Let ’s just come out and say what many people are thinking , and more than a few are saying : Sonos needs a fresh master executive .
I ’ve written previously that I do n’t particularly wish who runs Sonos . I do n’t have it away Patrick Spence . ( I think I ’ve been in the room with him once , at the Sonos One launch event in October 2017 in New York City . ) I do n’t own Sonos broth . I do , however , own a number of Sonos speakers and have enjoy the system of rules for years . Until this yr .
I ’d also like to reckon I can realize a basic need for accountability after this summer’smajor Sonos software meltdown .
Spence has been with Sonos since 2012 after spending 14 old age at BlackBerry . Hisofficial bio at Sonossays : “ He has act a fundamental function in the development and launch of some of the company ’s most successful ware . Patrick has also moderate the company ’s expansion into new district including China , France , Australia , and Mexico . ”
And there ’s no denying that Sonos ’ speakers — and now headphones with theSonos Ace — are really in force . They made light work of listening to whatever you wanted in your home or business enterprise . The full company deserves quotation for that , over a brace generations of products .
Spence has been at the helm of the party since 2017 . The fellowship went public in 2018 , and Sonos stock peaked at about $ 43 a share in April 2021 , about double what it debuted at . ( That procession also concur with the ball-shaped pandemic that keep folks indoors throughout 2020 and 2021 . ) The ancestry has been on a mostly down trajectory since then and , as of this writing , is about a quarter of that high - water stain .
It ’s a tough manufacture , something Sonos has readily acknowledged . The addition of headphones to its ware rank was Sonos jumping headfirst into what it say is a new $ 5 billion marketplace segment .
But the Great Sonos Meltdown of 2024 has n’t just been an sticky defect for the party . It ’s a Brobdingnagian kick in the speaker strobile that has lead to two new ( and as - yet unannounced ) products — whichSonos has said are ready to ship — being delayed as Sonos fixes the problems in its app and in its weapons platform “ until our app experience meets the level of quality that we , our customers , and our partners expect from Sonos , ” Spence said on the company ’s August 7 earnings call .
With the app , however , my push for speed backfired .
For his part , Spence accepted responsibleness for the debacle . Here ’s an excerpt from his fain remark on the earnings call :
“ While the redesign of the app was , and remain , the right thing to do , our carrying into action — my execution — fell short of the mark . Since I took over as CEO , one of my particular points of emphasis has been the imperative form for Sonos to move quicker . That is what lead to my hope to deliver at least two Modern products every year — a hope we have successfully hand over on . With the app , however , my pushing for speed backfired . ”
Spence later referred to “ the poor - term infliction that we ’re have right now in that rollout . ” Given the full timeline of a company , he might well be right . This likely will just be a bump in the road — a major prominence , to be sure — but this , too , shall pass .
The question is how things await on the other side . Part of live with responsibility is recognise that once the ardor is out and the contiguous peril is over — and we do n’t yet bang when that will actually be — the soul creditworthy for the fervor in the first place is no longer the mortal to continue to lead the direction .
Part of a leadership alteration would be a PR part and would assuage angry customer , even if that ’s not necessarily the bighearted concern for the company . ( That ’s not to say Sonos does n’t worry about customers , just that the business closing of things count a lot , too . ) And part of a leadership variety would be to show that Sonos , as a company and embodied entity , recognizes the magnitude of the mistake , the loss of faith with customers and brand trueness , and the deprivation of gross that comes with this botched update . And that pecuniary monetary value comes in the grade of a myopic - term $ 20 million to $ 30 million just to fix the codification , Spence say , along with the expiration of gross from delaying two new products . ( As well as client being skittish to buy any other Sonos products in the meanwhile . )
When Sonos Centennial State - founder John MacFarlane announce in January 2017 that he wasstepping down as CEO , he write that “ I am always endeavor to recover leaders who are subject of direct Sonos to the next level , part of that means assess my own part . ”
Spence should remain chief executive officer while the Sonos app is rebuilt and the political platform is brought back to its former utility . But after that , it ’s metre to assess that CEO role once more .
