Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Speaker 1: Shirley Halbrin, Executive editor of Music, and today I'm joined
Speaker 1: by Lilah Snyder, CEO of Bowes Corporation, the consumer audio
Speaker 1: company which is soon to mark its sixtieth anniversary. Founded
Speaker 1: by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Mr. Bows its home
Speaker 1: has always been Massachusetts, with close proximity to Boston and
Speaker 1: its abundance of student talent. Lilah was one of them,
Speaker 1: earning a master's degree and PhD in mechanical engineering from
Speaker 1: MIT following her bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University
Speaker 1: of Miami. She arrived at Bo's at the top of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, just as the COVID nineteen pandemic through the
Speaker 1: world and supply chains into a tales. But Llila is
Speaker 1: an expert problem solver, and like any engineering challenge, she
Speaker 1: approached her new job overseeing all aspects of the company's consumer, electronics,
Speaker 1: automotive and related businesses methodically and also with a guiding
Speaker 1: principle that sound is not an accessory, it is everything
Speaker 1: we do. It is the most important thing, and it's
Speaker 1: in the center. Bosea's rise in becoming a top name
Speaker 1: and sound, particularly when it comes to the car, saw
Speaker 1: an inflection point in the nineteen eighties when the company
Speaker 1: teamed with Cadillac to offer a premium car audio system.
Speaker 1: Llila's own origin story also has an eighties connection. It
Speaker 1: was then that she first discovered a love of music,
Speaker 1: which she's carried through to her chief executive position. Like
Speaker 1: in other tech industries where female engineers are far outnumbered
Speaker 1: by their male counterparts, Lila is hoping to better the
Speaker 1: statistic when it comes to music makers through an initiative
Speaker 1: called Turn the Dial, which aims to address why fewer
Speaker 1: than three percent of hit song producers are women or
Speaker 1: non binary. It's also bringing awareness to the issue and
Speaker 1: seeking new opportunities. They've partnered with a nonprofit called She
Speaker 1: Is the Music and are working with such artists as
Speaker 1: Her and Pink Panthers and behind the scenes stars like
Speaker 1: Wonder Girl and Blondish to tell their stories. And then
Speaker 1: there's the part of the Bo's business that has to
Speaker 1: do with silence or noise cancelation. Bose has been hard
Speaker 1: at work coming up with the perfect software algorithm to
Speaker 1: evaluate the sounds around you and cancel out what you
Speaker 1: don't want to hear. As Lila describes it, it's almost
Speaker 1: tuning the dial on the volume of your life. Which
Speaker 1: things you want to turn up, which things you want
Speaker 1: to turn down. This constant push of new innovation has
Speaker 1: become Bose's calling card, and Lilah Snyder is leading the choir.
Speaker 1: Join us after the break, Welcome back to strictly business.
Speaker 1: Here's my conversation with Bo's Corporation CEO Lilah Snyder. Lilah Snyder,
Speaker 1: chief executive officer of Bo's, Welcome to strictly business. Thanks
Speaker 1: for being with us.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me so Lyla.
Speaker 1: I think it's really funny that your previous position before
Speaker 1: you got to Bo's was a Pitney Bows. So you
Speaker 1: went from Pitney Bow's to Bo's just getting shorter. A
Speaker 1: lot of people probably don't know what Pitney bos is,
Speaker 1: but me, being a person of print of paper, I
Speaker 1: know that it is kind of an essential of starting
Speaker 1: a business, which is the ability to mail, to reach
Speaker 1: consumers directly, and you know many other things. So how
Speaker 1: do you go from mail and marketing and communications to
Speaker 1: high end audio and consumer audio? Why did you make
Speaker 1: that change in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: So I'm an engineer at heart, and what I really
Speaker 2: love is technology, and the thread that goes through everything
Speaker 2: is technology, and particularly this idea of you know, how
Speaker 2: do we use technology to make things better? And we've
Speaker 2: been living in this amazing two decades where digital technologies
Speaker 2: are just changing every business and software is changing every business,
Speaker 2: and in some ways that's the thread between a shipping
Speaker 2: and mailing company and then coming to bows and consumer
Speaker 2: audio is you know, how do we use software? How
Speaker 2: do we use digital technology to make what we're delivering
Speaker 2: to customers even better? And so for me, I've done
Speaker 2: consumer work, I've done business to business work, and I've
Speaker 2: always loved the idea of getting close to the consumer
Speaker 2: because when you know who you're talking to and you
Speaker 2: know what they care about, it makes it really fun
Speaker 2: to try to design and develop amazing experiences for them,
Speaker 2: and that's what we try to do at Bo's. It's
Speaker 2: really a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: So you have the software element and also hardware. As
Speaker 1: someone who's trained as a mechanical engineer, is it sort
Speaker 1: of like a left brain right brain thing, like the
Speaker 1: hardware is one thing, the software is something else. Do
Speaker 1: you feel a pull towards one side over the other
Speaker 1: or is it just sort of combined in your head?
