32. The CEO Magazine - January 2016 theceomagazine.com

In The OfficeEXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

Sounding Like a Winner

Jabra, the audio and unified communications specialist, works with technology partners to create smart audio products and office solutions that work seamlessly for business and leisure.

Images by Ulrik Eriksen

Jabra is a company that is made up of sound experts specialising in ‘intelligent audio solutions’. The company has two main

markets for its products: the corporate sphere, to which it supplies headsets and unified communications solutions for use in call centres and offices; and the consumer sphere, to which it sells high-quality headsets for individual use, especially while on the move or during training and fitness. Jabra headsets have scooped numerous awards for innovation and design, and the company is focused on enhancing technology to enable new ways of working in offices, increasing productivity, and providing ease of use. The company works with technology partners to deliver unified communications solutions that simplify office processes and enable higher productivity. This is done by eliminating common pain

points in modern office life. CEO of Jabra, René Svendsen-Tune, has a long history in the technology industry and is committed to pushing Jabra forward with a strategic plan. The CEO Magazine spoke to René about his mission, how Jabra is working with ‘mega-trends’ to create more useful products, and how the business works with partners to make its solutions stand out.

The CEO Magazine : What was your professional background prior to becoming CEO of Jabra?

René: I have been in the technology sector for many years. I started my career in the IT industry in Denmark. In the early 90s, I joined Nokia in their infrastructure business, and then worked in the regional division of Nokia, before I came to Nokia’s head office in the late 90s. I was

offered a central role in the infrastructure business and I was running Nokia Networks global sales, customer and country operations for a couple of years. That was until 2006 when I left the company and joined a Swedish software company in the same industry. I was invited back to Nokia Siemens in 2012 to help them with a turnaround project, and then when I left Nokia I was invited to come to the CEO role in Jabra.

What attracted you to the role at Jabra?

I have a history with Jabra because I have been on the company’s board since 2007. So I know the business very well and have seen the development of the company’s performance, but also the development of the strategy. This has been very close to my heart. Jabra is part of GN Store

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Nord (GN), a Danish company with sister companies dealing with ear-related diagnostics and hearing healthcare solutions. Now, I am a Danish person, and I have not worked for a Danish company for 20 years so it was a special thing for me to truly come home and actually contribute to a part of the Danish industry. I find Jabra a very interesting company which has become very successful after a turnaround some years back. Adding to this, I think GN is in a unique situation. We have a successful hearing aid company on one side, and a successful headset company on the other, both of them leveraging a strong heritage of sound microelectronics and micromechanics know-how that is deeply rooted in the company. This gives us an edge on both sides to deliver outstanding

solutions that set us apart from the competition.

What was your strategy and goals when becoming Jabra’s CEO?

When I came to the company it was already on a very good path. The strategy for 2014–16, which we named ‘innovation and growth’, was well defined and the objectives were clear. We wanted to hook the business up to these mega-trends that were already in the market. When I came to Jabra we had already decided and anchored the strategy, so now I had to take it to an execution level. We saw that lifestyle and work-style behaviours were demanding more from people’s time. Now, with our investment in new sound experiences, and our understanding of the new ways of living and working, we can single out the right improvement areas and deliver on those while constantly enhancing performance and customer experience. A reset was not needed

at Jabra, but we needed to set a lot of things in motion to meet the strategy objectives.

What are the mega-trends you mention that Jabra is tapping into with its products?

On one side, the evolution of the smartphone has become the centrepiece of an ecosystem of communication that affects all aspects of people’s lives. This is a key driver for our consumer developments. In business, the growing use of unified communications is also creating an ecosystem. The concept of work is changing, and is rapidly transforming many businesses. Office-based workers are finding themselves in environments that are more dynamic, demanding, and technology-enabled than ever before.

Working patterns are shifting, people are less tethered to an office or desk, and working hours are adjusting to meet their lifestyle

“A reset was not needed at Jabra, but we needed to set a lot of things in motion to meet the strategy objectives.” - René Svendsen-Tune

needs. Regardless of these changes, productivity is a priority yet is a growing challenge to deliver, as concentration and collaboration is harder to achieve. What unified communication technology does is bring together all your communications attributes, for example, email, messaging, video, voice, and conferencing, to be centred around your computer and around a single communication form.

We believe that ‘new ways of working’ brings about a lot of benefits for corporate companies and for individuals because you can be more flexible with your work, you can do remote work, so the flexibility and the ability to drive

“We are dedicated to product sustainability, high standards on quality and reliability, and encouraging our partners to proactively pursue higher standards and the excellent performance of products. We provide great support on all of these improvements.” - Stella Hsu, Director - Sales and Marketing, SYNergy ScienTech Corporation

“Since 1998 WKK has been privileged to have a long, treasured relationship with Jabra, who has cutting edge technologies in design, with full co-operations in manufacturing. A cornerstone of success for both companies has been them both taking on a global market.” - Dr. Bengie Kwong, Executive Director of WKK Int’l (Holdings) Ltd, President of WKK Technology Ltd

WKK TECHNOLOGY LTDWKK Technology Ltd (WKKT) is a leading electronic manufacturing services company, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Wong’s Kong King International Holdings Ltd. WKKT provides full engineering support in areas of product design and development, design verifi cations, NPI program, component and product qualifi cation, and continuous productivity management.

