BUSINESS INTERVIEW

Audio From the “Silicon Valley”

of Kopřivnice

The managing director of Tymphany Acoustic Technology Europe is Pavel Merhout. A man with many

years of experience in leadership in the audio business says his job is to inspire. “Without results, the

company would not survive, and they consider themselves to be the product of quality people with

quality values.”

Mr. Merhout, how do you react to new trends and

requirements, after all Tymphany develops products

and technologies in a very dynamic business?

As a company, we are still on the road. Long ago we

tried to satisfy all our customers’ demands, and by that

I mean B2B or Business-to-Business--owners of the

brands that wanted to cooperate with us. They were

coming to us with demands on what we should develop

for them--and we did. We innovated something they

invented. Because of that, we were jumping from

one thing to another; the number of customers grew

and each of them requested something completely

different. About a year or two ago, we sat down to

think and we came to the conclusion that this is not

the best way. It made more sense to us to understand

the end customer and devise innovations that are one

step ahead of our B2B customers’ ideas. To clarify--we

devise a concept in the audio sphere, we implement

it and when others get to know about it, they want to

have it, too. We are therefore moving to the position

where we do not react to requirements and trends.

Instead, we succeed in setting the trends. That makes

me extremely happy. Before, we presented ourselves

as a selling company. Now we proudly say that we are

a leader in the industry.

The whole company structure is based on the space

where an audio product is used. For example, we

don‘t have a logistics division. We have a division that

takes care of audio at home--i.e. home hi-fi systems.

Also, we have products on the go, on the stage: all of

these are completely different products and therefore

they need different approaches. We break ourselves

down based on the way the product is used by the

end customer. These specifics are organizationally

reflected in the so-called business lines.

You present yourself as the most innovative

company in the region. In what areas exactly did you

invest this year?

The year 2020 is very specific for known reasons;

for example, to us it brought a significant limitation

of investments. But I wouldn‘t say it is only about

investments; innovation can be done even without

them. We try to innovate in multiple areas, not just

products, though of course the largest focus is on

them. During this process we cooperate mainly with

the customers. Our business model is very smart,

so it is not necessary to invest in product innovation

much. Our company income comes in two waves.

The first comes when the customer pays us for the

research and development. The second comes when

the product is developed and ready for sale--in this

case, it is the margin. The innovation of products is

therefore prepaid by the customers, so we don‘t need

to create an investment budget.

Innovations also concern the manufacturing process.

We implement robots and automation. Recently, we

invested in a huge acoustic room. We built a so-called

“house” in our company, which is unique due to the

acoustic signal measurement accuracy.

We continuously transform ourselves. We don‘t

have divisions that would be the same for five

or ten years. We significantly restructure once

a year, which is very dynamic, and it isn‘t really for

everyone. Conditions outside are changing and we

need to adapt very quickly. We build teams based

on activities, not functions. If we find out that in

a particular moment investment in human resources

is needed to keep our business successful, we do it.

When we fight for business, we always try to come

up with a way to win.

Two years ago, we built a validation lab, which was

a great move. This means only one thing for us: when

we develop a product, we don‘t need to validate the

design outside our factory and wait for feedback;

we can do it ourselves “in house.” This significantly

speeds up the development cycle and moves us

another mile forward in our competitiveness.

I cannot fail also to mention our efforts to reduce

our ecological footprint. In this case, this is visible

largely on the start, when you are planning what the

whole business will look like. As for our products, the

components we use will always be global. We can

order the parts from China, which is cheaper without

a doubt. But we prefer to import from Europe, or in the

best case, of course, delivery from the Czech Republic,

so that we prevent unnecessary transportation. Ecology

and economy go hand in hand here.

Where do you see the future of audio business and, by

extension, of Tymphany?

Our company falls into the Primax Group. This is

a company that deals with everything that enables

people to communicate with a computer or other

machine. During this process, we are all naturally in

contact with audio technology.

Technological trends, such as artificial intelligence,

will always need audio.You will open a fridge soon

and it will tell you that you have meat that’s about

to expire. When you get into a car, it speaks to you

already today. Almost everything connected to the

internet needs to communicate with you. Take the

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