The CEO is out – thoughts on future product direction

[sorenfelden]

Thoughts on B&O’s direction over the past decade

With today’s news about the CEO’s departure, I felt it might be a good moment to reflect—constructively—on Bang & Olufsen’s direction over the past decade or so. I write this as a long-time admirer and owner, not as a casual critic.

Design direction – the loss of a defining edge
Arguably, design has always been B&O’s single most important differentiator. The company’s global recognition was built on exceptionally disciplined, elegant design – pioneered by Jacob Jensen and carried forward through the 80s, 90s and early 2000s by designers who respected that language: sharp, straight lines.

Over the past decade, however, that edge appears to have been diluted. While materials remain exclusive and build quality generally high, the design language itself has become increasingly organic, rounded, and – frankly – less elegant. Noticeable so. They’re no longer headturners.

a) Soundbars: The Beosound Theatre and the Beosound Premiere are, in my view, simply too bulky. The Premiere in particular feels overly organic and visually dominant. Ironically, the most affordable model, the Beosound Stage, is – by far – the most elegant and the only one that truly aligns with traditional B&O design DNA.

b) Speakers: Much of the current portfolio – Beosound A9, Beosound 2, Beolab 8, Beolab 50, Beolab 90 – illustrates the same shift away from crisp, architectural lines toward rounded, organic forms. They are a long way from the sculptural elegance of Beolab Penta, Beolab 8000, or even Beolab 18 – with the Pentas having a very special “presence”.

c) Televisions: Televisions are where B&O has arguably stayed closest to its heritage – clean, straight lines – with the notable exception of the Beovision Theatre’s rather clumsy “elephant foot”, which feels like an unfortunate departure from otherwise disciplined design thinking.

Connectivity – baffling missed opportunities
Some product decisions around connectivity are genuinely hard to understand.

• The Beosound Stage cannot connect to external speakers. The cross-selling potential alone should have made this a priority.
• The Beoconnect Core has no wireless speaker connectivity, limiting its usefulness in modern setups.

These are not edge-case complaints; they directly undermine system thinking, which used to be one of B&O’s great strengths.

The disappearance of music systems
This may sound counterintuitive in the streaming era, but I believe B&O should reintroduce music systems – not just functional streaming boxes to be hidden away, but beautifully designed pieces of furniture.

Historically, B&O music systems were attractive even when switched off. They functioned as sculptures as much as electronics. Products like Beosound 9000 or Beosound 5 Encore created emotional attachment through physical presence and visual interaction. Many customers miss that – and I strongly suspect many would happily pay for it again, even if a phone could technically do the same job.

On pricing
B&O has often been criticised for price increases. While I won’t dismiss pricing as a factor, I doubt it is the core problem.

The world is full of ultra-high-end brands doing extremely well. Rolex sells around a million watches a year. Hermès has multi-year waiting lists for €15,000 Kelly bags. Price is not a barrier if – and only if – the product is sufficiently desirable.

Which brings us back to the central issue: B&O’s products are no longer convincingly attractive enough – visually, conceptually, or system-wise – to fully justify their prices in the minds of many potential buyers.

None of this is written with ill intent. Quite the opposite. Bang & Olufsen is one of the very few brands that could reclaim its former clarity and authority – if it chooses to rediscover what once made it unmistakably B&O.

• This topic was modified 4 days, 3 hours ago by sorenfelden.

[Stan]

https://investor.bang-olufsen.com/news-releases/news-release-details/kristian-tear-steps-down-ceo-bang-olufsen-cfo-nikolaj-wendelboe

I haven’t been following B&O that closely since they went down their “very high worth” customer path so I don’t have an opinion whether this is good or bad news… unless he’s the guy responsible for the VHW direction… I mean, I bought some Balances in 2022 and now they are 40% more expensive for essentially the same product… so I guess if he’s the guy who came up with this plan, then good riddance.  I just hope they survive.

[NQVHNWI]

I have written very critically about KTear and B&Os Strategy extensively on discord. My current perception is as follows:-

