A conversation about fiscal year 2018 with Dr. Andreas Sennheiser and Daniel Sennheiser

At the beginning of 2018, Sennheiser set itself the goal to focus even more on the customers’ needs. How did you implement this?
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​Daniel Sennheiser: Last year, we strengthened our Consumer and Professional Division and created an organizational structure that enables us to operate successfully and more quickly in the market. From product development, to sales, to local customer relations, we established small, dedicated teams that focus on the various customer groups in the Consumer and Pro Audio segments.
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​Andreas Sennheiser: With this set-up, we can not only develop products faster but do so together with our customers. As an example of such cooperation, we developed the new Digital 6000 mini bodypack SK 6212, which has been very well accepted by the market.
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​Another good example is the MOMENTUM True Wireless – our first product in the ‘Smart & Connected Audio Experiences’ category. During the development phase we listened closely to what our customers want and to what the market still lacks. The result was a wish list that combined compact design, intuitive handling, stable Bluetooth connection – and of course great sound quality. The positive feedback after the launch has showed us that this is the right way to go.

In your opinion, what made 2018 a successful year?
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​Daniel Sennheiser: By realigning the organizational structure and focusing on the divisions, we created a good basis for successful business development. This is reflected in the turnover for 2018. Our products are now even more tailored to our customers’ needs. New products such as the evolution wireless G4 microphone system or TeamConnect Ceiling have significantly increased sales compared with the previous year.
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​Andreas Sennheiser: The investments we made during the last two to three years in research and development also have had a positive impact and form the basis of our current product portfolio. The fact that we, as a family-owned company, think and act for the long term is now paying off.

​Daniel Sennheiser: In parallel to the changes to the organizational structure, we further developed our corporate culture – the way we work together at Sennheiser. Together with our employees, we have managed to build a new excitement for the future. It is amazing to feel the individual enthusiasm and to see how the employees drive projects forward. The market transition from the G3 to the G4 wireless system is a nice example of this. It was initiated and implemented by our project team in record time in only a few months. This was even recognized with a TEC Award at NAMM 2019.
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What distinguishes the corporate culture of Sennheiser?
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​Andreas Sennheiser: In summary, it can be described as follows: Our culture unites the best of family and business. It is characterized by interpersonal relationships, a strong identification with our products and passion for what we do. It is the attitude with which we dedicate ourselves to work and how we approach our customers that distinguishes us at Sennheiser.
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​Daniel Sennheiser: It is about the simple things: We focus on the customer, we treat each other fairly, openly and tolerantly, celebrate success and learn from set-backs together. We have jointly worked out the aspects of our culture that are important to us and translated them into our daily actions. It is the many small and daily changes that make the difference.

What have been your personal highlights in 2018?
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​Andreas Sennheiser: At the end of last year, we opened a flagship store in Sydney, which started off very successfully. Now customers can experience the Sennheiser world down under as well. Our stores enable us to establish direct contact with our customers in order to discover first-hand what they are interested in and what they are enthusiastic about.
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​Daniel Sennheiser: This connection with customers is also the reason why we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our evolution microphone series worldwide with many events and local offers. Sound engineers, musicians and product experts told stories from twenty years of evolution and even had the opportunity to manufacture their own microphone. Additionally, each month we put a special microphone from the series into the spotlight. That was our way of thanking our customers who made the success of the microphone series possible in the first place. We are already looking forward to building on this with our 75th company anniversary in 2020.
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​Andreas Sennheiser: Another highlight was certainly that the Pink Floyd exhibition “The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains“ came to Germany. After a great start in London and a stop in Rome, we had the opportunity in Dortmund to invite our employees and customers from Germany to this outstanding exhibition, which included a perfect AMBEO 3D experience. Talking about such a listening experience is one thing, standing in an AMBEO room is another. The feeling of being live at Pink Floyd’s last concert and getting goose bumps is beyond description.

AMBEO is still an important component of your strategy. What is Sennheiser’s current position on this topic?
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​Daniel Sennheiser: We are convinced that 3D audio is the future of the audio industry. For this reason, we are going to do further research in this area. This is the only way to integrate AMBEO into more products and make this listening experience available to our customers – whether during recording, mixing or playback.
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​Equally, it is important to maintain the balance between ground-breaking ideas for the future and those products that honor our promise ‘The Future of Audio’ here and now.

Andreas Sennheiser: We are always looking for new opportunities to show what is possible with AMBEO. The installation of the Pink Floyd exhibition is certainly the ‘Holy Grail’. With the AMBEO Soundbar, we have for the first time launched a product which unites the acoustic performance of a 9.1 speaker system in an all-in-one device – but fits compactly under the television. 13 integrated speakers create an incredibly immersive 3D sound in your own living room. Everyone who has listened to the soundbar so far has been thrilled. That is exactly what we want to achieve.
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​We have brought our expertise to completely different fields of applications as well, for example in the field of augmented reality. With the AR One we introduced headphones for the AR glasses of Magic Leap that make it possible to not only become visually immersed into another world but audibly so too.

How did you start 2019?
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​Daniel Sennheiser: We are currently on a successful path and will continue in this way in 2019: We will focus on our strengths, launch new products and intensely exchange ideas with our customers. If we remain curious and support each other, 2019 will be a good year as well.
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​Andreas Sennheiser: It is never the achievement or the idea of an individual that determines success. It is the cooperation of people – people who look to the future, have the technical expertise, implement ideas, know the market and directly work with the customer: It is all of these things that enables us to make a difference.