WEBVTT - Bose CEO Lila Snyder on Perfecting Sound and Silence 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:12.600 Welcome to Strictly Business Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.560 industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:20.480 Shirley Halbrin, Executive editor of Music, and today I'm joined 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:25.440 by Lilah Snyder, CEO of Bowes Corporation, the consumer audio 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.880 company which is soon to mark its sixtieth anniversary. Founded 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:34.800 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Mr. Bows its home 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.720 has always been Massachusetts, with close proximity to Boston and 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.600 its abundance of student talent. Lilah was one of them, 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.520 earning a master's degree and PhD in mechanical engineering from 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.920 MIT following her bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.040 of Miami. She arrived at Bo's at the top of 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.320 twenty twenty, just as the COVID nineteen pandemic through the 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.640 world and supply chains into a tales. But Llila is 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:06.039 an expert problem solver, and like any engineering challenge, she 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:11.080 approached her new job overseeing all aspects of the company's consumer, electronics, 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:16.319 automotive and related businesses methodically and also with a guiding 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:21.080 principle that sound is not an accessory, it is everything 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.120 we do. It is the most important thing, and it's 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:28.600 in the center. Bosea's rise in becoming a top name 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.480 and sound, particularly when it comes to the car, saw 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.520 an inflection point in the nineteen eighties when the company 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:39.280 teamed with Cadillac to offer a premium car audio system. 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.520 Llila's own origin story also has an eighties connection. It 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.920 was then that she first discovered a love of music, 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.560 which she's carried through to her chief executive position. Like 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.520 in other tech industries where female engineers are far outnumbered 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.760 by their male counterparts, Lila is hoping to better the 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.400 statistic when it comes to music makers through an initiative 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.960 called Turn the Dial, which aims to address why fewer 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.200 than three percent of hit song producers are women or 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:12.320 non binary. It's also bringing awareness to the issue and 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.400 seeking new opportunities. They've partnered with a nonprofit called She 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.079 Is the Music and are working with such artists as 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.560 Her and Pink Panthers and behind the scenes stars like 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.760 Wonder Girl and Blondish to tell their stories. And then 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.320 there's the part of the Bo's business that has to 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.600 do with silence or noise cancelation. Bose has been hard 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.760 at work coming up with the perfect software algorithm to 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.960 evaluate the sounds around you and cancel out what you 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.240 don't want to hear. As Lila describes it, it's almost 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.640 tuning the dial on the volume of your life. Which 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:49.760 things you want to turn up, which things you want 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.760 to turn down. This constant push of new innovation has 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:58.040 become Bose's calling card, and Lilah Snyder is leading the choir. 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:10.240 Join us after the break, Welcome back to strictly business. 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:16.720 Here's my conversation with Bo's Corporation CEO Lilah Snyder. Lilah Snyder, 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.760 chief executive officer of Bo's, Welcome to strictly business. Thanks 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:21.480 for being with us. 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:23.960 Thank you so much for having me so Lyla. 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.600 I think it's really funny that your previous position before 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:29.480 you got to Bo's was a Pitney Bows. So you 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:34.639 went from Pitney Bow's to Bo's just getting shorter. A 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:36.880 lot of people probably don't know what Pitney bos is, 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:41.480 but me, being a person of print of paper, I 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:45.120 know that it is kind of an essential of starting 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.680 a business, which is the ability to mail, to reach 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:52.720 consumers directly, and you know many other things. So how 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:57.080 do you go from mail and marketing and communications to 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.040 high end audio and consumer audio? Why did you make 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:02.960 that change in twenty twenty. 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.840 So I'm an engineer at heart, and what I really 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.720 love is technology, and the thread that goes through everything 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.040 is technology, and particularly this idea of you know, how 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.240 do we use technology to make things better? And we've 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:20.640 been living in this amazing two decades where digital technologies 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.239 are just changing every business and software is changing every business, 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.520 and in some ways that's the thread between a shipping 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.480 and mailing company and then coming to bows and consumer 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.040 audio is you know, how do we use software? How 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.520 do we use digital technology to make what we're delivering 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.839 to customers even better? And so for me, I've done 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.360 consumer work, I've done business to business work, and I've 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:45.800 always loved the idea of getting close to the consumer 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.719 because when you know who you're talking to and you 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.640 know what they care about, it makes it really fun 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:55.000 to try to design and develop amazing experiences for them, 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:56.440 and that's what we try to do at Bo's. It's 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:57.159 really a lot of fun. 