand. Final Link will offer all Parasound models, including their famous John Curl-engineered models.
Recently, Parasound conducted another online Town Hall meeting for dealers interested in learning more about the brand’s progress under the leadership of new owner, CEO David Sheriff. Held via Microsoft Teams on a recent Saturday to facilitate participation, it lasted an impressive 1¾ hours long with the majority of all participant questions answered.
Darren Myers doesn’t look like your typical audio electronics engineer. He also doesn’t sound like a typical audio engineer. A young guy with fresh ideas…maybe they make sense, maybe they don’t…I had an unusual, thought-provoking, and even at times surprising conversation with Darren Myers, Parasound’s Vice President of Research and Development.
See what Myers thinks about the revitalization of Parasound and what he believes is an exciting and expanding future for the entire high end audio industry.
In a Teams interview with new Parasound owner and CEO David Sheriff, with VP of Sales and Marketing Larry Bennett joining in occasionally, I learned more about the company’s seemingly dramatic new direction. This new direction is defined not so much by a changed product strategy, but rather by revisions the company plans to make in policies, programs, and dealer structure that looks to redefine its approach to the market.
Last week, in a national online Teams conference with dealers, Parasound CEO David Sheriff presented his plans for the company’s future. Tightly scripted, the CEO spoke with a firm resolve in a no-nonsense manner. It was clear that the initiatives he announced that day were not topics for more discussion or debate, but rather what is going to happen. And he made it clear that some dealers viewing the online presentation that day will likely not agree with these plans, and that’s fine.
“Let’s talk about parting ways,” Sheriff said, looking directly into the camera without blinking.
Parasound announced this week that it has hired well-regarded audio engineer Darren Myers to its team. An expansion of the company’s engineering group, it struck me immediately that with this announcement new owner David Sheriff was already delivering on his promise to expand the company’s product design and engineering team.