Speaker 2: You know, it really is combined. I don't actually think
Speaker 2: of them as that different, because ultimately we work backwards
Speaker 2: from the experience we're providing the customer, and the experience
Speaker 2: that we're providing is sort of a fully integrated experience
Speaker 2: where it's the magic of how the hardware and the
Speaker 2: software work together. It's that sort of systems engineering component
Speaker 2: that I think is really unique for consumer electronics companies
Speaker 2: and bows in general. It's how you marry great software
Speaker 2: with really well made, really well architected hardware, and it's
Speaker 2: the two together that create the magic. So we try
Speaker 2: not to separate them.
Speaker 1: Interesting, I would think that they were like two different
Speaker 1: skill sets.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt there's different skill sets, right. So if
Speaker 2: you think about our team, we've got lots of folks
Speaker 2: who do predominantly hardware and lots who do predominantly software.
Speaker 2: But really bringing it together is the key, and that's
Speaker 2: where I think I have a lot of fun and
Speaker 2: working with the team on how you bring those things
Speaker 2: together is where you know truly new and different innovative
Speaker 2: experiences happen for customers.
Speaker 1: So when you came in in twenty twenty, what kind
Speaker 1: of staff were you overseeing.
Speaker 2: So we're a team of about six thousand globally. I
Speaker 2: obviously joined in the middle of COVID, so in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: we we're a global team. We've got folks all over
Speaker 2: the world, and we were doing everything over Zoom, which
Speaker 2: was an interesting way to start. I think in many
Speaker 2: ways a lot of us felt like it leveled the
Speaker 2: playing field, right. We were all on the screen and
Speaker 2: so you could have more of a global, diverse group
Speaker 2: of people together working on problems, which was really actually
Speaker 2: quite fun.
Speaker 1: Has that made you rethink the whole in person thing,
Speaker 1: like is it really necessary today?
Speaker 2: So? I think it is for innovative and I think
Speaker 2: if you're really going to try to create breakthrough ideas,
Speaker 2: it's hard to do that remotely. I don't think every
Speaker 2: piece of work needs to be done in person, and
Speaker 2: we certainly each of us has a lot of work
Speaker 2: that's better done in a quiet space, which is often
Speaker 2: you know, your own home or your living room or whatever.
Speaker 2: But we really believe in the magic of bringing people
Speaker 2: together to innovate and create and also just to build
Speaker 2: bonds and trust and you know, human things that are
Speaker 2: a little bit harder to do in a remote environment.
Speaker 2: So you know, we've settled into a hybrid model I
Speaker 2: think like a lot of companies have, where we're getting
Speaker 2: folks together on a regular basis, they're in the office
Speaker 2: a couple of times a week, but providing a lot
Speaker 2: of flexibility for people to also work the way that
Speaker 2: they want to work and that works for them. So
Speaker 2: we're trying to strike the right balance and I'm sure,
Speaker 2: like most we're still feeling our way through it. But
Speaker 2: it's great to see folks together again, and we're feeling
Speaker 2: that energy and creativity in the work that we're doing.
Speaker 1: And you guys were also dealing, like the rest of
Speaker 1: the world was, with supply chain issues during COVID, and
Speaker 1: you you really rely on the supply chain to make
Speaker 1: your product. So when you got to BOS, did you
Speaker 1: have immediate things that you needed to deal with.