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.440 So you have the software element and also hardware. As 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.560 someone who's trained as a mechanical engineer, is it sort 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.760 of like a left brain right brain thing, like the 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.120 hardware is one thing, the software is something else. Do 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:13.000 you feel a pull towards one side over the other 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:15.760 or is it just sort of combined in your head? 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.200 You know, it really is combined. I don't actually think 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.120 of them as that different, because ultimately we work backwards 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.240 from the experience we're providing the customer, and the experience 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.040 that we're providing is sort of a fully integrated experience 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.839 where it's the magic of how the hardware and the 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.600 software work together. It's that sort of systems engineering component 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.200 that I think is really unique for consumer electronics companies 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:42.279 and bows in general. It's how you marry great software 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:46.800 with really well made, really well architected hardware, and it's 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.640 the two together that create the magic. So we try 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:51.200 not to separate them. 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.920 Interesting, I would think that they were like two different 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:55.599 skill sets. 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:58.040 There's no doubt there's different skill sets, right. So if 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:00.240 you think about our team, we've got lots of folks 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.120 who do predominantly hardware and lots who do predominantly software. 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.279 But really bringing it together is the key, and that's 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.120 where I think I have a lot of fun and 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.720 working with the team on how you bring those things 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.760 together is where you know truly new and different innovative 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:17.480 experiences happen for customers. 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.960 So when you came in in twenty twenty, what kind 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:23.960 of staff were you overseeing. 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.080 So we're a team of about six thousand globally. I 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.960 obviously joined in the middle of COVID, so in twenty twenty, 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.840 we we're a global team. We've got folks all over 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.840 the world, and we were doing everything over Zoom, which 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.880 was an interesting way to start. I think in many 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.160 ways a lot of us felt like it leveled the 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.400 playing field, right. We were all on the screen and 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.680 so you could have more of a global, diverse group 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.320 of people together working on problems, which was really actually 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:50.919 quite fun. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.520 Has that made you rethink the whole in person thing, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.839 like is it really necessary today? 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.480 So? I think it is for innovative and I think 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:05.000 if you're really going to try to create breakthrough ideas, 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.640 it's hard to do that remotely. I don't think every 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.440 piece of work needs to be done in person, and 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:11.240 we certainly each of us has a lot of work 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.160 that's better done in a quiet space, which is often 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.840 you know, your own home or your living room or whatever. 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.320 But we really believe in the magic of bringing people 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.560 together to innovate and create and also just to build 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.400 bonds and trust and you know, human things that are 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.880 a little bit harder to do in a remote environment. 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.400 So you know, we've settled into a hybrid model I 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.040 think like a lot of companies have, where we're getting 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:35.520 folks together on a regular basis, they're in the office 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.800 a couple of times a week, but providing a lot 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.720 of flexibility for people to also work the way that 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:42.480 they want to work and that works for them. So 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.840 we're trying to strike the right balance and I'm sure, 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.280 like most we're still feeling our way through it. But 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:51.040 it's great to see folks together again, and we're feeling 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.760 that energy and creativity in the work that we're doing. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.840 And you guys were also dealing, like the rest of 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.760 the world was, with supply chain issues during COVID, and 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:04.400 you you really rely on the supply chain to make 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:08.200 your product. So when you got to BOS, did you 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.320 have immediate things that you needed to deal with. 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.480 I think when you're new, you always think about what's 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.000 the right strategy, right. You want to kind of get 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.640 the lay of the land and set your agenda. And 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:21.360 so I spent a fair bit of time listening and 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.920 learning right. Companies are complicated places with a lot of history, 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.920 and so before you change things, it's important to understand 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:29.600 why things are done the way that they are and 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.360 why decisions were made and why the strategy is what 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.080 it is. And then we started to really plot for 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.600 the future of both what's our long range vision and 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.600 we spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.960 what matters to us, what matters to our customers. We 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.120 put our customer right in the center of that vision, 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.280 and that led us to some pretty exciting places around 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.240 who we are and how we want to bring our 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.120 brand and our products and experiences into the market. And 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.760 so that sort of initial period was a lot of 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.320 fun and just exploring, you know, how we want to 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.000 evolve as a company and who we are and how 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:05.280 we take that to the next level. 