1. K Tear – good riddance. The man is an ocean-going, weapons-grade ******. Sure he is chocolate-smooth and eloquent at speaking but in his long career he has many top-jobs but clearly could not run a bath with any of them.
2. The pricing of B&O is not as outrageous as it first seams. The big Beolabs and top-end Beovision-type products are breaking away considerably from inflation-adjusted. Everything else is more-or-less in-line with historical inflation.
3. The decline of B&O did not start with KTear but in a long litany of very poor CEOS combined with a way-too-conservative Board. As we go through these poor CEOs, the situation will worsen. I will mark Tue Mantoni out as an exception.
4. I think the product line is actually very good right now. B&O has to get away from super-sleek loudspeakers and focus on sound quality. They cannot charge GBP5, 10, 20, 50, 150k for loudspeakers that look good but sound like a category below their price indication.
5. They also have to keep away from mechanical gimmickry. It takes too long to develop, sucks-up R&D capital and products tend to have a short shelf like (Think mobile phones, BV7 DVD drawer etc…). Get and keep to international A/V specifications. Dont invent your own way of doing it when everything changes too quickly.
6. They need to embrace China/SE Asia manufacturing. I don’t like it either but I also don’t think there is an alternative?
7. Stop wasting money on Brand Ambassadors and such. Cancel Ferrari sponsorship. No facts but I believe this cost more than it brings in?
8. Get a proper marketing Team. Too many anaemic waffer-thin models who look like they have never done a days work to afford B&O. In my book, B&O is something you reward yourself with having done a good job and earned it. B&O Marketing is just plain lazy.
9. Let the Dealers deal. Stop this “Rolex AD fascism” (That model has now collapsed and Rolex are clamping down on ADs who abused the situation). Stop this excessive waste of cash with Franchised Dealers and B&O splashing out wasted capital on store refreshment every two minutes. I think every B&O store being the same dissipates the relationship between you and Dealer? Uniqueness of Store experience with common products is much better I think?
10. Stop chasing HNWIs and uber-rich glory. Quite clearly they – like China did not come in and save the Company with Sales. B&O is not “Luxury”. Its nice WAF-friendly home entertainment gear. Only.
11. Finally…….LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

I doubt I’ll get on the shortlist for a CEO interview with the Chairman but we will redo this thread in 3 years time after the next failure.

Good day

[sorenfelden]

Thanks for the thorough comments. I guess they highlight why running B&O is very difficult as there are so many different opinions on what the “fix” should be. For me, it is a whole new product range with a design language away from organic forms – for you, it’s something completely different.

Agree strongly on the need to stop sponsorships, Ferrari or otherwise. Makes no sense.

[355f]

Interesting that so many advocate a ‘return to the design dynamics of the 80/90s Era. These are just the people who wont buy it in todays world.

The business has changed; how can the uniqueness that once made B&O design famous be incorporated into streaming devices  and soundbars( which is where the market sits)

Indeed the 8000 were iconic and a good design; but were they that good a performer ( not in my experience)  the 28/50/90 are a good expression of todays requirements; albeit at the wrong price points.

I recall my dissapointment when reading that the previous CEO had engaged with LG in order to exit the video business; it turned out to be the correct thing to do; if not with LG, another brand. What a pity that the Avant style could not have been OLED; that TV was so classy although very unreliable ( in my experience)  hance I got so fed up with waiting weeks for Video boards I gave up and bought the theatre; I can almost buy a complete replacement LG tv for what B&O wanted for a Video Driver panel, in the early years of failure

My feeling is that most of the current range offers higher quality audio than it ever did.

Lots of manufacturing in Asia now.

If one wants to be successful as a CEO in this area, one needs a larger company and then make it smaller! thats what Mantoni did.  The next one inflated the prices; Im not sure whats left to pull out of the bag

[AdamS]

One point I’ve been debating making on here is over the company’s 100th anniversary.

Now, let me clarify – I love B&O, I always have done and probably always will do but was I the only one a little disappointed by the 100th anniversary products? Correct me if I’m wrong but they basically comprised some new earbuds, a new soundbar, some different finishes on a couple of Wi-Fi speakers and three limited edition finishes for the Beolab 90s (with 2 more to come, apparently).

That’s it?

Maybe it’s just me and we were unduly spoiled by the Beolab 90s for the 90th birthday, but I would have though that the gaping chasm in price between the Beolab 50s and Beolab 90s would have been a perfect 100th anniversary gap to fill.

As I say, I’m delighted B&O hit 100 and I wish them many, many more years of success – I just would have liked something more magnificent and full of “Wow!” factor to be released to mark the occasion.

[speedsixdave]

AdamS wrote:

That’s it?

Completely agree with this. I was expecting the Big 100 product for the birthday, and very disappointed to find that the teaser products appear to be all that’s coming. Special edition things don’t count so it’s just the Premiere, and nobody’s going to be excitedly hunting for one of those in mint condition in 50 years’ time.

Location: UK

Favourite Product: Beolab 3000

My B&O Icons:

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

He was a terrible CEO and I’m relieved they fired him. The price increases were totally offensive to long time customers and they totally wasted the 100 year anniversary.  Here is hoping the new CEO knows that B&O long time customers are important.

 

Location: Toronto, Canada

[Stan]

I’ve said this for the last couple CEOs. Good luck! B&O is in a very difficult situation, and I don’t know what I would do if I were in charge.