WKKT focuses on providing customers with quality products, competitive pricing, on-time delivery, and helpful service.

We are committed to providing

WKK TECHNOLOGY LTD

17/F, Octa Tower, No. 8 Lam Chak Street, Kowloon Bay, Hong KongTel: +852 2357 8888Fax: +852 2343 5283Web: www.wkk.com.hk

WKK TECHNOLOGY PARK33 Gangjian Lu, Tutang, Changping, Dongguan, Guangdong, P.R.ChinaPostal Code: 523581Tel: +86 769 8390 3333Fax: +86 769 8390 1168

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more productivity into your personal efforts is there. However, a couple of things have to be in place for that to work. First, there’s the infrastructure that is driven typically by companies like Microsoft, and Cisco, and they are our close partners. We have to work closely with these companies so that we’re bringing out our best possible features in our products that can work seamlessly with the large infrastructure solutions from the big players.

Next is the workforce. For businesses to remain competitive, they must give employees tools to be more productive and that fit with their location or working patterns. To attract and retain good staff and provide a motivating environment in which to work, there needs to be an acknowledgement that your workforce is now very tech-savvy. So it is our job at Jabra to make sure that when it comes to voice and sound communication, we produce headsets and solutions that have excellent audio, good design

and can offer extra features for noise reduction or privacy settings. This way you can, through your headset, increasingly simulate or enable a situation that is like when you are walking in and out of your office—you can shut the door and you can open the door, so to speak.

Where headsets in the past were used by a specific group of people in an office—for example, in a call centre, at a reception desk, or by service people—it has now spread to everyone using headsets. It’s our job to make sure we respond to this change that is going on in offices, and we respond to it in a way where both the companies and the individuals benefit.

How do you work with other partners to ensure that your products integrate well for companies and consumers?

Working in the technology industry today requires successful companies to build strong ecosystem capabilities. I don’t

know of any companies in growing technology spaces that go at it alone. For us, we need to team up with infrastructure partners who are enabling the framework we need for our offering. Our business model is constructed in such a way that we have outsourced our supply machinery and manufacturing. And we have very tight partnerships with distribution companies, so that we are working with some of the leading distributors and resellers across the world.

Increasingly, we also need to work closely with software and service companies that deliver ‘parts’ we can integrate into our offering. For consumer solutions, it could be a sports-oriented company that may have running apps, or other types of lifestyle apps, that can be beneficial for our product development in this area. We can enrich our products by bringing together different contributors that each make up a part of the finished solution. My philosophy is that the

“My philosophy is that the only way you can be a good ecosystem player is to bring something to the table.” - René Svendsen-Tune

only way you can be a good ecosystem player is to bring something to the table. We have to bring value to our partners, so if a premium partner is bringing a new feature to the infrastructure, we have to make sure that our headset will make that a prominent feature. Likewise, if we want to partner with a music streaming company, we have to make sure that it is easy for them to be heard, so to speak, through our consumer product, or through the app, or the device we send to the market. If we bring value to them they will be interested in bringing value to us.

Is it difficult to ensure Jabra keeps up with the latest trends and updates?

We work hard to follow the developments and the trends. The technology domain is a very connected environment, because everything happens on the web. In such a connected environment you get an opportunity to leverage on each other’s benefits in a completely different way, which was not possible just a few years back. As we are strong in business solutions, we are very good at staying updated on corporate communications structure. But with the connectivity of a smartphone it is harder, because so many things happen so fast. However, we are already taking advantage of the strong software capabilities in smartphones, and the fact that we already have many different parties established on there. With everything from music and sports to shopping apps on the smartphone, the ecosystem is already established. So as Jabra, we want to play along with that ecosystem in the most effective way, by enhancing all the sound that goes with all of that media usage.

What does the future hold for Jabra?

We are defined as a growth company, so it is very important that we keep our focus on specific segments in the market, and see where we can capture market share and drive growth. We want

to invest in innovation and in market presence because continual growth is a very important and mission-critical path for us. Secondly, we want to be the leaders in the segments we play in. For business, we put focus on reinforcing our position as a world-leading headset supplier. If you take the unified communication headsets domain, we are a leader in that domain today, and we will have to expand that to keep this position over the coming quarters and years.

However, if you are talking about the consumer sector, it is much broader. We can’t be leaders everywhere, so we have to define the segments where we think we can differentiate and create enough market impact so that we can take a leading position. We are aiming at further cementing our position as the leading sports audio supplier in the world, by having the most complete range of

products. Right now, we are bringing very differentiated products to the market, and together with our retail partners, we create a strong impact that looks good. We have to execute on that lifestyle strategy that we have embarked on. I think it is very important for us that where we play, we play very strongly.

The evolution of electronics points in the direction of multifunctional devices that fulfil several needs. Wherever you are—on the job or private—you will be looking for more tech ability and more convenience from gadgets. In this space, Jabra has a sweet spot, as we make the ear the focal point of our innovation. Technology will become increasingly personalised—with each individual adapting the computing power to his or her needs. The goal for tech companies is not to do it just because they can. But to make it relevant and beneficial.