Speaker 2: I think when you're new, you always think about what's
Speaker 2: the right strategy, right. You want to kind of get
Speaker 2: the lay of the land and set your agenda. And
Speaker 2: so I spent a fair bit of time listening and
Speaker 2: learning right. Companies are complicated places with a lot of history,
Speaker 2: and so before you change things, it's important to understand
Speaker 2: why things are done the way that they are and
Speaker 2: why decisions were made and why the strategy is what
Speaker 2: it is. And then we started to really plot for
Speaker 2: the future of both what's our long range vision and
Speaker 2: we spent a lot of time thinking about, you know,
Speaker 2: what matters to us, what matters to our customers. We
Speaker 2: put our customer right in the center of that vision,
Speaker 2: and that led us to some pretty exciting places around
Speaker 2: who we are and how we want to bring our
Speaker 2: brand and our products and experiences into the market. And
Speaker 2: so that sort of initial period was a lot of
Speaker 2: fun and just exploring, you know, how we want to
Speaker 2: evolve as a company and who we are and how
Speaker 2: we take that to the next level.
Speaker 1: What were those challenges during those first couple of years.
Speaker 2: I think it's always a challenge to think about really
Speaker 2: defining who your customer is and understanding so we spend
Speaker 2: a lot of time on that. And as you see
Speaker 2: the Bose brand showing up in the market and you
Speaker 2: think about our products, we've really embraced music and the
Speaker 2: music lover We think that people who really love music,
Speaker 2: they have a passion, they identify with certain genres. It's
Speaker 2: part of their identity, part of their personal brand, if
Speaker 2: you will, and that's who we really think the Bose
Speaker 2: customer has always been. Right. We've been creating audio experiences
Speaker 2: for almost sixty years, which is amazing, and we think
Speaker 2: that you know, really embracing that music lover it kind
Speaker 2: of gave us a muse to innovate around and that's
Speaker 2: led to a lot of great forward looking innovation that
Speaker 2: we think is going to position us well for the future.
Speaker 1: So, I mean your sort of like origin story as
Speaker 1: it were, Leila, is that you had dispose wave radio.
Speaker 1: It was sort of like a like a half circle
Speaker 1: looking thing and it had an alarm and all of
Speaker 1: that had a CD player. So what kind of music
Speaker 1: were you into? You know, they say that your most
Speaker 1: formative time to love music is in your early twenties,
Speaker 1: basically coming out of college. What was your thing?
Speaker 2: I feel like my formative years were in the eighties,
Speaker 2: So I do have a love of eighties pop and
Speaker 2: a little bit of that metal rock that came from
Speaker 2: the eighties for sure. Okay, also love classic rock, right
Speaker 2: country music was a thing in my house, like old
Speaker 2: country music, and so that's something that I have an
Speaker 2: appreciation for and how that's evolved. But today I would say,
Speaker 2: you know, at my house, we've got three teenagers, my
Speaker 2: husband and I, and there is a diversity of music
Speaker 2: in our household, which is pretty remarkable. Right when you
Speaker 2: cross over what your kids are interested in, you really
Speaker 2: get introduced to a lot of things. So on any
Speaker 2: given day, you might hear classical music, rap music. It's
Speaker 2: a lot of Taylor Swift that's happening. Yeah, there's there's
Speaker 2: definitely some of that here.
Speaker 1: I love the story that you relayed in one of
Speaker 1: the talks that you gave about the arrival of premium audio,
Speaker 1: because music lovers really want that elevated audio experience. Like
Speaker 1: you know, when you and I grew up, we probably
Speaker 1: put headphones on. You know, we listened to the CD
Speaker 1: or the vinyl or the tape, and you know, got
Speaker 1: to really like immerse ourselves in it. Now people are
Speaker 1: on the go. I think you've said this a bunch
Speaker 1: that music is sort of like the soundtrack to our lives,
Speaker 1: but it's very much as we're moving through our lives.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to ask you about the arrival of
Speaker 1: premium audio, especially in the car, because that is something
Speaker 1: that you guys have really doubled down on, not just recently,
Speaker 1: but like going back decades. So can you tell us
Speaker 1: when did that change happen when you no longer had
Speaker 1: to take your car to like an audio specialist and
Speaker 1: get it souped up, you know, because everything came with it.