Challenges that I see:

• What can be done to create a desirable streaming device?  There’s just not much to work with. I thought the Moment was a decent concept, very poorly executed. But the bigger question is how to break through to the 95% of the market probably thinks “Why not just use my phone or iPad”?
• The kids are not as excited by stuff. They prefer their experiences. Also, since housing prices have gone up possibly more than B&O prices, many want to make moving as easy as possible. Big beautiful speakers don’t fit that model.
• Support. At these current prices, it better be top notch. Judging from Facebook and Reddit, it’s not. Yes, people like to complain, and many have unreasonable expectations, but still. Personally, I’ve had very good support lately, but it seems like I’m an exception.
• Economic headwinds, tariffs, wars…

I don’t have a plan, and I’m glad I’m not expected to :).  I just hope B&O survives because every time I get fed up and decide I’m not going to spend any more money with B&O, I can’t find a replacement.

[speedsixdave]

Stan wrote:

Challenges that I see:

The kids are not as excited by stuff. They prefer their experiences. Also, since housing prices have gone up possibly more than B&O prices, many want to make moving as easy as possible. Big beautiful speakers don’t fit that model.

Kids do like vinyl, as do lots of people today who wouldn’t describe themselves as audiophiles. Why don’t B&O make lovely record players again? And not 4000c and 3000c renovations for thirty grand. A small range of two or three at ‘affordable’ but aspirational prices of say £700 to £2000. And perhaps some affordable speakers to match. I presume the reason is they couldn’t then justify selling 3000c’s for thirty grand.

In slightly related news, I dug out my dad’s B&O pricelist from 1987 and popped some prices into the Bank of England inflation calculator. At today’s prices:

Beomaster 3300 £1155

Beogram 3300 £805

Beomaster 5500 £2119

Beogram 5500 £1094

Beocenter 7007 £2477

Beocenter 9000 £4649

CX100s £814

Beolab Penta £5218

Aspirational, certainly, but not completely insane. Entry-level system about £2800, top-of-the-range about £10000.

Location: UK

Favourite Product: Beolab 3000

My B&O Icons:

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

The “New” prices might be comparable to products of old, I think the problem is they launched much cheaper and we watched the price climb over a couple years for the same product. It wasn’t the costs got that much higher for B&O to build. They were testing how much they can charge and still sell stuff. Also the colour variations are highway robbery.

Location: Toronto, Canada

[Stan]

Completely agree about the “New” prices.  It’s especially galling when it’s exactly the same product for 40-50% more. Pure money grab.

I also agree about a reasonably attainable ( $1 – 2K ) turntable.  See the following youngster story:

I gave my BL8000s to my son, and a BeoConnect Core perfectly fit his requirements (TV, streaming, turntable) for a source. Unfortunately, I couldn’t recommend it. ~$1000 more than a WiiM Ultra (and another $450 for a remote), and it’s not even good looking!!! Granted, the WiiM has no NL, but if he starts making B&O-level money and wants multi-room, he can easily replace the WiiM since it’s wasn’t that expensive. He has a inexpensive Sony turntable, but I could see selling him on a reasonably priced B&O turntable. It will look nice, last forever and the technology is mature so spending a couple $K isn’t a terrible investment.

• This reply was modified 2 days, 7 hours ago by Stan.

[speedsixdave]

Slightly off-topic, but interesting that the current UK used prices for those 1987 items are pretty much exactly 10% of the ‘equivalent new’ prices, except for the Beograms which are proportionally much more

Location: UK

Favourite Product: Beolab 3000

My B&O Icons:

[speedsixdave]

Back on topic re future directions, any (audio) brand sells on three or four things:

Brand desirability

Visual attractiveness

Technical capability (and sound quality)

Price/value

For B&O at the moment, no-one is buying the product because it’s good value. Some people may be buying it because it’s really expensive.

Technical capability is a bit problematic, as folk have noted upthread. Why are £1000 Cores lacking connectivity? Why was the Stage so crippled? Why have BL 17s and 18s not been updated to Mozart? Why am I looking at spending £1000 at Almando to get surround sound on my TV rather than B&O?

Sound quality is a difficult issue, as most punters (myself included) don’t really have the capabilities to assess ‘quality’, but are probably capable of saying ‘I like the sound of that more than that’. Let it be agreed that Beolab 90s sound amazing, but my friends who like hi-fi still think that B&O is not ‘proper’, not like Linn or something. Selling stuff on genuine sound quality is difficult and liable to lead to £1000 speaker cables and the like.

 

Visual Attractiveness has always been the big one for B&O, good design with nice actions that sound fine and have some other unique features like early multiroom. There are still some standout products like the Shape, A9 and BL18 but lots of meh too like the entry level M3/5, Levels, Balances, the late BL9s/20s, and even the mighty BL90. Could you get those past your wife, even if you had £120k spare? And as noted much of the streaming stuff does not look like it’s meant to be on display at all, let alone pride of place in your living room.

