From a people and revenue perspective, is it true that Bose is now less than 1/2 of what it was at its peak? Has it seen the bottom yet? Without significant new product introductions, the only thing seemingly keeping it alive is automotive and the ongoing cuts.
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You'll never get a straight answer as to when "peak" was. Accounting is always such a malleable thing. But, I'd say it was long before 2018. The belt-tightening and beginning of the closing of plants and sale of assets began well before then. Healthy companies don't do that. For people not in denial, the tea leaves could easily be read well over a decade ago. The cultural shift goes back even further than that. I frequently raised questions and was generally the "bad kid in class" when it came to pointing out strategic and tactical weaknesses, and ringing the alarm bell. I lost count of how many times I was scoffed at and told that I needed a nice big glass of the Kool-Aid. I remember pointing out the fact that that metaphor was in reference to a cult's group mass su----e, and was probably far more appropriate and accurate a metaphor for the situation than they realized or intended for it to be. The reaction? "Oh, you're so funny! That's funny!" Splendid job by the leadership cadre.
"Lila has been a disappointment...she has no clue on how to revive an audio company."
Pretty sure she was selected by MIT. Bose is in run-off mode, and there is no intent to revive it. Any pretense to such is only to prop up or maintain the value of assets until they can be sold off. Sorry guys...
Yes, Lila has been a disappointment. Not sure what Bob saw in her. It is clear from her performance in the past three years that she has no clue on how to revive an audio company. But Lila, if you are listening, here are several suggestions:
- Target customers that have money to spend (like old white folks)
2 . Create full-size (not toy-size) products that sound really good
-
Have the website promote these products with demonstration
videos.
@hudy+1q1AqlDw wrote "Dr. Bose was a man of the world and his company reflected that. "
Dr Bose expected elite performance, and would look past most other factors to achieve that. Bose as it stands today is not elite, and it's the fault of the leaders since Dr. Bose died
The person that posted about "Culturally Insensitive" knows absolutely nothing about the corporation. I worked at Bose for over 30 years and from day one I called it the U.N. of companies. I met and worked with engineers, technicians and business folks from all over the world of every culture and religion. It was an incredible experience getting to work with these people and learning about their lives from places I knew I'd never get to see or experience, it was awesome!
Dr. Bose was a man of the world and his company reflected that. It's sad you didn't know the real company and to say something like that displays an ignorance to really what Bose was about.
And the Frames are dead now. Dang guys!
Bose was a pretty culturally insensitive place when I was there - no one acknowledged that I might celebrate holidays other than Christmas. Horrible with diversity all around. Hard to be Jewish there.
When was Bose at its peak? 2018 or so? Since then, they've shut down (most of) their retail outlets, cut Health, spun off PRO and had two large RIFs (around 25%). Their consumer division was trending in a bad direction, and their product offerings are struggling to compete with Apple/Sony, especially with the margins that Bose was accustomed to. I'd guess that the overall headcount is about 20-25% of what it was at Bose's peak, but that's a very rough guess. Also remember that Bose has leveraged armies of contractors (Accenture, Randstad, etc), who aren't employees, but who are easily cut.
Is automotive that large of a business unit anymore? It's been a bit since I was there, but it was a relatively small pillar of the company. I'd find it hard to believe that it's grown meaningfully since then, but I haven't kept up on that.
This holiday season is going to be interesting to watch. Until I left, it was really the biggest impact on the company's performance. The new products are fine, if uninspiring. Fortunately, the competition didn't really put out anything drastically different.
If this MIT anti-semitism issue keeps rolling, folks on X/Twitter will realize that Bose historically has been a major funder for them (although not so much lately). If that leads to boycotts, that could really hurt Bose's sales and make for a really rough calendar year '24.
What do you expect when your majority owner (MIT) is run by an antisemitic leader.
Bose has no USP anymore. They have no Partners to Sell their Products, specially in Retail.
In Europe Bose is more or less not existing. I do not understand that Nobody can stop the CEO and the Board.