Speaker 2: Yep, So it was in the early eighties. Was the
Speaker 2: first car was a Cadillac Seville and it was a
Speaker 2: collaboration between Cadillac and Bows. And the idea was simple.
Speaker 2: It was what do you do when you drive? You
Speaker 2: listen to music, and why shouldn't we try to create
Speaker 2: a great experience in your car. And I don't know
Speaker 2: anyone who retrofits their car anymore because the premium audio
Speaker 2: that comes in the car is usually just outstanding. And
Speaker 2: the car is such a great place. It's a controlled environment.
Speaker 2: You know where the passengers are sitting, you know the
Speaker 2: dimensions of the car, and that gives you this really
Speaker 2: great creative space to put the technology in a design
Speaker 2: that allows for these optimized experiences. And we've got such
Speaker 2: a talented team that sweats every one of those details
Speaker 2: when they're putting together a car with our automotive partners,
Speaker 2: to make sure that as the driver or as the
Speaker 2: front seat passenger or as a rear seat passenger, we're
Speaker 2: really thinking about the experience that each one of those
Speaker 2: people in the car will have. And it makes me
Speaker 2: always want to buy a new car because I hear
Speaker 2: what we're doing in our labs and in our garage,
Speaker 2: and I listen in those and then I have a
Speaker 2: great Bose audio system in my current car, but I
Speaker 2: know what's coming next is just truly amazing, as immersive
Speaker 2: audio and three dimensional audio just starts to become much
Speaker 2: more present in our lives. I think that there's a
Speaker 2: lot of that technology that's right on the cusp of
Speaker 2: enveloping us in great sound in our car, and I'm
Speaker 2: excited about what's coming there.
Speaker 1: So another thing that I find really fascinating about your work.
Speaker 1: This is related both to headphones and quiet comfort earbud
Speaker 1: sort of system, which is noise cancelation. It's a very
Speaker 1: complex algorithm because on the one hand, you want to
Speaker 1: cancel everything out so you can go to sleep on
Speaker 1: the plane, whatever, But in a car and walking you
Speaker 1: also need to be aware of traffic and sirens and
Speaker 1: things like that. Can you sort of explain how that works.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question, and you know, at Bo's
Speaker 2: we're really innovating in three areas and you've sort of
Speaker 2: touched on all of them in this question in a way.
Speaker 2: You know, one is obviously immersive, lifelike audio like the
Speaker 2: artist intended it at the end of the day, that's
Speaker 2: really what we're after. The second one is noise cancelation.
Speaker 2: We use noise cancelation or noise removal as a way
Speaker 2: to create almost a clean palette, right that allows you
Speaker 2: to enjoy that audio without the distractions of the world
Speaker 2: around you, whether those are on a plane or on
Speaker 2: a city street or on the subway. And then the
Speaker 2: last one, which is newer for us, and it's something
Speaker 2: that's really enabled by the ability to have more computing
Speaker 2: power in the devices and also you know, the developments
Speaker 2: in AI, we're able to do something that we call
Speaker 2: hear what you want, which is sort of this combination
Speaker 2: of exactly as you said. There are things that if
Speaker 2: I'm walking on a city street, I want to be
Speaker 2: able to hear, and there are other things that I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't want to hear the jackhammer, but I want
Speaker 2: to hear the ambulance or the police car or the
Speaker 2: bus or whatever might be the dangerous thing that's happening nearby.
