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.
This is an excellent comment made by @dque+1rBJl2U5. It needed to be in a thread of its own.