End of an Era. 43 years with JBL is Over

[avliner]

+ 1

What saddens me more than anything else is when the contribution that someone of your stature provides to the foundation of a company ends with such disrespectful treatment. Is this how you close 43 years of excellence..?
It is sad that those who came after have no memory or appreciation for the contribution of those who came before.

Be glad of this, you've now stepped outside of - IMHO - the greatest tragedy in our modern world - a toxic corporate environment.

Lynn Stout has a great book on one of the main problems of current corporate culture - The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public

I thank you for the pleasure the products you've designed have brought into our lives and I look forward to reading more of your posts on here in the future

Best Regards

Jason

[gasfan]

The inevitable. It is after all, inevitable. An obvious turning point for Harman in the fiscal scheme of things. It'll be interesting to see the direction they take.
Mr. Timbers, a good run indeed. Looking forward to your presence here. It's gonna be fuuuun!

[Hoerninger]

The inevitable. It is after all, inevitable.

Inevitable is only the leave - but it should be treated respectfully.
(Or should human relationships be dictated by bean counters?)
___________
Peter

[FE3T]

This is indeed sad news.
I want to thank you for creating the XPL series which I have fallen in love with.

I started out with a pair of 140`s and was impressed enough to start searching for a pair of 200`s

My system consists now of a pair of XPL 200 up front.
A XPL 140 as center
and a pair of XPL 140 as rear speakers.

Stereo for music and 5 channel for movies

I have also a pair of 2245`s I plan to build a kind of B460.

[Challenger604]

The positive side of this event is a wide open door to new opportunities!! Go for it and enjoy!!!
I'm convinced that will bring a great moment even after 43 years in the same house! Go for it!
Cheers to that!
C

[SEAWOLF97]

I've been thinking about all this..a bit.

We have focused on Greg's treatment (and rightly so) , but ...I think there is another shoe going to drop,

You do not dump a keystone designer unless there is a bigger picture. That brings up scenarios.

Maybe HAR is taking JBL out of the larger speakers business, as they have others doing that under their umbrella ? Redundancy (they have Revel for that) ?
Maybe they think they have a well trained replacement for Greg (at less pay) lurking somewhere ? Maybe the large speaker market is dead/saturated ? Maybe they think that skating along on Greg's designs for a while is possible ?

Maybe they just don't care and the bottom line is more important ?

Maybe it's all of the above ?? ..... There's an East Wind coming ....

(and another shoe going to drop ...IMHG)

[Don C]

They purchased part of Bang & Olufsen recently, maybe they have a plan to buy the rest now.

[4313B]

They purchased part of Bang & Olufsen recently, maybe they have a plan to buy the rest now.

Oh bloody hell!!!

[DavidF]

I've been thinking about all this..a bit.

We have focused on Greg's treatment (and rightly so) , but ...I think there is another shoe going to drop,

You do not dump a keystone designer unless there is a bigger picture. That brings up scenarios.

Maybe HAR is taking JBL out of the larger speakers business, as they have others doing that under their umbrella ? Redundancy (they have Revel for that) ?
Maybe they think they have a well trained replacement for Greg (at less pay) lurking somewhere ? Maybe the large speaker market is dead/saturated ? Maybe they think that skating along on Greg's designs for a while is possible ?

Maybe they just don't care and the bottom line is more important ?

Maybe it's all of the above ?? ..... There's an East Wind coming ....

(and another shoe going to drop ...IMHG)

It's truly hard to say and likely Greg may not know the full story.

Greg was a connection to the "old" company that may not fit in with the direction HAR is pushing JBL along.

For the same reason I likely won't follow JBL in that direction. Times change, not always for the better.

[LowPhreak]

I've been thinking about all this..a bit.

We have focused on Greg's treatment (and rightly so) , but ...I think there is another shoe going to drop,

You do not dump a keystone designer unless there is a bigger picture. That brings up scenarios.

Maybe HAR is taking JBL out of the larger speakers business, as they have others doing that under their umbrella ? Redundancy (they have Revel for that) ?
Maybe they think they have a well trained replacement for Greg (at less pay) lurking somewhere ? Maybe the large speaker market is dead/saturated ? Maybe they think that skating along on Greg's designs for a while is possible ?

Maybe they just don't care and the bottom line is more important ?

Maybe it's all of the above ?? ..... There's an East Wind coming ....

(and another shoe going to drop ...IMHG)

I think those all play a part, but in the end it's the bottom line for Harman; customers, employees, and environment take the hindmost more than ever. Each quarter has to show an improvement over the last, and if sales aren't doing it then more "creative" ways for increasing profit margin are used. Absolutely nothing else matters but increased profits, and Harman is not unique in this.

Also the 'elephant-in-the-room' income disparity now, and changed perceptions of what's desirable. Most people or families can't afford a $12-20k 4365 or K2, or $8k 1400 Array. Even if they could, I think almost everyone I know with traditionally middle-class jobs would think you're completely nuts if you said you wanted to spend that much on a stereo/music system. Even a $1000.-2000. pair of speakers seems ridiculous when they'd rather put it into a car, house, TV, or latest Apple gadget.

Where's that "middle-class expendable income" that used to keep companies like JBL going? We all know that's been shrinking for years and it's hitting some kind of critical mass lately. What does $1.97/gal. gas and a stock market almost completely disconnected from the real economy tell us? It tells me that demand has shrunk.

Henry Ford knew in 1914 that he had to pay his workers a better wage or eventually he wouldn't sell many Model T's. Waitressing or selling headphones at Best Buy isn't going to get you a pair of Array's, while Harman is making speakers in Mexico or China and the UAW is trying to cut U.S. autoworkers' wages by a third or half.

So, a lot of the factors you mentioned along with "it's the economy, stupid".

[tomt]

What does $1.97/gal. gas and a ....

wondering about that myself.

last week -

I just ordered a JBL Studio 2 subwoofer and turned up this video in the official site. It is a little unsettling to see it at this point in time.

the comments from that video -

• Replies: 117
• Views: 9,881

[SEAWOLF97]

Also the 'elephant-in-the-room' income disparity now, and changed perceptions of what's desirable. Most people or families can't afford a $12-20k 4365 or K2, or $8k 1400 Array. Even if they could, I think almost everyone I know with traditionally middle-class jobs would think you're completely nuts if you said you wanted to spend that much on a stereo/music system. Even a $1000.-2000. pair of speakers seems ridiculous when they'd rather put it into a car, house, TV, or latest Apple gadget.

When I rejoined "THE World" in 1972 . my big stereo souvenirs were Pioneer CS-77a's. They were fine, until I stopped in to a local stereo shop and auditioned JBL L-100's. Wow , I was smitten.

BUT, they were sold at what was called "fair trade" price. ie: NO discount, full bore MSRP of $273 each.

Relating back to LP's quote above .... they were just plain "out of reach" . Going to school on GI Bill payments of $289/mo. It just wasn't going to happen.

Fortunately for most of us, those speakers aged/depreciated as we grew older and more able to purchase them. Now almost all of us can buy classic (non new) JBL's on a whim. Fortunately also, many are either still in good shape or can be rehabbed into the condition that we desire.

All this makes me wonder whether we are helping to decrease demand for new product and therefore impact Greg's value to the new Harming Corp ?