Speaker 2: And so we're using a lot of technology now to
Speaker 2: try to make that experience seamless, where you don't have
Speaker 2: to choose between noise canceling and transparency. But how do
Speaker 2: we help you seamlessly go through your day and allow
Speaker 2: the sounds in that we know you likely want, And
Speaker 2: so we're doing a lot of work on that. To me,
Speaker 2: it's exciting to think about. It's almost tuning the dialog
Speaker 2: the volume of your life, which things you want to
Speaker 2: turn up, which things you want to turn down. You know,
Speaker 2: the example that I love. If you're at a noisy
Speaker 2: restaurant or a noisy bar, it can be really hard
Speaker 2: to hear the person that you're actually there with and
Speaker 2: there's a lot of shouting that happens and a lot
Speaker 2: of leaning in. And to me, that's one great example
Speaker 2: of where this hearing what you want AI type technology
Speaker 2: where we can detect the voice that you want to hear,
Speaker 2: but sort of quiet the noise around you, not take
Speaker 2: it away. You still want the fun and the vibe
Speaker 2: of being in the space, but maybe just with the
Speaker 2: volume turned down a little bit. So I think there
Speaker 2: are a lot of these use cases where we can
Speaker 2: take the decades of what we know about noise cancelation,
Speaker 2: combine it with this new technology that we're developing now
Speaker 2: to create these seamless, sort of customized almost experiences going forward.
Speaker 1: So is our future sitting across each other with buds
Speaker 1: in our ears, then getting into a driver less car
Speaker 1: where the audio has been you know, the soundtrack is
Speaker 1: made for us, Like I mean, are we really like
Speaker 1: living in the future already?
Speaker 2: I think aspects. You know, there are technology drives so
Speaker 2: many things, so many of the things that we use
Speaker 2: on a daily basis, and audio experiences are no different. Right.
Speaker 2: The speakers, the headphones your car deliver the sound. It's
Speaker 2: software and algorithms and AI that are creating those experiences, right.
Speaker 2: Noise cancelation is about the microphones and the way that
Speaker 2: the sound comes in and the geometry of your ear.
Speaker 2: But it's also about the software algorithm that is very
Speaker 2: quickly in microseconds, evaluating the sounds and canceling them out.
Speaker 2: And so you have this constant push of new innovation,
Speaker 2: and as we're able to put chips into smaller and
Speaker 2: smaller spaces that can do more computing power, your ability
Speaker 2: to do more of the things that I just described increases.
Speaker 2: And as it does, you know, we're excited to start
Speaker 2: putting the things we're developing in the lab into those
Speaker 2: whether it's your car, pair of headphones, pair of earbuds.
Speaker 1: We need to take a quick break, but we'll be
Speaker 1: back with more from Lila Schnyder. And we're back with
Speaker 1: both CEO Lilah Snyder. Because problem solving is such a
Speaker 1: tenet of engineering, and that's what you studied. I'm curious
Speaker 1: where do your business chops come from?
Speaker 2: If you think about what a CEO's job is. The
Speaker 2: first and most important job that I have is assembling
Speaker 2: an amazing team who are experts in different areas and
Speaker 2: are diverse in the way that they solve problems and
Speaker 2: think about things. And that alleviates my need to know
Speaker 2: a little bit about everything or a lot about anything right,
Speaker 2: and that I think is the most important thing. Right.
Speaker 2: There's there's no decision that gets made where I don't
Speaker 2: lean on the people on my team, who generally know
Speaker 2: more than I do about any any topic and get
Speaker 2: their counsel, their advice, their thinking. And so that diversity
Speaker 2: of thought, I think is what's really necessary to run
Speaker 2: a modern company because it's a complicated world. There are
Speaker 2: so many things to think about and do, and no
Speaker 2: one person can do that. So assembling a great team
Speaker 2: is I think the most important piece of it.
Speaker 1: Did you aspire to run a company?
