Thread regarding Bose layoffs

Preach it! Facts!

Heard similar so many times, first person, direct quote - "We're Bose, we can figure out anything, and better, given enough time". Time is exactly what the industry competition removed from the Bose old-school equation coming into the 2000s.

So very sad the faithful thousands (fact check, demonstrable) fired over the last decade. The search for the bottom continues. Very little ballast of sellable assets remain.

The issues at Bose are DEEPLY rooted in their insular and disconnected corporate culture. It used to feel a bit like a paranoid cult at times. Volumes and volumes could be written about their self-inflicted wounds and their gradual, then sudden decline over at least 15 years. I recall vividly being addressed in general session by the CEO at the time. This was a good ten years ago. In his presentation he apologized and amazingly admitted to all what had been painfully obvious and whispered about in confidence for years. He acknowledged that Bose had in fact, and for at least a decade prior, not paid any attention to what the competition was doing. The belief and attitude was, "We're Bose. We do what we do. We don't worry about what the other guy is doing." That had been the prevailing wisdom on The Mountain. Ignore what the industry was doing because it was irrelevant to what we were doing. That was why it took years for industry standard technologies to be integrated into Bose "premium" products. And, by the time they were, they were already out-dated. But, we were assured that leadership's eyes were open, and they were laser-focused on doing the work to catch up for more than a decade of giving up market share to competitors and falling behind the technological curve. Meanwhile, all these years later and where are they? Assets sold off like deck chairs being tossed off the Titanic to keep it afloat a little longer. Divisions closed down. Entire product lines discontinued because it's cheaper to quit than compete. Decades of research and engineering sold off in Project Sound, the air-ride system, etc. Factories shuttered or sold off. It's criminal what the company's leadership did to what Dr. Bose had built over decades. It's a betrayal of the trust he placed in them.

Remember, the shares that Dr. Bose bequeathed to MIT are non-voting shares. Since they are privately held, it is unclear how much they are worth today. Certainly only a fraction of what they were worth in 2013, at the time Amar passed. Probably half of Bose's decline is self-induced, the other half due to the secular decline in the audio business, due to competing leisure-time options. Before the internet, listening to music was one of the few things you could do to occupy your time. Now, you can play video games, watch Tik-Tok videos, etc. Plus, as I see it, the music of today is a lot less compelling that in the previous century.

I mean MIT gets a gift- they do nothing and get money- the idea might be have MIT grads go to Bose- but based on the outlook they might not want to work there.
As for licensing- aren't they already doing that- Flex, Tymphany and Merry are all JDMS who make the products- really same o same o.

While I'm sure MIT is disappointed that a major source of funding has dried up, they can't do anything about it. They simply cash the check, they can't do anything with respect to putting pressure on management.

There are always things to pin hopes on. There's a lot of negative momentum to overcome, and it's going to take a series of big wins to turn things around. Co-branding and tech licensing isn't going to get it done, it continues to mortgage the brand.

I agree: Bose will probably survive. But it'll probably be unrecognizable. They might just be a research institute with some licensing agreements to produce real products.