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.800 What were those challenges during those first couple of years. 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.000 I think it's always a challenge to think about really 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.960 defining who your customer is and understanding so we spend 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.320 a lot of time on that. And as you see 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.320 the Bose brand showing up in the market and you 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.719 think about our products, we've really embraced music and the 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.199 music lover We think that people who really love music, 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.680 they have a passion, they identify with certain genres. It's 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.679 part of their identity, part of their personal brand, if 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.440 you will, and that's who we really think the Bose 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:41.520 customer has always been. Right. We've been creating audio experiences 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:46.240 for almost sixty years, which is amazing, and we think 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.559 that you know, really embracing that music lover it kind 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.079 of gave us a muse to innovate around and that's 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:57.360 led to a lot of great forward looking innovation that 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.959 we think is going to position us well for the future. 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.160 So, I mean your sort of like origin story as 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.360 it were, Leila, is that you had dispose wave radio. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.559 It was sort of like a like a half circle 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.720 looking thing and it had an alarm and all of 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.480 that had a CD player. So what kind of music 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:20.680 were you into? You know, they say that your most 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.560 formative time to love music is in your early twenties, 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.440 basically coming out of college. What was your thing? 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.480 I feel like my formative years were in the eighties, 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.280 So I do have a love of eighties pop and 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.400 a little bit of that metal rock that came from 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.440 the eighties for sure. Okay, also love classic rock, right 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.440 country music was a thing in my house, like old 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.440 country music, and so that's something that I have an 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.760 appreciation for and how that's evolved. But today I would say, 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.400 you know, at my house, we've got three teenagers, my 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.400 husband and I, and there is a diversity of music 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.199 in our household, which is pretty remarkable. Right when you 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.800 cross over what your kids are interested in, you really 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.240 get introduced to a lot of things. So on any 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:06.040 given day, you might hear classical music, rap music. It's 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:10.280 a lot of Taylor Swift that's happening. Yeah, there's there's 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:11.440 definitely some of that here. 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.760 I love the story that you relayed in one of 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:19.360 the talks that you gave about the arrival of premium audio, 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:23.840 because music lovers really want that elevated audio experience. Like 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.319 you know, when you and I grew up, we probably 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.120 put headphones on. You know, we listened to the CD 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.240 or the vinyl or the tape, and you know, got 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:36.280 to really like immerse ourselves in it. Now people are 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:38.679 on the go. I think you've said this a bunch 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:40.880 that music is sort of like the soundtrack to our lives, 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.319 but it's very much as we're moving through our lives. 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.240 So I wanted to ask you about the arrival of 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:53.320 premium audio, especially in the car, because that is something 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.400 that you guys have really doubled down on, not just recently, 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.240 but like going back decades. So can you tell us 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.520 when did that change happen when you no longer had 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.360 to take your car to like an audio specialist and 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.880 get it souped up, you know, because everything came with it. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:12.760 Yep, So it was in the early eighties. Was the 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.640 first car was a Cadillac Seville and it was a 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:20.400 collaboration between Cadillac and Bows. And the idea was simple. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.600 It was what do you do when you drive? You 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:24.959 listen to music, and why shouldn't we try to create 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:28.040 a great experience in your car. And I don't know 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.800 anyone who retrofits their car anymore because the premium audio 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.960 that comes in the car is usually just outstanding. And 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.040 the car is such a great place. It's a controlled environment. 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.640 You know where the passengers are sitting, you know the 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.720 dimensions of the car, and that gives you this really 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:48.760 great creative space to put the technology in a design 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:52.040 that allows for these optimized experiences. And we've got such 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.760 a talented team that sweats every one of those details 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.080 when they're putting together a car with our automotive partners, 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.880 to make sure that as the driver or as the 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.400 front seat passenger or as a rear seat passenger, we're 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:07.920 really thinking about the experience that each one of those 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.200 people in the car will have. And it makes me 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.440 always want to buy a new car because I hear 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:14.840 what we're doing in our labs and in our garage, 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.280 and I listen in those and then I have a 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:19.880 great Bose audio system in my current car, but I 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:24.640 know what's coming next is just truly amazing, as immersive 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.200 audio and three dimensional audio just starts to become much 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.120 more present in our lives. I think that there's a 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.280 lot of that technology that's right on the cusp of 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.280 enveloping us in great sound in our car, and I'm 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.240 excited about what's coming there. 