Speaker 2: I didn't know. I started as an engineer, as we've
Speaker 2: talked about, and I went into consulting, So I guess
Speaker 2: part of the answer to your last question is I
Speaker 2: learned about business as a consultant at McKinsey and had
Speaker 2: just an amazing opportunity to get a really diverse set
Speaker 2: of experiences, different companies, different problems, to solve different business challenges,
Speaker 2: which is a really great way to learn a lot
Speaker 2: pretty quickly. And so that all developed through that experience
Speaker 2: at McKinsey, and it wasn't until I don't know a
Speaker 2: few years ago that I started thinking about being potentially
Speaker 2: being a CEO. I generally just enjoyed working on interesting,
Speaker 2: hard problems with people that I love to work with,
Speaker 2: and somehow that led me here and I'm having a
Speaker 2: great time doing it.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know, men far out number female engineers,
Speaker 1: certainly in tech and absolutely in the making of music. Yep,
Speaker 1: there's been many studies in the last few years that
Speaker 1: have shown very little change in the representation of women
Speaker 1: as producers and engineers, as little as two point eight percent,
Speaker 1: and even new findings from Bose have shown that it's
Speaker 1: even lower. Two point three percent of top one hundred
Speaker 1: hits in twenty twenty two were produced by women. So
Speaker 1: this is something that you're taking on. I would love
Speaker 1: for you to tell us about the turn the Dial
Speaker 1: initiative and what you think can be done here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I found this stat to be particularly shocking.
Speaker 2: You know, we know in certain fields and certain industries
Speaker 2: that women are underrepresented, but this feels like a space
Speaker 2: in music production that just hasn't had much movement right
Speaker 2: in the last several years. Whereas you know, I think
Speaker 2: in others we're talking about it more, right, this is
Speaker 2: one that at least I hadn't been hearing about as
Speaker 2: much as we might be hearing about in engineering or
Speaker 2: in technology or in the C suite right where you know,
Speaker 2: we see articles and things about those challenges all the time.
Speaker 2: This one felt like no one had really put a
Speaker 2: spotlight on it. And you know, we love music at Bo's, Right.
Speaker 2: I talked before that our customer is the music lover
Speaker 2: and that's actually who we are too. Right, if you
Speaker 2: kind of show up at any Bo's facility around the world,
Speaker 2: there will be a conversation about music. There'll be someone
Speaker 2: with a guitar, or there'll be someone playing a riff
Speaker 2: at lunch, like, there will be something happening that has
Speaker 2: to do with music. And as people who love music,
Speaker 2: I think we believe that the more diverse the producers
Speaker 2: of music are, the better the music will be. And
Speaker 2: so this was one that we thought we could maybe
Speaker 2: do something about and we wanted to lean into it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what are you doing.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a couple things. I mean, I think the
Speaker 2: first thing is just talking about it, right. It's been
Speaker 2: great to see the reaction. I've gotten so many positive
Speaker 2: comments about our getting involved in this, and it really
Speaker 2: is touching a chord with folks. So we partnered with
Speaker 2: a few great producers like Her and Pink Pantherest and
Speaker 2: Wonder Girl and Blondish to have them tell their stories.
Speaker 2: There's nothing more powerful than hearing one of those, two
Speaker 2: point eight or two point three percent of women tell
Speaker 2: the story about how they got there and why they
Speaker 2: persevered in a space that clearly has been challenging for
Speaker 2: women in the past, and so part of it is
Speaker 2: just raising awareness and talking about I think there's value
Speaker 2: in that. We're also partnering with a nonprofit called She
Speaker 2: Is the Music. They do a lot of terrific work
Speaker 2: in this area and they've been great at helping guide
Speaker 2: us on what more could we do to have an impact,
Speaker 2: and so with their help, we've created something we call
Speaker 2: the Sound Is Power Impact Board, and we've collected a
Speaker 2: bunch of great industry A and R folks alongside some
Speaker 2: of our music producers that we're partnering with, and they're
Speaker 2: really getting together to help us evaluate and shine a
Speaker 2: light on new talent. And so we've been asking for
Speaker 2: submissions right so for female and non binary producers to
Speaker 2: upload their work, get their sounds and their beats into
Speaker 2: the hands of our impact Board, who are going to
Speaker 2: review them and try to help raise up some of
Speaker 2: these great folks who are working out there but are
Speaker 2: having trouble having their voice be heard. And so we're
Speaker 2: excited about that we're only a little over a month in.
Speaker 2: We've got hundreds of submissions and our impact board will
Speaker 2: meet quarterly to review them, and we're really excited to
Speaker 2: see what's going to come out of that.
Speaker 1: You mentioned before that your employees and your consumers share
Speaker 1: a passion for audio. They share that interest in music.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's an important business tenant to have
Speaker 1: that connection.
