Re: Uli Behringer of The Music Group Q&A
Dear Kristian,
Greetings to Norway and thank you for asking questions that I truly enjoy answering.
I realize that you are directing the questions at me personally and not the company but I am afraid that separating the two is not possible. Since I started this company it has become my life and in many ways an extension of who I am as a person. This company represents my life experience and is truly my only work experience. My friends joke that I am “unemployable” except for maybe a return to playing jazz in a piano bar. Perhaps that’s what I will do if I ever retire.
I started this business like many others have done, out of a desire for my own recording studio, an interest in electronics and a curiosity of business. In the early days I designed circuitry, laid out PCBs and even made my own panel graphics using Letraset. I sourced the parts, haggled for better deals and then acted as as assembly worker, salesman, accountant and even took out the trash. And I have to admit that I enjoyed every one of those roles.
Where my experience differs from many others is that I have remained completely involved in the daily operation of this business. While I no longer design or lay out boards myself, I am completely involved in the creation of every one of our products. I am also very hands-on with our management team and spend at least 18 hours a day talking to senior managers and engineers across the world. Many years ago, I came to the conclusion that sleep is overrated.
I am proud of the team we have built over the years and honored to have many employees who have been with me right from the start. I do miss the times when the whole company consisted of only 20 people and we would all work in the same building together. We could communicate directly and make decisions on the spot. That is a bit more difficult with 3,500 people on our team today, spread out across the world.
I am a firm believer in the concept of the “flywheel” as it relates to the momentum of a business. Two of my all-time favorite business books are “Good to Great” and “Great by Choice”, and they explain the concept rather clearly. That is, if you continue to do the right things and you do them well, it is like spinning a flywheel; it is difficult at the start but eventually it becomes unstoppable.
That is how I feel about our business today. We now have an incredible team of dedicated people in all functions across the company. We have the best and most well-run factory in the industry and through careful management of our resources we have the capital to pursue our dreams. My dreams have nothing to do with money; I live a comfortable yet simplistic life. Rather than spending my money for a yacht or plane, I have more fun riding my mountain bike to work and using the money instead to hire great people or to build a new factory.
I am more motivated by continual self-improvement and the goal of doing better every day. The same applies to our company.
The introduction of the X32 Digital Mixer is a landmark accomplishment for our company and for me personally. I have always pushed the envelope of affordability in professional audio but the X32 takes it to another level entirely. We have invested not only in engineering the best possible product but also we have invested in making it affordable. This is our greatest accomplishment to date and one that we are all very proud of.
Of course as we now start to offer more products aimed at the rental and production companies, the install market and live sound professionals we must also adjust our customer support model. That starts with the expansion of our factory-trained product support team, a new focus on product demonstrations and hands-on workshops and a fleet of vehicles that will take the gear as well as the message across the US and Europe.
Our new policy to repair goods is rooted in several important facts, some only recently uncovered. In a study lasting over one year we determined that from 50% to 70% of goods returned as defective had in fact, no fault found! So, in effect, we were scrapping products that in some cases had not even been plugged in by a customer who had returned it to the store for credit. These returns were costing our dealers and ourselves immense resources and were adding to e-waste unnecessarily.
Another important reason to repair goods is that we learn a lot about failure modes and in turn prevent it from happening again. When our technicians find a problem with a component they can immediately feed that information into the repair system and if needed changes can be made right on the production line the same day. This is invaluable in reducing failure rates even further the 0.75% rate they average now.
Thanks again for your excellent questions. I hope I have answered them clearly and wish you the very best in your future business interests.
Warm regards,
Uli