 

So Brand Desirability. B&O is still a name, some guys at work were boasting last week about the B&O in their Audis. But Brand Desirability ultimately depends on quality products that people want and are able to buy. Lagonda is probably still a desirable name, but there’s no products, no employees and no cars neither.

 

On that note I fear B&O might become the new Bugatti or similar. Bought out by e.g. LG or some Chinese brand we haven’t heard of yet, one or two unattainable flagship products no humans can afford, no connection to the past, just a name to hang mostly identkit low-end Chinese-built disposables on. Let’s hope not.

Location: UK

Favourite Product: Beolab 3000

My B&O Icons:

[NQVHNWI]

I would state that if you could scale modern streamers, DACs, Amplifiers and loudspeakers from mainstream at say GBP1000 and up to the very top and put BnO in that scale…..most products would not get above the bottom 3rd. So BnO contrary to popular belief is not the top end of the market by a long way.

As I’ve said in many places, BnO make very nice WAF-acceptable home entertainment equipment.  It is certainly not a “luxury” brand. It’s home electronics. (Keep a GBP20000 Hermes bag boxed and pristine for 10 years and amazingly, it will keep its value. Keep the same value of BnO in a box and it’s yesterday-years tech on eBay)

in terms of 4 categories, there is only 3. Brand desirability comes from the other 3 variables. The prices are as suggested by others more or less inflation adjusted (did the exercise with what I have purchased over the last 30-odd years). However, there was a big jump in Beovisions at the time of LCD and there is a big jump in the big Beolabs (50-90) inflation wise.

regardless, given the Mozart platform and ICEpower, products throughout the range are now modular and should be considerably cheaper to prototype and manufacture.

One of the biggest problems I see BnO having is too much mechanical gimmickry. I know most in here love this but it does take away from the seriousness of the brand. (Think about Roger Moore as Bond in Moonraker compared to Craig in Casino Royal. Back in the day, it was good fun, today, people would not put up with a new film like moonraker or similar).

Part of BnOs survival must be to make competent products that just do their Job. They need sound quality comparable to the mainstream at a similar price point.

The Company needs more Andrew Robinson and less Charles deClerks to promote the good name of BnO to those that lost faith or just read about the perpetual “better bang for your buck elsewhere” mantra

[355f]

People are buying B&O presently, reference is made to BL9/20 , however , they are very old products; What about the 28s, Stylish, good performers, not lacking in tech, a bit of visual drama; does one not think that product represents B&O?

The stage was never ‘crippled’ clearly, market segmentation determined it would not be wise to offer wider connectivity; it was offered as a very good, classy looking stand alone soundbar, and it sold well.

B&O have responded with the premier that offers what one feesl the stage lacked; the same people that complain about stage connectivity will not be buying that either! because…… they want it at the stage price.

With the PRESENT product offering, I dont think one can say its a lightweight ‘designer brand’

I have had almost all B&O products from the past 25 years and the range now ( with a few exceptions) performs extremely well.

[NQVHNWI]

I think it does.

No more outdated flat panels before they hit the shelf and a good range of products from relatively cheap to very very expensive. I think it is one of the best line ups they have had.

Critique: I would be happy if the BeoLab28s were the last products made with these superfluous mechanical mechanisms. I know most people in here love this stuff but when you take the cost of that mech out, (and the side drivers continue to do what probably 99% of the work is), you will reduce manufacturing cost significantly. You reduce R&D cost and prototyping costs. It will go a long way. Look at the BS Balance and BL8.

I think also (but would need data on this), removing the superfluous “wow” and having a colourway/finish option that appeals more to the regular hifi buyer….may attract more customers from the Andrew Robinson/John Darko YT set??

just saying. I it’s think going in the right direction but Louis Vuitton Lady, Xi Jinping and Patek Philippe man are not coming to rescue B&O. Nor is a hifi product that doubles as James Bonds latest gadget. I think the only way out is sold technical products that can appeal to all customers that are well marketed as such.

• This reply was modified 1 day ago by NQVHNWI.

[355f]

@Critique: I would be happy if the BeoLab28s were the last products made with these superfluous mechanical mechanisms. I know most people in here love this stuff but when you take the cost of that mech out, (and the side drivers continue to do what probably 99% of the work is), you will reduce manufacturing cost significantly. You reduce R&D cost and prototyping costs. It will go a long way. Look at the BS Balance and BL8.’

Once one takes away any visual excitement , surely one competes with the other higher end audio brands? why would one buy B&O if that visual aspect has gone?

I am sure theb BL8 is a good speaker but I would buy the BL28 purely for the fact its so different to anything else.

 

 

[Author]

Posts