(Bloomberg) – Sonos Inc. interim CEO Tom Conrad said the audio company has “turned” after the setback caused by software issues – he hopes to permanently appoint the top position.
“I have more confidence in the confidence we have turned,” he said in an interview Friday. “We have made some real breakthroughs in some esoteric technical challenges over the past 90 days.” After his predecessor, Patrick Spence, a long-time board member stepped in to interim chiefs in January, and the company was caught in controversy after a failed app revamp.
Last year, Sonos overhauled its iOS and Android apps, as well as the underlying software that connects its hardware – users immediately complained about interface issues, network issues and the inability to play music properly with devices. These glitches have disturbed many consumers, and in some cases, they have spent tens of thousands of dollars throughout the home.
Conrad said the latest software releases launched this week helped solve problems that continue to hit older players (such as match 1 and 3 play 3), unveiled a decade ago. He said the rest of the releases this year will help make Sonos’ software “better than it has been in five years.”
He said that by spending the past few months fixing the underlying software, the company is now focusing on improving the user experience of the app.
“Today’s quantitative, the app performs better than the software it replaces,” he said, adding that distributions throughout the summer and early fall will “recover the conference” and improve user availability. “I think we’ve been on a really good path here.”
He said these problems are difficult to solve because they are so widespread. “That’s not to say we made a simple mistake we could go in and insert some obvious vulnerabilities.”
Conrad attributes turnover time to how the company operates. Sonos was previously organized by the business unit, which means there is a team for each product line. Now, the company is structured based on functionality, which means it groupes it into areas such as hardware, software, design and operations. This reflects Apple’s approach. (In addition to wearing a Sonos tattoo, Conrad also has a Mac on his arm.)
Conrad said the old structure “makes hard for the team to prioritize experience across the business unit, which is crucial to what Sonos is.” He said the company now provides employees for success, has a clear set of goals and provides a clearer line of upgrades for senior executives. “It has unlocked the progress we’ve made on the software and how the team feels about what they’re doing here,” he said.
Conrad said Sonos is not yet fully sure how the U.S. tariffs on foreign imports will affect it, but instead it stopped building products for the U.S. market a few years ago, relying on Malaysia and Vietnam instead. He said that despite this, it is still making forward, bringing hardware devices to the U.S., while levy remains stable before expected changes, because it is too early to try to figure out how such a “multi-dimensional problem” is solved.
Although Conrad is interim CEO, he is well aware of his desire to give up the first part of the title. “I hope the next chapter is that I’m appointed permanent CEO and can lead the company through a five-year or 10-year program, rather than a two-year program,” he said. “I have a big idea and I can’t wait to go.”
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