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:43.840 So another thing that I find really fascinating about your work. 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.920 This is related both to headphones and quiet comfort earbud 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:52.480 sort of system, which is noise cancelation. It's a very 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.960 complex algorithm because on the one hand, you want to 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.680 cancel everything out so you can go to sleep on 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:04.560 the plane, whatever, But in a car and walking you 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.960 also need to be aware of traffic and sirens and 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.679 things like that. Can you sort of explain how that works. 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.760 Yeah, it's a great question, and you know, at Bo's 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.600 we're really innovating in three areas and you've sort of 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:20.800 touched on all of them in this question in a way. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.040 You know, one is obviously immersive, lifelike audio like the 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.400 artist intended it at the end of the day, that's 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.280 really what we're after. The second one is noise cancelation. 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.160 We use noise cancelation or noise removal as a way 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.880 to create almost a clean palette, right that allows you 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:42.120 to enjoy that audio without the distractions of the world 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:44.840 around you, whether those are on a plane or on 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.400 a city street or on the subway. And then the 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.560 last one, which is newer for us, and it's something 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:54.240 that's really enabled by the ability to have more computing 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.479 power in the devices and also you know, the developments 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.880 in AI, we're able to do something that we call 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.600 hear what you want, which is sort of this combination 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.560 of exactly as you said. There are things that if 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.360 I'm walking on a city street, I want to be 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:09.200 able to hear, and there are other things that I don't. 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.000 I don't want to hear the jackhammer, but I want 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.560 to hear the ambulance or the police car or the 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:18.080 bus or whatever might be the dangerous thing that's happening nearby. 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.920 And so we're using a lot of technology now to 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.840 try to make that experience seamless, where you don't have 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:29.040 to choose between noise canceling and transparency. But how do 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.640 we help you seamlessly go through your day and allow 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.560 the sounds in that we know you likely want, And 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.520 so we're doing a lot of work on that. To me, 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.520 it's exciting to think about. It's almost tuning the dialog 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:42.680 the volume of your life, which things you want to 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.000 turn up, which things you want to turn down. You know, 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.000 the example that I love. If you're at a noisy 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:49.880 restaurant or a noisy bar, it can be really hard 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.400 to hear the person that you're actually there with and 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:54.320 there's a lot of shouting that happens and a lot 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.720 of leaning in. And to me, that's one great example 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:01.520 of where this hearing what you want AI type technology 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.080 where we can detect the voice that you want to hear, 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:06.800 but sort of quiet the noise around you, not take 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.840 it away. You still want the fun and the vibe 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.240 of being in the space, but maybe just with the 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:13.960 volume turned down a little bit. So I think there 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.560 are a lot of these use cases where we can 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.640 take the decades of what we know about noise cancelation, 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.560 combine it with this new technology that we're developing now 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:29.440 to create these seamless, sort of customized almost experiences going forward. 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:34.480 So is our future sitting across each other with buds 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.720 in our ears, then getting into a driver less car 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.040 where the audio has been you know, the soundtrack is 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.720 made for us, Like I mean, are we really like 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:46.920 living in the future already? 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:52.080 I think aspects. You know, there are technology drives so 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.000 many things, so many of the things that we use 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.760 on a daily basis, and audio experiences are no different. Right. 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:04.680 The speakers, the headphones your car deliver the sound. It's 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.880 software and algorithms and AI that are creating those experiences, right. 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:12.399 Noise cancelation is about the microphones and the way that 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.800 the sound comes in and the geometry of your ear. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.320 But it's also about the software algorithm that is very 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:22.200 quickly in microseconds, evaluating the sounds and canceling them out. 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:27.520 And so you have this constant push of new innovation, 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.119 and as we're able to put chips into smaller and 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:34.520 smaller spaces that can do more computing power, your ability 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:37.560 to do more of the things that I just described increases. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.160 And as it does, you know, we're excited to start 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.080 putting the things we're developing in the lab into those 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:49.520 whether it's your car, pair of headphones, pair of earbuds. 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.159 We need to take a quick break, but we'll be 0:17:52.240 --> 0:18:01.719 back with more from Lila Schnyder. And we're back with 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.960 both CEO Lilah Snyder. Because problem solving is such a 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:11.399 tenet of engineering, and that's what you studied. I'm curious 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:13.480 where do your business chops come from? 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.320 If you think about what a CEO's job is. The 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:21.360 first and most important job that I have is assembling 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.720 an amazing team who are experts in different areas and 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.159 are diverse in the way that they solve problems and 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.320 think about things. And that alleviates my need to know 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.000 a little bit about everything or a lot about anything right, 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.640 and that I think is the most important thing. Right. 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:43.040 There's there's no decision that gets made where I don't 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:47.639 lean on the people on my team, who generally know 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.680 more than I do about any any topic and get 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.320 their counsel, their advice, their thinking. And so that diversity 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.160 of thought, I think is what's really necessary to run 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.639 a modern company because it's a complicated world. There are 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.359 so many things to think about and do, and no 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.520 one person can do that. So assembling a great team 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:09.720 is I think the most important piece of it. 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.680 Did you aspire to run a company? 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.920 I didn't know. I started as an engineer, as we've 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:19.560 talked about, and I went into consulting, So I guess 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.040 part of the answer to your last question is I 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:26.800 learned about business as a consultant at McKinsey and had 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.400 just an amazing opportunity to get a really diverse set 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.720 of experiences, different companies, different problems, to solve different business challenges, 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:37.760 which is a really great way to learn a lot 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:43.320 pretty quickly. And so that all developed through that experience 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.639 at McKinsey, and it wasn't until I don't know a 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.560 few years ago that I started thinking about being potentially 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:54.800 being a CEO. I generally just enjoyed working on interesting, 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.360 hard problems with people that I love to work with, 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.560 and somehow that led me here and I'm having a 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:03.479 great time doing it. 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.920 Of course, you know, men far out number female engineers, 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:13.120 certainly in tech and absolutely in the making of music. Yep, 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.960 there's been many studies in the last few years that 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:20.000 have shown very little change in the representation of women 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.040 as producers and engineers, as little as two point eight percent, 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:27.360 and even new findings from Bose have shown that it's 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.959 even lower. Two point three percent of top one hundred 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.600 hits in twenty twenty two were produced by women. So 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.200 this is something that you're taking on. I would love 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.320 for you to tell us about the turn the Dial 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.480 initiative and what you think can be done here. 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.680 Yeah, I mean I found this stat to be particularly shocking. 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:50.440 You know, we know in certain fields and certain industries 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.840 that women are underrepresented, but this feels like a space 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.680 in music production that just hasn't had much movement right 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:00.480 in the last several years. Whereas you know, I think 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:02.399 in others we're talking about it more, right, this is 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.600 one that at least I hadn't been hearing about as 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:09.159 much as we might be hearing about in engineering or 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:11.960 in technology or in the C suite right where you know, 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.760 we see articles and things about those challenges all the time. 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.399 This one felt like no one had really put a 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:22.720 spotlight on it. And you know, we love music at Bo's, Right. 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.160 I talked before that our customer is the music lover 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:27.920 and that's actually who we are too. Right, if you 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.760 kind of show up at any Bo's facility around the world, 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:33.320 there will be a conversation about music. There'll be someone 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:35.720 with a guitar, or there'll be someone playing a riff 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:38.760 at lunch, like, there will be something happening that has 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:41.840 to do with music. And as people who love music, 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.760 I think we believe that the more diverse the producers 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.679 of music are, the better the music will be. And 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:50.520 so this was one that we thought we could maybe 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.080 do something about and we wanted to lean into it. 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:54.880 Yeah, so what are you doing. 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:57.199 Well, it's a couple things. I mean, I think the 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:59.320 first thing is just talking about it, right. It's been 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.840 great to see the reaction. I've gotten so many positive 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.160 comments about our getting involved in this, and it really 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:08.760