Speaker 2: I do. I think it's one of the unique things
Speaker 2: about those You know, it's all we do right, and
Speaker 2: a lot of our competitors do amazing things, but they're
Speaker 2: doing a lot of different things. And I think what
Speaker 2: makes us unique is that we joke at Bo's sound
Speaker 2: is not an accessory. It is everything we do. It
Speaker 2: is it is the most important thing, and it's in
Speaker 2: the center. And so I think that comes through in
Speaker 2: the passion with which we develop our products and the
Speaker 2: details that we think about and how we think about
Speaker 2: our experiences. I also think it just makes for a
Speaker 2: more happy, engaged workforce. If you're working on something that
Speaker 2: you're passionate about, life is so much better. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, I always tell people it's one of my
Speaker 2: pieces of advice, is you know, do something you're passionate
Speaker 2: about We spend way too much time at work to
Speaker 2: do something that feels mundane or not important or not
Speaker 2: connected to what you care about. And so I think
Speaker 2: we're really lucky to have to work in a space
Speaker 2: where people are passionate about it and can be passionate
Speaker 2: about it. So I think it's actually one of the
Speaker 2: really cool things about working at both.
Speaker 1: And based in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, headquarters in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: So I mean, is there like a proliferation of like
Speaker 1: music lovers in New England or something like, could Bose
Speaker 1: live anywhere? Or does Massachusetts actually fit Bose?
Speaker 2: Well, we've been here for so long, right, so our history,
Speaker 2: our founder, doctor M. R. Bose was a professor at MIT,
Speaker 2: and so he was a Boston guy and so naturally
Speaker 2: he wanted this company to be headquartered here, and so
Speaker 2: our roots run deep in Massachusetts. And we've been here
Speaker 2: for you know, almost sixty years. So certainly that's true.
Speaker 2: There's such amazing talent that comes young talent that comes
Speaker 2: to Boston for college and you know, I mean everyone
Speaker 2: knows that Boston is sort of this epicenter for college
Speaker 2: students and graduate students and technology. And you know, we've
Speaker 2: got the Berkeley School of Music. So there's a lot
Speaker 2: of ingredients in Massachusetts that have created great talent for BOS.
Speaker 2: But we also have people who moved to Massachusetts to
Speaker 2: be a part of it. And as I said before,
Speaker 2: we've got people all over the world, So we're not
Speaker 2: we're certainly headquartered here, but we attract folks globally on
Speaker 2: the basis of what we do at both.
Speaker 1: You've described yourself jokingly as over educated because you have
Speaker 1: a master's, you have a PhD in mechanical engineering. You
Speaker 1: went to MIT knowing what higher education costs today and
Speaker 1: having kids the ages that yours are. Would you do
Speaker 1: it the same again?
Speaker 2: I would actually, you know, I often say the process
Speaker 2: of getting a PhD taught me more about myself than
Speaker 2: maybe any other experience I have had in my life,
Speaker 2: about what I'm good at and what I'm not good at,
Speaker 2: and what I enjoy and what I'm capable of, And
Speaker 2: so the process itself, to me was amazing.
Speaker 1: What about it? What do they give you?
Speaker 2: I think I talk about grit. I love the idea
Speaker 2: of grit. You know, this idea of goes back to
Speaker 2: passion and perseverance. It's sort of where those two things meet,
Speaker 2: and I think that's what I learned at MIT, the
Speaker 2: ability to persevere through an endless number of challenges that
Speaker 2: confront you, and while you have a very supportive group
Speaker 2: of people around you, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: you have to find it in you to persevere and
Speaker 2: to get through those things. And that was valuable life
Speaker 2: experience that I use every day. I of course, also
Speaker 2: learned how to be a great problem solver getting my
Speaker 2: master's degree my PhD at MIT, and so I think again,
Speaker 2: that's something that you probably could learn with experience, but
Speaker 2: I think I got there a lot faster with the
Speaker 2: help of some pretty amazing professors, advisors, and peers in
Speaker 2: my educational experience.
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Speaker 1: edited by Laurence Schroeder. Please make sure you subscribe to
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